Twenty-three samples of Quaternary sands from Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) Leg 87 Sites 582 (trench axis) and 583 (lowermost terrace of uplifted trench sediments in the accretionary prism) off Shikoku show a 70–80% volcanic component in the terrigenous grain population. This component comprises 30–40% neovolcanic grains, among which basic and intermediate types are present in roughly equal proportions, and 60–70% palaeovolcanic grains, which are predominantly of acidic composition. No volcanic terrane occurs, in the hinterland of the Shikoku portion of the Nankai Trough, and the first such rocks to the east (up the very slight depositional slope of the Nankai Trough axis) are not encountered for more than 500 km. These, occupying the Izu Peninsula and the majority of the Tokai drainage basin to the north, are Neogene and Recent volcanics which are of comparable variability to the volcanic grains in the sands off Shikoku.

The minor component of sedimentary, metamorphic and plutonic grains in the Leg 87 sand samples can be matched with the basinal clastic ophiolitic Shimanto and Chichibu terranes and the high-pressure metamorphic Sambagawa terrane which border the Nankai Trough fore-arc along southwest Japan. This detritus also most likely derives from the Tokai drainage basin, where the easternmost outcrops of the above-mentioned terranes occur, because most sediments deriving from Shikoku and the Kii regions are ponded in terraced fore-arc basins or in basins on the lower slope. Only three major submarine canyons debouch into the floor of the Nankai Trough. The easternmost of these, the Suruga Trough, taps the volcanic Izu/Tokai hinterland, and is therefore the conduit for most sand fed to the trench off Shikoku.

An early Late Cambrian trilobite faunule of fewer than 20 specimens and including Monkaspis sp. cf. M. serrata Mong, ?Blackwelderia sp. and Cyclolorenzella sp. is recorded from the Trahagam Formation near the village of Trahagam in Hundwara Tehsil, Kashmir, India. The faunule occurs in green shales and provides the first unequivocal Late Cambrian date for sediments in Kashmir; Kashmiri fossil faunas previously ascribed Late Cambrian ages by Reed are now considered Middle Cambrian.

The limited amount of fission track data previously available in Northern Britain has shown unexplained Cretaceous ages in the Southern Uplands and Lake District. Apatite fission track analysis has been applied to 23 samples from Caledonian intrusive bodies, to further investigate these ages. Fission track data of sphene has been carried out on seven samples and zircon in one sample.

Apatite fission track ages vary from a maximum of 278 ± 12 Ma in the Cheviot Granite, down to ages of ∼ 60 Ma in the Carrock Fell region, with intermediate ages of ∼ 140 Ma in the Eskdale Granite and ∼ 80 Ma in the Shap Granite. This variation in fission track age is accompanied by changes in the distribution of confined fission track lengths. Samples with the youngest ages (∼ 60 Ma) have long, narrow distributions (mean length > 14 μm; standard deviation ∼ 1 μm) typical of samples which have had all pre-existing tracks erased by elevated temperatures, and subsequently cooled rapidly so that all tracks now observed have formed at low temperatures. As ages increased from 60 Ma, a component of shorter tracks becomes more dominant, representing tracks which have been shortened at elevated temperatures. Thus ages greater than 60 Ma are ‘apparent ages’, representing a partial overprint of a pre-existing track record, while the ∼ 60 Ma ages record a total resetting at this time.

The heating responsible for the observed fission track annealing may be due to residence at temperatures in the range 70–125 °C over many tens of Ma, or to a short lived heat pulse perhaps associated with the Tertiary igneous province of the northwest. In either case, uplift and erosion on a scale of kilometres at ∼ 60 Ma ago is necessary to produce the observed pattern of fission track parameters. This uplift may be related in some way to basin inversions, also on a kilometre scale, known to have taken place at around the Late Cretaceous/Early Tertiary to the southeast (Cleveland, Sole Pit and Broad Fourteens Basins). No previous evidence of such uplift in Northern England has been reported, and the study reported here highlights the unique potential of apatite fission track analysis for the detection of mild thermo-tectonic events, often in areas where no other evidence exists.

Astiericeras astierianum (d'orbigny, 1842) is redescribed, the type material illustrated for the first time and the range of intraspecific variation and striking sexualdimorphism documented. Previous suggestions that the early ontogeny of Astiericeras supports derivation from Douvilleiceras de Grossouvre, 1894 of the Douvilleiceratinae are in error: the genus and species are distinctive at the earliest diameters seen and ornament gives no clue to affinities. The sutural formula is that characteristic of some Douvilleicerataceae, however, to which superfamily the species is assigned, as the only member of the family Astiericeratidae Breistroffer, 1953. It is thus a scaphitoid heteromorph, derived from normally coiled immediate ancestors that are themselves recoiled derivatives of an original heteromorphic stock.

The noble element (Os, Ir, Ru, Rh, Pt, Pd, Au) patterns from sulphides associated with the komatiites at the Alexo mine show variable degrees of fractionation. Massive sulphides at the contact between underlying intermediate volcanics and overlying komatiites have the least fractionated patterns (Pd/Ir = 44). Net-textured sulphides which immediately overlie the massive sulphides have extremely fractionated noble element patterns (Pd/Ir = 171). The disseminated sulphides in the overlying komatiite exhibit an intermediate degree of fractionation (Pd/Ir = 110). The variations in noble element patterns are complemented by variations in the Ni, Cu and Co concentrations. The massive sulphides are depleted in all three of these elements relative to the net-textured sulphide ore. The disseminated sulphides have intermediate values of Ni and Co, but are enriched in Cu relative to the other two sulphides.

Processes that could have affected the composition of the sulphides include: (a) fractionation of monosulphide solid solution (Mss) from a sulphide liquid during initial cooling of the komatiite, and (b) mobilization of Pt, Pd, Au, Cu, Ni and Co from the massive sulphide into footwall veins. A mass balance calculation indicates that the sum of the massive and net-textured sulphide agrees with the disseminated sulphide for all elements except Au. Thus the massive sulphide cannot have lost significant amounts of Pt, Pd, Ni and Co to footwall veins and significant mobilization of these elements does not appear to have occurred. The crystallization of Mss from a sulphide liquid will account for the enrichment of Ir, Os, Ru and Rh in the massive sulphide relative to the net-textured sulphide, and enrichment of Pd, Pt, Au, Co and Ni in the net-textured sulphide relative to the disseminated sulphide.

Alluvial fan sediments of the Lower Cretaceous Coloso Formation of northern Chile were deposited during the evolution of a half-graben, arid, intra-arc basin. The sediments were derived from an andesitic volcanic arc and show compositional variation which can be interpreted as an unroofing sequence. Copper mineralization is stratigraphically restricted to the upper 150 m of the sequence in conglomerates of predominantly granodioritic composition. The presence of mineralized clasts at this level indicates the erosion of bedrock mineralization. Lead isotopic signatures of ore sulphide support the sedimentological evidence for derivation of the sediments and metals from an island arc volcano-plutonic complex to the west of the basin.

A genetic model is proposed in which uneconomic metal concentrations were transported into the basin as detrital phases and released by diagenetic reactions. The precipitation of copper minerals followed authigenic formation of quartz, feldspar, analcime and calcite and also some secondary parosity generation. Copper minerals include the oxychloride atacamite, and the suphides bornite, digenite, djurleite and covellite. Sulphur isotope values for the sulphides are relatively heavy isotope-enriched (δ34S = −3.6 to −12.8‰). Although these results could be interpreted in terms of closed-system bacterial sulphide reduction there is no known occurrence of organic material within the Coloso basin. An alternative explanation involving the mixing of diagenetically derived copper-rich brines and sulphur-rich hydrothermal fluids is proposed to account for the Coloso mineralization.

The graptolites recovered from the Carnedd Iago Formation of Arenig Fawr, Gwynedd, North Wales are described. They originate from the type section of the Arenig Series and comprise the species Didymograptus aff. simulans Elles & Wood, D. aff. deflexus Elles & Wood, D. cf. praenuntius Törnquist, Azygograptus cf. eivionicus Elles and Tetragraptus reclinatus Elles & Wood.

Caledonian and Hercynian faults in Iar Connacht have been examined for evidence of Quaternary movements. Dip–slip displacements are detected, both through preservation of scarps and, in areas of greater denudation, through morphological offsets. The principle sites of this phenomenon are the Maum, Clifden and Gabhla-Shannaveara faults. Tectonic scarps are distinguished from those due to differential erosion and glacial scour. Earthquake risk in Iar Connacht, though slight, is not non-existent.

The Carboniferous fossil plants from the Severn Coalfield are described for the first time. They indicate a late Westphalian D age for these strata (Lobatopteris vestita Biozone) and are clearly similar to floras reported from the Forest of Dean Coalfield. There is also evidence that they can be correlated with the Grovesend Beds in the eastern part of the South Wales Coalfield. It seems that the start of sedimentation in the Forest of Dean and Severn coalfields is related to Leonian (late Hercynian) earth movements.

Wall rocks on either side of narrow fluorite veins cutting Dinantian Limestones at Butts Quarry, Derbyshire, exhibit unusual and spectacular alteration structures. Buff, ‘blackened’ and grey limestone lithologies, containing significant amounts of euhedral quartz crystals, occur in a zoned sequence adjacent to the veins. The alteration structures are attributed to a two-stage process involving silicification and subsequent re-mobilization of silica by fluids passing along the vein.

New K–Ar mineral dates from calc-alkaline granitoids of the Archipiélago Cabo de Hornos, in the southernmost tip of South America, range from 97 to 117 Ma. This confirms that the early Cretaceous was a period of major plutonic activity in the region and expands previous radiometric information on the Patagonian Batholith concerning migration of intrusion foci with time.