Well-established Late Proterozoic tillites are widely distributed in Svalbard, East and North Greenland, the Norwegian and Swedish Caledonides, Scotland, northwestern Ireland, western USSR, the Urals, Newfoundland and the Appalachians. Recent biostratigraphic and geochronometric data have provided the following sequence of glacial events. The earliest evidence of glaciation is represented by tillites in Newfoundland, Scotland and possibly NE Svalbard, and may have taken place in Late Riphean (sensu Vidal) or Sturtian (sensu Harland) time, perhaps c. 800 Ma ago. A glacial period in Vendian time, the Varangian, centred on 650 Ma was a much more severe climatic event, represented in all the above mentioned areas except Newfoundland. Two Varangian glacial epochs are recorded in Svalbard, East Greenland, northern Norway and possibly western USSR, and although most of the deposits are marine, terrestrial conditions prevailed in some areas with associated periglacial phenomena. The earlier epoch was completed before 650 Ma; the later one occurred within the range c. 650–610 Ma.

A tectonic reconstruction of the region places eastern Svalbard adjacent to East Greenland, which has implications for major strike-slip motions in late and post-Caledonian times. A discrete ice-sheet is envisaged, centred on the western USSR (terrestrial tillites) with ice flowing out to the then peripheral area of the northwestern Europe continental margin and to the Urals where shallow platformal glaciomarine sediments accumulated.

Summary. The reactions involved in oil generation are of great economic importance, but remain to be studied in detail. We have investigated the rates of three reactions which occur before and during the early stages of oil formation, and have used the predicted thermal and subsidence history of stretched basins to estimate the six reaction constants. Two of the reactions are isomerization reactions, at C-20 in a sterane and at C-22 in a hopane hydrocarbon. The third reaction converts C-ring monoaromatic to triaromatic steroid hydrocarbons. No single measure of maturity can describe the progress of these reactions. In old basins, such as the North Sea, both isomerization reactions are almost complete before appreciable aromatization has occurred, whereas in young basins, such as the Pannonian Basin in Hungary, aromatization is almost complete before appreciable isomerization of the steranes has occurred. We show that the calculated progress of these reactions agrees well with that observed in both basins if the frequency factors and activation energies are 6 x 10-3 s-1 and 91 kJ mol-1, 0.016 s-1 and 91 kJ mol-1, 1.8 x 1024 s-1 and 200 kJ mol-1 for the isomerization of steranes, of hopanes, and the aromatization of steroid hydrocarbons respectively. The rate of conversion of the R to the S form was taken to be 1.174 and 1.564 times that of the reverse reactions for sterane and hopane isomerizations respectively, and the aromatization reaction was assumed to be irreversible. All three reactions were assumed to be first order and unimolecular. The aromatization rate is consistent with laboratory observations. The rate of hopane isomerization is not, and different reaction mechanisms probably dominate at different temperatures. The same constants can be used to predict the progress of the reactions in basins which have been uplifted by inversion, such as the Lower Saxony Basin in West Germany. The geochemical observations provide estimates of the amount and time of uplift which agree with those from geological studies. Geochemical observations from the eastern part of the Paris Basin suggest that this region has also been uplifted by between 1 and 2 km.

Summary. Mechanisms forming silicic segregations from basaltic magmas are considered of primary importance when dealing with magmatic problems. However, the processes which give rise to silicic segregations from basaltic magmas are so far obscure. Fortunately, the discovery of spheroidal felsic masses in some basic rocks of Western Sicily throws light on this subject. To clarify the relationships between felsic and basic fractions particular attention has been paid to the interactions which occurred at their contact. Textural evidence indicates that the accretion mechanism of the Sicilian felsic segregations tends to obliterate the silicate liquid immiscibility effects and suggests that the formation of silicic segregations is a consequence of liquid unmixing phenomena.

A grey pyritic mudstone from Central Wales (Red Vein unit of the Dicellograptus anceps zone, Upper Ordovician Ashgill) has been examined in thin section by scanning electron microscopy using backscattered electrons. Using backscatter it is possible to identify individual mineral constituents of the mudstone by virtue of their atomic number (Z) contrast and differential hardness (relief). The amount of detail observable is far greater than that possible with optical microscopy. Valuable information can be obtained relating to particle form, orientation, texture and internal structure which aids in interpretation of the deformational and diagenetic history of the rock. The adoption of electron microscopical methods in the study of thin sections and polished rock chip surfaces promises to revolutionize the field of shale petrology.

Plagiogranites occur mainly as intrusive bodies and tectonic inclusions within mafic and ultramafic members of the Coolac ophiolite suite. Quartz diorites and trondhjemites appear to represent localized late-stage felsic differentiates of subalkaline tholeiitic magma, with their formation dominantly controlled by fractionation of hornblende and plagioclase. Albitites are interpreted as altered equivalents of quartz diorites and trondhjemites. Chemical data, while emphasizing the similarity of these rocks to ‘oceanic plagiogranite', also indicate that variation in the latter may be broader than previously defined. The Coolac rocks show less marked Fe-enrichment, higher Ni and Cr, and lower Y and Zr than many ophiolitic plagiogranites. These data are consistent with weak calc-alkaline tendencies demonstrated in the Coolac ophiolite suite.

Summary. Rhyolites overlying the basement granitic gneisses and granites adjacent to the selimentfilled Benue Trough were studied. Rb-Sr isochron age of 113 ± 3 Ma and initial 87Sr/86Sr rato of 0.7067 were obtained from two extrusive bodies which form Gboko and Ikyuen hills. It is shown that their eruption has some relation to crustal doming at the onset of the Benue rifting. The published age of the oldest exposed sedimentary infill of the trough is Albian. As a result of the investigation of these volcanic rocks from the basement margin, however, an earlier and absolute age for the initiation of the rift is implied and a late Barremian to early Aptian age is proposed for the formation of this continental rift.

Summary. Stony clays, comprising weathered bryzoan-rich chert and silica clay, are found adjacent to Carboniferous Limestone on the west and a weathered dolomitized zone on the east near Birr, County Offaly, Ireland. A gravity survey together with a stratigraphy obtained from boreholes and other test borings suggests a depth of about 40 m and a surface width or diameter of approximately 60 m for the deposit. Indirect evidence points to a possible Tertiary age. The interpreted origin of the stony clays is by silification of Carboniferous Limestone and preservation by solution subsidence along a possible fault zone.

Summary. As a direct result of new work in the Shelve Ordovician inlier, two new important extrusive andesitic members of a revised Stapeley Volcanic Formation, are described. These members were originally regarded as extrusive. However, they have for over half a century been considered intrusive and a brief literature review attempts to account for this anomaly. A palaeogeographic reconstruction suggests that the members represent the remains of two Llanvirn volcanic islands which, following subsidence, were overlapped and buried by later Llanvirn sedimentation. This reinterpretation considerably increases the volume of andesitic material known to have been erupted in Llanvirn times in this part of the Welsh borderland.

Summary. The submarine crystal-rich volcaniclastics of the Lower Devonian Merrions Tuff contain concentrations of angular to euhedral volcanic quartz, plagioclase and orthoclase. Lithic fragments, largely altered vitriclasts, are minor components and the average matrix content is 37.6%. Associated dacite/andesite and rhyodacitic lavas have average groundmass contents of 64.2%. Rare shards in the graded, pelitic tops of the thick volcaniclastic sedimentation units suggest that the mode of fragmentation originally was by explosive magmatic eruptions. The sedimentology of the volcaniclastics suggests subsequent redeposition by cold-state mass-flow processes. The volcaniclastics form an isotopically coherent suite and so redeposition must have occurred essentially contemporaneously with eruption.

The high crystal fragment concentration in these volcaniclastics is higher than lavas and ignimbrites and suggests some process whereby the groundmass fraction of the erupting magma is selectively removed, so concentrating the crystal fraction. The crystal-rich character of the crystal-tuffs is not simply due to explosive eruption. Several primary and secondary factors/processes could have interacted to ultimately produce the crystal-rich character, these being: (i) eruption of highly crystallized magmas (≤ 65% phenocrysts), (ii) concentration of crystals in primary eruption columns, (iii) concentration of crystals in any resulting pyroclastic flows, fine vitric ashes being elutriated out and being carried away in accompanying, trailing ash clouds, (iv) concentration of crystals in secondary eruption columns generated by the flow of hot pyroclastic flows into the ocean, and (v) concentration of crystals by the elutriation of fines into the trailing fine sediment cloud accompanying submarine mass flows resulting from the slumping of volcaniclastic aggregates from shallow marine/subaerial settings.

This paper describes the late Precambrian rocks in north-west Oscar II Land, western Spitsbergen, with particular emphasis on an upper (Haaken Formation) and lower (Trondheimfjella Formation) diamictite sequence. It is argued that both diamictites are glacigenic, formed by ice-rafting over distal turbidite basins, and correspond to the two Varangian tillite horizons of northern Norway and elsewhere. This leads to a radical reinterpretation of the age of the Oscar II Land succession, much of which now appears to be Vendian. With the exception of the Trondheimfjella Formation, which records an early phase of deepening of the depositional basin, the lower half of the succession (St Jonsfjorden Group) comprises mainly shallow water shelf sediments. The upper half of the succession (Comfortlessbreen Group) was deposited within a basinward prograding turbidite fan system, with the Haaken Formation representing the distal component of the complex. A return to a mixed clastic-carbonate shelf environment is recorded by the overlying Palaeozoic rocks.

Jabal Dumbeir is a nepheline syenite-carbonatite complex of Cambrian age (550 ± 87 Ma). The earliest igneous event of the complex was the intrusion of a phlogopite-sodalite nepheline syenite (ditroite) which was derived from the partial melting of the upper mantle. K, CO2 and F-rich volatiles metasomatise both the ditroite and the gneissic country rock which results in an orthoclase-rich undersaturated syenite (orthoclasite). Carbonatitic breccias and sovite dykes were subsequently emplaced carrying high levels of F, REE, Y and Th with extremely high LREE/HREE ratios (CeN/YbN = 64 ± 8). Such carbonatiticmagmas may be derived by partial melting of an LREE-enriched upper mantle. Hydrothermal emplacement of fluorite-quartz veins represent the final phase of igneous activity and these carry high levels of REE, Y, Th and U. Their emplacement was strongly controlled by a system of NNE strike-slip faults which have been reactivated in recent times.

Rb-Sr whole-rock isochron ages of 443 ± 30 Ma, 449 ± 42 Ma and 489 ± 14 Ma with initial 87Sr/86Sr ratios of 0.70669 ± 0.00068, 0.70599 ± 0.00035 and 0.70658 ± 0.00025 were obtained, respectively, for the Cape Maclear granite, the surrounding Cape Maclear syenite and the Senga Bay granitic body. The results confirm previous estimates of the age of the post-Mozambiquian Lake Malawi Granitic Province, of which these plutons are part. Data from the Dzalanyama granite have excess scatter, but indicate an Irumide age of about 1000 Ma. This batholith is therefore much older than the Lake Malawi Granitic Province but much younger than the Nyika granite of northern Malawi, contrary to earlier suggestions. The porphyritic foliated granite of Mcezi Hill gave an age of 1016 ± 55 Ma and an initial ratio of 0.70522 ± 0.00084. Irumide plutonism in the region includes several dissimilar groups of intrusions, all with low initial87Sr/86Sr ratios. The Irumide age of the Dzalanyama granite makes it possible that the metasediments of the Mchinji Group are wholly post-Ubendian.

A water saturated melt was developed in the semipelitic Leven Schist in contact with the kentallenitic basic rocks of the Barnamuc intrusion. The partly melted rock consisted of a small volume of granitic melt with relict refractory quartz grains and layers of aluminosilicates. This material could be mobilized and mixed with phenocryst-bearing magma. Sheets of country rock breccia are associated with the mobilization and veins of breccia and mobilized hornfels invade the intrusion. Sheets of igneous rock occur along the contact zone and their emplacement is related to the mobilization of the hornfels. Loss of cohesion between solid country rock and crystallized outer parts of the plug leads to collapse and removal of early formed igneous rocks, accounting for the lack of chilled margins in some intrusions.

Summary. A rare and typically Lower Riphean stromatolite Plicatina is reported from the Indian subcontinent for the first time. Elsewhere, its only well-known report is from the Lower Riphean rocks of Morocco. The present form has been identified as Plicatina misrai, a new form-species. It occurs in the thick calcareous Kapkot Formation, which is a practically unfossiliferous and widespread rock unit of the Lesser Himalaya. The present report has wider implications in many aspects, especially in raising the level of confidence in assigning a definite age to the rock unit in which it occurs.

The results of a gravity survey of South Harris show that a residual gravity anomaly of + 220 g.u. occurs towards the southeast of the anorthosite-gabbro-tonalite igneous suite, with a minor low of + 150 g.u. over the anorthosite outcrop and a minor high of + 170 g.u. over the main gabbro outcrop. The distribution of the maximum positive anomaly and the minor anomalies is interpreted as due to interbanding of gabbro and anorthosite. The tonalites do not produce a local anomaly and are interpreted as extending to only limited depth. North of the igneous suite the residual gravity anomaly falls to - 10 g.u. over a hidden granite within migmatitic gneisses. It is suggested that the igneous suite was formed when a large body of gabbroic-anorthositic magma was injected into older continental crust, causing melting and the formation of contemporaneous tonalites, with complex fractionation producing gabbro and anorthosite layering. The sequence of events is interpreted as relating to an igneous episode that was a prelude to continental rifting which predated later phases of metamorphic/orogenic activity.

Regionally mappable, silicic, outflow ignimbrite sheets are interbedded with fluvial volcanogenic conglomerates and sandstones of the Late Carboniferous Currabubula Formation of north-eastern N.S.W. Four of the most widespread of these ignimbrites are described and defined as members. The oldest member is comprised of many thin, originally non-welded flow units. Interbedded accretionary lapilli horizons may indicate phreatomagmatic activity at vent during the eruption in addition to local rain-flushing of co-ignimbrite ash clouds. Of the three other members, two are multiple flow-unit sheets, 160–180 m in aggregate thickness. Substantial portions of these sheets were originally welded. The remaining member is a simple welded ignimbrite characterized by abundant spherulites and lithophysae. Irregular pre-eruption topography and contemporaneous erosion were responsible for thickness variations of the ignimbrite sheets. Some palaeovalleys, now delineated by the ignimbrites, persisted in spite of repeated pyroclastic influxes. Relic pumice, shards and crystal fragments are ubiquitous components of the sedimentary facies of the Currabubula Formation, and were probably derived from originally poorly consolidated pyroclastic deposits such as airfall ash layers and non-welded ignimbrites. No surface trace of the sources of these ignimbrites exists. However, internal facies, thickness variations and volumes of the ignimbrites indicate that they periodically emanated from a multiple-caldera terrain which was continuously active during the Late Carboniferous, and located several kilometres to the west of present exposures.

The current situation in 1982 regarding the status and validity of the Ulakhan-Sulugur section on the Aldan River as a candidate for the global stratotype section and point for the Precambrian-Cambrian (PC-C) Boundary is reviewed with details of new work since 1973 and consequent revisions of views on controversial topics on a regional, continental and intercontinental scale of stratigraphic correlations with a short note regarding accessibility.

Summary. Upper Riphean/Vendian basalt lavas within the Hedmark Group of the Osen-Røa Nappe Complex, the lowest tectonostratigraphic unit within the Scandinavian Caledonides, are typical continental tholeiites. Differences in their REE patterns may reflect source heterogeneities, while the general lack of correlation between incompatible trace element ratios may be due to contamination of the basalts by continental crust. Their association with fluvial deposits in NNW-trending graben, and some geochemical disparities with time-equivalent basalt dykes of MORB-like character in tectonically higher units, may indicate their formation in an aulacogen related to the central rift zone of the lapetus Ocean.

The Devonian brachiopod Tropidoleptus is recognized for the first time in South Africa. It is present in the lower part of the Witteberg Group at four widely separated localities. Data regarding the stratigraphical range of the genus elsewhere, combined with information on recently described fossil plants and vertebrates from underlying strata of the upper Bokkeveld Group, suggest that a Frasnian or even Givetian age is reasonable for the lower part of the Witteberg Group. The recognition of Tropidoleptus in a shallow water, near-shore, molluscan association, at the top of the South African marine Devonian sequence, is similar to its occurrence in Bolivia, and suggests a common Malvinokaffric Realm history of shallowing, prior to later Devonian or early Carboniferous non-marine sedimentation. It is noteworthy that Tropidoleptus is now known to occur in ecologically suitable environments around the Atlantic, but is absent from these same environments in Asia and Australia. Tropidoleptus is an excellent example of dispersal in geological time — first appearing in northern Europe and Nova Scotia, then elsewhere in eastern North America and North Africa, followed by South America and South Africa, while continuing in North America.

Summary. A fossil siphonophorid is described from the Palaeozoic rocks of the Enticho area in Tigrai, northern Ethiopia. This is the first fauna to be described from these rocks and the evidence supports an Ordovician age for the associated glacial rocks. Detailed lithostratigraphy of the area is also discussed.