The name Whitchurch Sands is proposed for patches of ferruginous strata scattered for 75 miles along the western edge of the Cretaceous from Stewkley, Buckinghamshire, to the Vale of Pewsey, in Wiltshire. They are interpreted as the vestiges of a marine-brackish formation of Middle Purbeck age indicating the transgressive front of an advancing sea thought to have come from the north and which left its mark farther south in the Cinder Bed of Dorset. In the past they have been regarded as Lower Greensand, Wealden, or Portland Sand. In places, e.g. Quainton, Buckinghamshire, they are overlain by undoubted Lower Greensand (Seend Ironsand) of Upper Aptian date. Both in faunal characters and in stratigraphical relations the Whitchurch Sands have much in common with the Serpulite of Hanover and the basal “Wealden” of the Bas Boulonnais.

An Upper Maastrichtian assemblage of planktonic foraminifera is recorded from chalk dredged from Galicia Bank, a non–magnetic seamount off the west coast of Spain. The occurrence and distribution of Upper Cretaceous sediments and fossils in the North Atlantic is reviewed, and their significance for the palaeogeography of the North Atlantic during the Upper Cretaceous is considered.

A new ostracod from the London Clay (Lower Eocene) of the London Basin is described as Paijenborchella geoffreyi sp. nov. and compared with other species of the genus.

A section through the Llandovery of the Frankenwald, in North-East Bavaria, has been described and the fauna of each of the graptolite zones contained therein has been presented. The succession of the graptolites corresponds to that known from Great Britain.

A report is given of the origin, aims, proceedings, and conclusions of the “Colloquium on the Jurassic” held in Luxembourg, August, 1962. The English version of its recommendations to the International Geological Congress are quoted in full; the effects of their adoption on current English usage are discussed and some critical opinions on the report of the International Sub-Commission on Stratigraphical Terminology are expressed.

At a late stage of folding, strain slip cleavage was imposed on the pelitic sediments of the Ordovician greywacke-slate association in Central Victoria. The nature of the cleavage surfaces was controlled by the type of sediment in which they were developed. In the coarser siltstones, and in the interlaminated zone of oscillatory graded beds, they are second order shear zones. In the finer siltstones and slates they are thin continuous shear domains of the first order.

A foraminiferal fauna in the Lower Permian Marls of the Lowpit Lane Borehole, Derbyshire, included numerous examples of a new species of the genus Aschemonella Brady. This is described as Aschemonella longicaudata sp. nov. and the possible growth form of the genus is discussed.

The graptolitic mudstones, which constitute an important facies of the Silurian strata of the region, are described, and their evolution in time is considered to reflect gradually changing conditions in the depositional environment. The associated facies are discussed and, where possible, their roles assessed.

Some, but not all, specimens of Uncites have a pair of pouches formed by invagination of the shell margin. These are interpreted as brood pouches. They are compared with the brood pouches of Lacazella and other living brachiopods, and of the living bivalves Thecalia and Milneria.

The carbonate matrix of several pyroclastic tuff rings and cones in the Monduli-Arusha area of northern Tanganyika, is believed to be of volcanic carbonatitic origin. One of the pyroclastic tuff rings contains ejected blocks of ultrabasic composition which are minera-logically similar to the cognate xenoliths found in kimberlite pipes.

A re-interpretation of the Ben Lui Fold (and its equivalents) is suggested on the basis of correlating the structures in the South-West Highlands (Roberts, 1963) with those in Upper Glen Lyon (Treagus, in preparation) and the Tummel (Sturt, 1961) and Blair Atholl (Harris, 1963) districts. In all these districts the Cowal-Loch Tay flat belt and the steep belt to its north-west define a structure previously interpreted as the hinge of the primary and recumbent Ben Lui Syncline. As primary structures are themselves folded round this hinge, and as minor secondary structures are congruent with it, the authors interpret the Ben Lui Fold as a secondary structure.

A study of the geological history of a small dioritic mass near Gairloch has revealed the presence of rock types and structural elements not represented in most of the Lewisian of the district. Coarse grained diorite, showing intrusive relations to granulitic rocks of possible sedimentary derivation, has been foliated and subsequently intruded by microdiorite during pre-Laxfordian episodes. The Little Sand mass has subsequently been involved, probably as a thrust slice of basement, in the sequence of Laxfordian (about 1,500 m.y.) structural and metamorphic episodes which affected the more common Lewisian metasediments and metabasites.

Examination of material from this locality kept in the Sedgwick Museum since 1881 has revealed much more about its molluscan fauna, especially about the frequency of species. It seems to have been a deposit of the main river Cam in the middle of the Last Interglacial.

The usefulness of the term slide for a fault formed in close connection with folding is discussed, and a definition suggested.

Petrographic and chemical study of biotite gneiss and charnockite and the gradational transition zone between them suggests three probable modes of origin: (i) that charnockite was regionally widespread and the biotite gneiss was derived from it by retrograde metamorphism; (ii) that the charnockite represents a conformable intrusive igneous rock which with biotite gneiss was subjected to high-grade metamorphism; (iii) that the charnockite was derived from the biotite gneiss, by the introduction of some ferrous-iron rich juvenile solution.

The latter is preferred by the author because it explains better the physical, chemical, and mineralogical characteristics of the charnockite.

Evidence is presented to show that the hornblende in the charnockite was not due to retrograde metamorphism and the conclusion is drawn that the crystallization of hypersthene is not evidence of dry conditions of metamorphism.

A detailed examination of some new exposures in the Ben Lawers range reveals folds of three deformational episodes. These are described megascopically and microscopically. The foldgeometry is complex but the kinematic axes of each deformation are shown to be closely related. The folds of the first deformation have relationships which confirm the position of these rocks on the inverted limb of the Tay Nappe. Folds with relationships shown by those of the second deformation have not been described from adjacent areas. The folds of the third deformation are associated with the formation of the Ben Lawers Synform

A method of preparing grid deviation maps for the representation of the areal composition variations in granitic bodies is described. A comparative study of this method and the trend surface method by using the data of forty-five modal analyses of Bahalda hornblende granodiorite indicates greater effectiveness of the former in several respects.

Fluting (magmatic rolls ?) resembling flow-cast structures in sediments is recorded from certain Kenya lava flows. It is attributed to flowage of underlying moist sediments under the weight of the overriding lava flow.

The lithological succession in the upper part of the Speeton Clay of the type section is given and the classification of the clays as a whole is reviewed. Brief notes are included upon the mode of deposition of the sediments and the palaeogeography of the area in Lower Cretaceous times.

The paper deals with regional variations in the contact–effects of Caledonian granites and in the characters of certain associated minor intrusions in the metamorphic Caledonides. It is suggested that these variations are related to the thermal structure of the fold–belt at the time of emplacement.