The development of techniques for quantitative stratigraphic correlation has tended to outstrip their acceptance by practising stratigraphers. To make these techniques more readily accessible and to encourage their use, this paper presents a brief, general review of the problem of quantitative stratigraphic correlation and then shows how, using a natural framework for stratigraphic correlation, the stratigraphic time-series, there can be seen an orderly pattern among them. The annotated bibliography, of almost 400 articles, includes a majority of those references concerned with quantitative stratigraphic correlation, in whatever sense: the scheme of annotation provides a straightforward, albeit subjective indication of the general thrust of each article.

The pyroxene assemblages of four samples of ferrodolerite from the Mesozoic Mount Wellington sill of southern Tasmania are described. The pyroxenes of each sample define an Fe-enrichment trend equivalent to almost half of a Skaergaard-type pyroxene evolution trend. The calcic pyroxenes range from augite to ferroaugite (Ca30–40Mg40–17Fe15–45) and late-stage hedenbergite (Ca45 Mg5Fe50), and the pigeonites from intermediate to ferriferous types (Ca13Mg55–15Fe32–70). XMg numbers (Mg/(Mg + Fe)) of the calcic pyroxenes vary from 0.8 to 0.1, and of the calcium-poor pyroxenes (pigeonites) from 0.62 to 0.17. The chemical variation in the pyroxenes within individual samples is far greater than between the different samples. One sample contains an extremely wide range of pyroxenes which include some of the most ferriferous pigeonites ever recorded (Ca14Mg15 Fe71). Ti and Al contents are also highly varied, Ti:Al ionic ratios ranging from 1:15 to 1:2 with decreasing XMg. The augites have higher Ti and Al contents than pigeonites with corresponding XMg. The hedenbergites have erratic but generally low Ti contents, due to their late precipitation together with ulvospinel. The presence of such highly variable pyroxenes within individual samples and in some cases as single, complex grains makes the recognition of coexisting pyroxene pairs in such dolerites very difficult, but graphical pyroxene thermometers suggest a crystallization temperature range of 1100 to 850 °C.

The range of pyroxene compositions in such dolerites is strongly influenced by the oxygen fugacity (fO2) of the liquid from which they derive. The primary Fe-Ti oxide phase in these Tasmanian dolerites is ulvospinel (now oxidized to ilmenite ‘oxidation-exsolution’ lamellae in titanomagnetite hosts) clearly demonstrating the originally low fO2 of the parental tholeiitic magma of the Mount Wellington sill.

A number of workers have accepted the proposition that phylogenetic relations between extant organisms can be determined only by reference to the characters of those organisms. Palaeontological data, it is said, have not been useful for developing or refuting such hypotheses. This view may be tested by reference to the respiratory mechanisms of dipnoans (lungfishes) and amphibians. The structure of the heart, lungs, and circulatory systems has been used by various authors to support the view that these are sister groups. Geological data derived from stratigraphy, palaeoecology, taphonomy, geochemistry and functional morphology of primitive dipnoans is used herein to show that these organisms did not engage in aerial respiration. The first unequivocal evidence that dipnoans had become air breathers is from aestivation burrows in Early Permian rocks of the U.S.A. The Dipnoi must have evolved this capacity at some time between the Early Devonian, when the group became well established, and the Early Permian. Similarities between the respiratory systems of extant dipnoans and amphibians must be the result of convergence, or of the derivation of the Amphibia directly from the Dipnoi. The latter view is not currently accepted by any workers in the field. Thus data from the fossil record are used to demonstrate the invalid use of some neontological data for the development of a phylogenetic hypothesis. Classifications of extant organisms depending on putative shared–derived morphological or physiological characters that cannot be adequately tested for convergence by reference to fossils, must be regarded with due caution.

Early Permian anhydrite–gypsum strata in central Spitsbergen show deformation of sulphate nodules in dolostone (chicken-wire structure) to varying degrees from imbricate to extreme flattening and elongation. These shear zones often occur between undeformed layers of apparently similar strata.

The shear zones indicate a minimum displacement of between 0.5 and 1.5 km to the ENE of Zechstein and later strata over the Nordfjorden Block. Resultant folding and faulting over the Billefjorden Fault Zone represent an eastward manifestation of the Eocene West Spitsbergen Orogeny.

The Working Group has the responsibility of recommending a specific level within a suitable stratigraphic section to serve as the global stratotype for the Cambrian–Ordovician Boundary. Commencing in 1974, comprehensive studies culminated in a plenary session in Calgary in 1985 resulting in decisions on the ‘golden-spike’ principle of selecting the boundary at a horizon just below the first influx of nematophorous graptolites. Conodonts are to be used as the primary guide for the selection of the specific horizon and the global stratotype section must have potential for studies using paleomagnetism, geochemistry and other non-biological correlation tools. The specific horizon will correspond approximately to the base of the Tremadoc Series of Wales and slightly higher than the base of Canadian Series as used in western North America.

The Calgary meeting considered the Broom Point and Green Point sections in Newfoundland, Canada, and the Xiaoyangqiao section at Dayangcha, China, as prime candidates to serve as the global stratotype. A delegation from the Working Group inspected the Dayangcha sections in 1986. For this visit, comprehensive documentation and description of the sequence were prepared and published and are briefly summarized in the present issue.

Specific uncertainties remain to be resolved for the Dayangcha and Newfoundland stratigraphic sections before the Working Group will be ready to recommend selection of a global stratotype.

Extensive sampling, major element chemistry on over 300 samples and K-Ar radiometric dating have been carried out on the Ecuadorian Upper Tertiary–Quaternary volcanoes. The results show important space–time variations of the volcanic activity, between Late Miocene time and the present. In Late Miocene time a continuous volcanic belt, located approximately along the present volcanic front (VF), affected the whole country from the Cuenca basin to the south, up to Colombia to the north. Major changes occurred at about 5 Ma: volcanic activity stopped south of the Guayaquil fault belt and never resumed; to the north the active volcanic axis shifted eastward to the Cordillera Real (CR) area with a simultaneous relative decrease in intensity. Since Early Quaternary time the volcanic belt widened westward to the Western Cordillera where the volcanism resumed at about 1.5–1.0 Ma, giving rise to the very wide active volcanic zone of Ecuador.

The Plio-Quaternary products show significant longitudinal and latitudinal chemical and mineralogical changes. Volcanics of the VF and Interandean Depression contain amphibole and define a calc-alkaline trend with a K2O content lower than that of the CR products, which are characterized by a mostly anhydrous phenocryst assemblage. In both areas andesites dominate, but extreme compositions (basaltic andesites and rhyolites) are more diffuse in the CR than the VF. No significant transverse zoning has been detected in the northern region (north of the Chota-Mira transverse tectonic line). The observed temporal and spatial variations are interpreted as a result of the subduction of the Carnegie Ridge anomalous oceanic crust, underthrusting of which began approximately 6 Ma ago.

The earliest nematophorid (planktic) dendroid graptolites (Family Anisograptidae) are described and revised from several heterofacial facies sections of the Broom Point Formation, Cow Head Group, western Newfoundland (Broom Point North and St Paul's represent medial to upper continental slope, Martin Point and Green Point distal slope environments). Noting potential conodont recycling in the palaeoslope environments of the proximal Cow Head Group sections, graptolites are the only group of fossils that could not have been subject to post-burial transport. The graptolites belong to an informal group of quadriradiate form-species principally representing two originally related but then diverging phyletic groups: pendent Rhabdinopora Eichwald, 1855 and horizontal to sub-horizontal Staurograptus Emmons, 1855; both being stratigraphically within Assemblage Zone I (emended after Cooper, 1979) of earliest Tremadoc or early Ibexian age (top of Cordylodus intermedius to base of C. lindstromi conodont zones). Assemblage I graptolites offer a higher resolution than coeval conodonts and are a better tool for inter-facies correlations both within the Broom Point Formation and with other graptolitic sequences on a global scale. Form-species of quadriradiate Rhabdinopora rustica (such as ?R. praeparabola and R. parabola) and of Staurograptus dichotomus (e.g. ‘Radiograptus’ or ‘Heterograptus’ flexibilis or ‘Aletograptus’) are interpreted as astogenetic morphs, or as phylogenetically descendant variants of these forms. Upon evidence of late astogenetic insertion of dissepiments in Staurograptus and Anisograptus the names ‘Heterograptus’ and ‘Radiograptus’ are placed into junior synonymy, and ‘Aletograptus’ is regarded a junior synonym of Staurograptus because its post-primary dichotomies are merely delayed distally (or omitted) to be observed exclusively in very mature specimens. The Cow Head Group fauna is compared with earliest nematophorids from Oslo, Norway (Naersnes) and Dayangcha, Jilin, China (Xiaoyangqiao), and a new comprehensive ecostratigraphic zonation for early Tremadoc graptolites is proposed.

From remotely sensed images of rock surfaces at coasts it is possible to map some characteristics of different rock types. To do this a selection must be made of those parts of the image that correspond to the rock surfaces prior to interrogation of their geological information content. A comparative study of satellite-acquired multispectral Thematic Mapper data and aircraft-acquired multispectral scanner data at four test sites on the Pembrokeshire coast was made. The spatial resolution of the Thematic Mapper data (30 m) proved to be too coarse to provide any continuity of mapping over several kilometres of rock exposures, whereas the 10 m resolution of the aircraft data was adequate to do this. Using the aircraft scanner data, neighbouring Old Red Sandstone and Carboniferous (mainly carbonate) rocks could be discriminated in both three-band and principal components images. Furthermore, it proved possible to distinguish between limestone and dolomite lithologies in the Carboniferous succession and between some of the mudstones and sandstones in the Old Red Sandstone. Airborne multispectral scanning of rocky coasts is a new potential tool for geological mapping in exploration projects in which it would be best integrated with the acquisition of airborne geophysical and field geological data.

The concept that reptilian tooth implantations fall neatly into a number of separate categories which can be used in phylogenetic studies is called into question. The use of microfocal X-radiography in preliminary studies of reptilian dentitions reveals that, at least in sphenodontids, there is no clear distinction between acrodonty and pleurodonty. Although the technique is used here specifically in connection with microvertebrates, it may have considerable potential in evaluating internal structures in a wide range of fossils.

Untwinned albite (Ab99.4An0.4Or0.2) grains, forming during diagenesis and very low-grade metamorphism, are common in sandstones of the Brøttum Formation (Upper Proterozoic) in the Sparagmite Region of southern Norway. These untwinned albite grains are usually clouded by vacuoles and tiny inclusions which are mostly made of carbonaceous material (although some albite grains also contain some combination of carbonates, quartz, phengite, chlorite, pyrite, halite and anatase). The presence of microcline grains replaced partly by albite indicates that the albite grains are pseudomorphs after microcline. Chessboard albite which occurs in the Brøttum Formation is suggested to be detrital in origin.

A detailed vitrinite reflectivity study has been made through the Cretaceous sedimentary rocks of northwest James Ross Island, Antarctica. The results show that a progressive increase in reflectivity does not occur with depth and that values (0.45 %) from the base of the succession are lower than expected for the sequence as described by previous authors. Using a synthesis of sedimentological and stratigraphic information, the sequence is reinterpreted as an apparent monoclinal syncline, strongly influenced by syndepositional tectonics, with a thickness appreciably less than previously described.

The Asille Group, a 1500 m succession comprising dominantly basaltic lavas but with interbedded sediments and silicic volcanics, lies unconformably upon metamorphosed basement northeast of Lake Turkana. Concordant K–Ar ages on alkali feldspars from pantelleritic units in the succession show that the Langaria Formation erupted 26.9±0.3 Ma ago in late Oligocene time, that Gum Dura Formation volcanism occurred at 15.8±0.2 Ma (early Miocene), and that there was widespread middle Miocene silicic volcanism at 13.0±0.3 Ma. Younger basaltic volcanism producing the flood lavas of the Gombe Group commenced at least 6.16±0.09 Ma ago in late Miocene time. These results, based upon 20 K–Ar age determinations, provide good numerical age control for much of the sequence developed within a little known sector of the Eastern Rift of Africa between the Ethiopian and Kenyan domes.

The Chitradurga greenstone succession of south India comprises a thick pile (~ 10 km) of late Archaean volcanic flows and terrigenous clastic sediments, metamorphosed from greenschist to low-grade amphilobite facies. An older near-shore sedimentary sequence of cratonic affiliation and an off-shore bimodal volcanic sequence were deposited contemporaneously on a gneissic basement. The volcanics are metasomatically altered, and major, minor and trace element data fail to discriminate the metavolcanics in terms of modern plate settings. A younger turbidite sequence of coarser elastics covered the older deposits without any apparent tectonic or erosional break. All the rocks of the succession display evidence of similar deformation, prior to invasion by younger granites (~ 2.5 Ga)in a late syn-kinematic phase.

This suggests that initially a simple flat-lying downwarp in a continental crust served as the passive receptacle of the platform-type sediments, and also witnessed volcanism along extensional faulting. This phase of the basin was not associated with any compressive deformation. Subsidence of the Chitradurga basin by the denser volcanics and uplift in the gneissic borderlands provided the infrastructure for subsequent development of the younger turbidite sequence covering the still virtually undeformed older deposits. A compressive orogeny, accompanied by granitic intrusion (~ 2.5Ga) in a late kinematic phase, ultimately deformed and uplifted the basin-fill during the declining phase of basinal activity.

There is no evidence in the belt to suggest that the plate-tectonic (Wilson cycle) processes, pending a terminal orogeny, were operative during evaluation of the Chitradurga basin.

Calcareous algae in limestones of the Permian Chihsia Formation near Nanjing, China, are preferentially replaced by quartz. Replacement postdates both cementation by sparry calcite and also neomorphic alteration of the original skeletons to sparry calcite. It is thus diagenetically relatively late. The original replacement silica could have been massive opal CT, opal CT lepispheres, or quartz. Lepisphere-like bodies occur in a few specimens. Megaquartz rims represent later overgrowths on the silicified skeletons. Although the original ultrastructure of the algal skeletons is not preserved, the preferential silicification allows fine details of the skeletal morphology of the algae to be observed and the distribution of silica indicates the style of replacement which has probably occurred. In some specimens it is possible that dissolution of the skeleton was followed by void-filling by silica, including the possibility of lepisphere formation. But in other cases in situ replacement, probably by massive opal CT or quartz, is reflected by the replacement of the outer parts of calcite crystals by silica. This process produces a network of silica, and as it proceeds the calcite centres of the grains become progressively smaller until silica replacement is complete. Sponge spicules may have provided the most important silica source for replacement. It is proposed that water-insoluble organic films surrounding matrix grains, and now preserved as bituminous material, protected the matrix from replacement thus promoting selective late diagenetic silicification of these fossils.

Turonian ammonite assemblages are described from six localities in the Ojinaga and Boquillas formations of Chihuahua in northern Mexico. These assemblages reveal the presence of the middle Turonian zones of Collignoniceras woollgari and Prionocyclus hyatti far to the south of previously documented occurrences. The Mexican collections include co-occurring collignoniceratids, known from as far north as Montana, and Tethyan euomphaloceratines and coilopoceratids. One species, Puzosia (Puzosia) serratocarinata, is new.

A 12-point whole-rock Rb–Sr isochron for the Carnsore Granite of southeastern Ireland yields an age of 428±11 Ma and initial 87Sr/86Sr ratio of 0.7068±0.0003 (index of goodness of fit, MSWD = 0.65). A similar mean 207Pb/206Pb age of 432±3 Ma from three slightly discordant zircon size fractions from the granite is also indicated, and shows that the pluton was emplaced contemporaneously with the neighbouring Saltee Granite.

Thus, Tuskar Group rocks, which are intruded by the Carnsore Granite, could be as young as Ordovician. While the early history of the Rosslare Complex is undoubtedly Precambrian, the new age for the Carnsore pluton means that the later intrusive and tectonothermal events in the history of this complex are no longer constrained to be Precambrian and may have occurred over a 150 + Ma interval in Cambro-Ordovician time.

The zircons from the Carnsore Granite are slightly discordant, and show no apparent inherited radiogenic lead component. The initial 87Sr/86Sr ratio suggests that the magma may have been derived as a melt in the lower crust. The higher strontium isotope ratios of the Rosslare gneisses would seem to preclude their involvement in the genesis of the Carnsore magma.

The Cambrian–Ordovician Boundary is recognized at different horizons on various continents by utilizing several fossil groups. Conodonts are abundant, diverse, and less provincial and facies-controlled than other fossils in this interval; many species are widespread and some are cosmopolitan. Strata representing the Cambrian–Ordovician Boundary interval from Asia, Australia, and North America can be correlated easily when those strata are from cratonal or shelf environments. Strata from slope facies have fewer conodonts, fewer taxa, and taxa may have different ranges compared with cratonal and shelf facies. It may be easier to correlate intercontinentally within cratonal/shelf facies than to correlate intracontinentally from cratonal/shelf facies to slope facies.

A new hierarchical arrangement of conodont interval zones and subzones is proposed for western North America. These include the Proconodontus tenuiserratus Zone, the P. posterocostatus Zone (new), the P. muelleri Zone (new), the Eoconodontus Zone (new, with Eoconodontus notchpeakensis and Cambrooistodus minutus Subzones), the Cordylodus proavus Zone (emended, with Hirsutodontus hirsutus, Fryxellodontus inornatus, and Clavohamulus elongatus Subzones), the Cordylodus intermedius Zone (new, with Hirsutodontus simplex and Clavohamulus hintzei Subzones), the Cordylodus lindstromi Zone (new), and Cordylodus angulatus Zone (new).

The boundary point for the base of the Ordovician System will be chosen so as to coincide with a correlatable conodont zonal boundary; other fossil groups will support correlation of this boundary point. Three alternative horizons are being considered. The base of the Cordylodus proavus Zone is the most distinctive but is regarded by some as older than is appropriate for the base of the Ordovician. The base of the Cordylodus intermedius Zone is recognizable by faunal changes in several evolutionary lineages at a level that is slightly younger than the presently recognized boundary in Australia, North America, and parts of Asia but slightly older than the base of the Tremadoc Series of Europe. The base of the C. lindstromi Zone can be recognized in most areas by the lowest occurrence of the nominate species, which is of questioned taxonomic validity and uncertain biostratigraphic utility; this horizon is closest to the base of the Tremadoc Series of Europe.

Choice of a stratotype section has been narrowed to the Cow Head Group in Newfoundland, eastern Canada; and to the Fengshan and Yehli formations in Jilin Province, northeastern China. The Cow Head Group was deposited on and near the base of the continental slope. Erosion by debrisslide breccias resulted in a significant hiatus near the boundary interval in the Broom Point sections, a condition contrary to guidelines for choice of boundary sections. This may be less of a problem in other sections, such as Green Point. The Dayangcha section in China was deposited on the outer part of a continental shelf and has acritarchs, conodonts, graptolites and trilobites. Additional study of the China section is needed to document fully the ranges of critical conodont taxa.

The Lower Limestone Group, which outcrops extensively on the east coast of Fife, southeast Scotland, consists of interbedded sandstones, siltstones and claystones with occasional coal seams, and limestone beds. Several of the coals have been mined economically in the past.

The sequence was deposited in a shallow-water, deltaic setting. Three facies associations have been distinguished; (1) laminated claystones, and marine bioclastic limestones, which were deposited in prodelta and marine shelf environments, (2) crudely coarsening-upward sandstone units, interpreted as delta front deposits of fluvially-dominated though wave-influenced, shallow-water deltas, and (3) interbedded clastic sedimentary rocks and coals, deposited in delta plain environments. The sequence as a whole accumulated by repeated progradation and abandonment of deltaic complexes.

Palaeosol profiles of four types are superbly preserved within the delta plain facies association. These are (1) organic soils (peats), now coal seams, (2) gley palaeosols, which formed in persistently waterlogged conditions, (3) freely drained soils which formed on a quartz sand-rich substrate, and (4) similar profiles formed by free drainage through variable substrates and involving B horizon accumulation of concretionary iron oxides. Compound palaeosols are common.

Deposition of the Lower Limestone Group was influenced by the tectonic and volcanic instability of the Fife area during Visean times. Frequent seismic events centred on active fault lines caused local uplift of parts of the normally waterlogged delta plain environment, allowing the formation of well-drained soils. Peats (coals) were best developed and least affected by oxidation in an elongate, fault bounded zone of enhanced subsidence.

Detailed analysis of trilobite assemblages at the Cambrian–Tremadoc transition reveals the presence of four, possibly five, biogeographic provinces: Baltic, North China, Southeast China, North American, and possibly Siberian. One or more discrete biofacies characterize the transition in each province. When plotted palaeogeographically these appear to be largely temperature controlled. Interdigitation of provincialized trilobite biofacies is recognized by the representation of dominant types of trilobite, olenaceans, ceratopygaceans, remopleuridaceans, dikelocephalaceans and leio-stegiaceans in particular, on key boundary sections. These sections, at Nochixtlán, Mexico; Batyrbay, southern Kazakhstan; Broken Skull River, District of Mackenzie, Canada; and Jiangshan–Chang-shan, western Zhejiang, China, permit the correlation of biogeographic provinces globally. As a result of the application of trilobite biostratigraphy relatively few problems prevent the maintenance of a Cambrian–Ordovician Boundary stratotype section in its traditional Baltic biogeographic setting.

The Vagastie Bridge granite, central Sutherland, belongs to a regional suite of igneous intrusions within Moine psammites adjacent to the base of the east Sutherland migmatite complex. An isotopic date of 405 ± 11 Ma, obtained using U–Pb determinations on zircon and sphene taken from the granite, has previously been interpreted as an intrusion age. However, a reassessment of the field relationships demonstrates that intrusion was syn-tectonic with respect to the later stages of ductile Caledonian deformation affecting the Moine rocks. It is suggested that the granite suite magmas originated at depth and that they were channelled into the still active Caledonian ductile thrust zone (the Naver Thrust) which forms the tectonic base of the Naver Nappe. On regional grounds, the interpretation of the c. 405 Ma date as an intrusion age is untenable, which implies that the isotope systematics of the Vagastie Bridge granite require re-investigation.