The pattern of crustal warping in northern Spitsbergen as a result of widespread deglaciation is plotted. This is facilitated by the occurrence on ancient strandlines of pumice fragments at 4 major horizons 14C dated at 6500 (A), 6200 (B), 4100 (C) and 2200 years b.p. (D). Trace element analyses indicate an origin for the pumice in the Jan Mayen area. At least 2 pumice horizons are thought to be contemporaneous with eruptions at 6500 and 4100 years b.p.

Thin undeformed tholeiitic plateau lavas and associated diabase dikes occur intermittently along the western margin of the Appalachian mountain system, and are clearly exposed at its northern extremity in northwestern Newfoundland. In Newfoundland there are consistent chemical differences between the diabase dikes and the plateau lavas which indicate that they were derived from different primary magmas. These differences, along with apparent age discrepancies, could be taken as supporting suggestions of several periods of continental rifting, but such an interpretation is not favoured by the present author.

Mammalian remains are reported from a Pleistocene terrace deposit in the lower Derwent Valley near Derby, which is a correlative of the Beeston Terrace of the nearby River Trent. The faunal assemblage is characteristic of the Ipswichian interglacial and compares favourably with previous finds at other Ipswichian sites in southern Britain. The discovery is significant as it provides the strongest evidence so far for a dating of the Beeston Terrace which is critical to the Pleistocene chronology of the region.

Forty-seven new K—Ar analyses are reported from 15 mines in the Lake District. Analyses of clay mineral concentrates from vein gouges and altered wallrock support a hypothesis of at least 3 distinct isotopic events. Caledonian ages (388 Ma) are reported from the Coniston Copper deposits, while the extensive mineralization in and around the Vale of Newlands indicates a metasomatic event occurring at around 360 Ma. The ages of the sporadic mineral localities to the E of the area (i.e. Greenside, Threlkeld, etc.) are grouped around 325 Ma while those of the Caldbeck Fell deposits are close to 230 Ma. An epidosic model may be advanced for the Carrock Fell Tungsten deposits with a range from 197 to 282 Ma. The geochronological significance of these and other previously published results is considered.

The 1973 eruption on Heimaey, Iceland, presented the opportunity to study the interaction of the principal factors that control the formation of pyroclastic fall deposits. The grain size characteristics and the dispersal of some of the scoria fall units within the Eldfell Scoria deposit are described and related to observations made on the wind speed and direction, the height of the eruption column, the ‘muzzle’ velocity and the various styles of activity during the first month of the eruption.

Conglomerate beds occur in an Upper Ordovician—Lower Silurian clastic sequence on the northeastern side of the Newfoundland Central Paleozoic Mobile Belt. They contain scattered pebbles and cobbles dispersed in a finely laminated sandstone and siltstone matrix. Laminations are generally 5–20 mm thick and the clasts 10–300 mm across. The laminations are locally disrupted by the clasts. These laminations have subsequently been tectonically flattened into augen around the clasts and locally disrupted by boudinage. It is concluded that these conglomerate beds represent icerafted glacio-marine deposits interbedded with turbidites which were probably deposited in a locally restricted marine environment. The deposits are interpreted on the basis of scattered fossil localities as being of Late Ordovician–Early Silurian age. They are compared with deposits of similar age elsewhere in the North Atlantic region.