Carbon and strontium isotope stratigraphy has been applied to constrain the depositional ages of high-grade marble sequences in the Ofoten district of the North-Central Norwegian Caledonides. Two marble formations hosted by diverse schists from the Bogen Group, all previously correlated over long distances with a Late Ordovician–Early Silurian, low-grade, fossiliferous succession, have been studied for carbon, oxygen and strontium isotopes. The least altered 87Sr/86Sr ratios ranging between 0.7062 and 0.7068, and the best preserved δ13C values falling between +5.0 and +6.5‰ obtained from two marble formations, are consistent with a seawater composition in the time interval 700–600 Ma. The results obtained do not support the previously proposed correlation of the Bogen Group with an Ordovician–Silurian lithostratigraphic succession further north. The apparent depositional ages suggest that the tectonostratigraphic succession studied is inverted and that the tectonostratigraphy of the region requires revision. The Neoproterozoic depositional ages combined with the palaeogeographic position of Baltica imply that carbonates were initially accumulated in seas on a continental shelf, probably Laurentia, and were tectonically transported onto Baltica during Early Silurian, Scandian collision, at c. 425 Ma. Prospecting for new dolomite marble deposits of the Hekkelstrand type and carbonate-hosted manganese–iron ores should be restricted to 700–600 Ma sequences in the Uppermost Allochthon of the Norwegian Caledonides.

One of the few detailed records of Mesozoic deep-water sedimentation and volcanism preserved along the tectonically emplaced Arabian continental margin is from the Baer–Bassit region of northern Syria. South-Tethyan units there occur as blocks, broken formation and disrupted thrust sheets within the Bear–Bassit Melange. Two overall composite successions are identified. The first comprises mainly sedimentary successions ranging from Late Triassic to Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian) in age. The second is dominated by Middle Jurassic–Lower Cretaceous alkaline/ per-alkaline volcanic and minor intrusive igneous rocks. The extrusives are intercalated with radiolarian sediments and capped by Cenomanian ferromanganese-rich pelagic limestone. Facies comparisons and the regional setting suggest that the Triassic to Cenomanian, mainly sedimentary units, formed in deep water near the base of the slope of the Arabian continental margin. The contrasting volcanogenic successions developed in a more distal off-margin setting. Regional comparisons (e.g. with southwestern Cyprus and southwestern Turkey) suggest that continental break-up to form a South-Tethyan oceanic basin took place in Late Triassic time, associated with alkaline volcanism. Similar alkaline volcanism of Middle Jurassic to Early Cretaceous age could reflect the activity of a mantle plume beneath the Arabian plate. Overall, sedimentation was mainly controlled by an interplay of post-rift thermal subsidence, plume-related uplift, siliceous oceanic productivity, climatic change and eustatic sea-level change. The South-Tethyan marginal to oceanic units in northern Syria were detached from an inferred oceanic basement in latest Cretaceous time, emplaced onto the Arabian continental margin, then transgressed by Maastrichian and younger autochthonous successions.

Numerous footprints of dinosaurs, pterosaurs and birds, together with arthropod tracks, have been discovered in the upper Cretaceous Uhangri Formation which crops out along the south-western coastline of South Korea. This ichnofauna contains the first pterosaur tracks reported from Asia. The digitigrade tridactyl manus impressions exhibit features of a typical pterosaur hand print. The pes impressions, however, show features that are different from pterosaur footprints reported previously: there is no visible trace of impressions of individual digits, and the toes are triangular or rounded in shape distally without distinct claw impressions. As these features clearly distinguish the Uhangri tracks from Pteraichnus and Purbeckopus, we assign them to a new genus, Haenamichnus which accommodates the new ichnospecies, Haenamichnus uhangriensis. The prints are five to six times larger than those of Pteraichnus, and are currently the largest pterosaur ichnites known. They show virtually no trace of the 5th phalange of the pes, indicating that they were made by pterodactyloids; moreover, features of the tracks suggest that they can be attributed to azhdarchids, the commonest pterosaur of the Late Cretaceous. The longest pterosaur trackway yet known from any track site (length 7.3 m) and consisting of 14 pairs of foot impressions, was also found in the Uhangri Formation and suggests that azhdarchids, at least, were competent terrestrial locomotors. The fossil track site at Uhangri represents the first occurrence of the tracks of pterosaurs, dinosaurs and web-footed birds all on the same level. This demonstrates that pterosaurs and birds visited the same habitat, but the large size disparity suggests that they occupied different ecological niches.

Three small picritic dykes, intruded at a late stage in the evolution of the Rum basic–ultra-basic complex, Inner Hebrides, shed new light on the nature of the magmas responsible for the main complex. The magmas are of transitional (mildly alkalic) type, generated by relatively small-fraction (6–7%) melting of a depleted mantle source. Melting is tentatively deduced to have commenced at ±100 km, straddling the garnet–spinel transition. Of the three samples, one (M9) is remarkable for the preservation of very primitive characteristics, with olivines of Fo93 containing highly aluminous spinels; these appear unique within the British Tertiary Volcanic Province. Sr, Nd and Pb isotopes indicate only minor ([les ]4%) contamination with Precambrian crustal lithologies, reflecting the rapidity of ascent of the magma batches. The Rum picrites have 187Os/188Os ratios and trace element characteristics comparable to those of recent picrites from Iceland, suggesting minimal temporal change of the depleted parts of the Iceland plume over 60 Ma. Movements of the Long Loch Fault may have been instrumental in causing decompression melting of the spreading Iceland plume-head and facilitating ascent of the melts to near-surface levels.

Fresh shale samples taken from a well-known outcrop section of the Silurian Vila Maria Formation, located on the northeastern margin of the Paraná Basin (Três Barras Farm, Goiás State, central-western Brazil), have been analysed for both palynological and radiometric age determinations. The rocks yielded a fairly diverse, age-definitive cryptospore assemblage, and the same samples proved suitable for Rb–Sr analysis, despite Silurian sedimentary rocks being rarely suited to radiometric dating techniques. This study thus introduces an alternative, independent method for estimating the minimum depositional age of the Vila Maria Formation. The Rb–Sr age value has been calculated via an isochron diagram that yields 435.9±7.8 Ma. Accordingly, the latter value is interpreted as the minimum depositional age of the analysed Vila Maria strata, implying their deposition during Llandovery times. This concurs with the palynological results, which indicate an age no older than Early Silurian and, more particularly, favour an Early to Middle Llandovery (Rhuddanian–Early Aeronian) attribution.

Ar–Ar dating of high-strain ductile mylonites of the Eastern Palmer Land Shear Zone in the southern Antarctic Peninsula indicates that reverse movement on the shear zone occurred in late Early Cretaceous times (Albian), and not latest Jurassic times as previously supposed. The Eastern Palmer Land Shear Zone forms a major tectonic boundary, separating suspect arc terranes from rocks of Gondwana continental affinity. The dated mylonites are developed in Lower Jurassic plutonic rocks at Mount Sullivan, eastern Palmer Land, and form part of a zone of ductile reverse deformation up to 25 km wide. Biotite from a fine-grained mafic mylonite yields an Ar–Ar cooling age of 102.8±3.3 Ma. Movement of this age on the Eastern Palmer Land Shear Zone is coeval with circum-Pacific deformation, possibly related to a mantle superplume event, and provides support for allochthonous-terrane models for the Antarctic Peninsula with accretion in post-Early Cretaceous times.

Determination of the relationships between the southern, marine-dominated Miocene basins of south central Turkey and their continental hinterland in southern Turkey has traditionally been frustrated by the apparent absence of basin remnants within the Taurus Mountains. The Dikme basin, which seems to be an enclave of basin remnants within the Aladağ Mountains (Eastern Taurides), consists mainly of coarse-grained continental sediments of various facies. These mostly early–middle Miocene sediments were studied to determine the depositional environments and the factors controlling the basin formation and basin fill architecture, to attempt to close the information gap between the Adana Basin to the south and central Anatolian Miocene further to the north. A generally southwest-flowing axial fluvial system and interfingering coarse-grained marginal alluvial clastics derived from northwest and southeast were identified. The marginal facies to the northwest is bounded by a N 55° E-running structural lineament, that starts from the Ecemiş Fault Zone and in digital elevation models extends toward the north of the study area. Along this lineament, Miocene sediments onlap steep fault-line escarpments. Certain Miocene levels are tectonically disrupted, and an intraformational unconformity and boulder conglomerates are also well-developed in the Miocene sequence. The southeast boundary is similarly defined by a NE-trending fault that periodically elevated the adjacent Tufanbeyli autochthon, producing coarse clastics from this area. This boundary fault also induced fining-upwards vertical patterns and synsedimentary deformation in the marginal facies. Additionally, the central part of the basin exhibits a distinct fault-defined morphology characterized by small-scale (tens of metres to 150 m high) valley-and-sill topography. A thin marine interval was also encountered in the southernmost part of the basin, indicating that the clastic system originating around this area debouched into a Miocene sea situated further to the south. The proposed palaeogeography and basin fill model suggests that the Dikme basin and similar Miocene remnants, all controlled mainly by a northeast-running extensional or transtensional fault system, may have been parts of the terrestrial hinterland that supplied sediment to rapidly subsiding marine areas further south, such as the Adana Basin.