Veins of tourmalinite were formed by wallrock alteration adjacent to steep fractures in bleached, indurated Skiddaw Group metasedimentary rocks around Crummock Water, north-west Lake District. The vein rock is a fine-grained granoblastic mosaic of tourmaline, quartz, and minor rutile in which bedding is preserved. Brecciation, in which tourmalinite fragments are set in a coarser quartz-tourmaline matrix, is present in some veins. Networks of cross-cutting quartz veinlets with tourmaline, chlorite, and muscovite are very common. The tourmaline is intermediate schorl dravite and mostly brown in plane polarized light, though prisms in breccia matrix and veinlets have blue, low-Ti cores and brown rims. Comparison of tourmalinite and host-rock analyses indicates almost complete loss during tourmalinization of K, Rb, Li, Ba, As, and La, plus depletion in Ce, Y, Na, Sr, P, and Mn. The elements Si, B, Mo, and erratically, minor F, W, and Sn were introduced. Cu, Pb, Zn, and Ca show both gains and losses probably due to initial depletion and subsequent local enrichment. Reduction in Al, Zr, and Ti concentrations relates to dilution by introduced silica. The tourmalinite veins were formed by the action of hydrothermal fluids derived from the concealed late-Caledonian granitic intrusion responsible for the thermal metamorphism of the country rocks.

A combination of hydrogen and oxygen isotope analyses and fluid inclusion studies has defined the composition of fluids involved in the metamorphism of Lower Palaeozoic rocks in the English Lake District. Three fluid fields have been defined from secondary phases: 1, syn-burial metamorphic D-enriched fluids from epidote and chlorite at a temperature between 250 and 350°C; D-depleted fluid measured from groundmass and quartz inclusions; 3, a mixed magmatic-meteoric fluid with an intermediate H-isotopic composition estimated from W/R granite data and calculated from illite.

Redgillite, Cu6(OH)10(SO4)·H2O, space group P21/c, a 3.155(3) Å, b 10.441(8) Å, c 19.436(16) Å, β 90.089(13)°, V = 640.2(9) Å3, Z = 2, is a new mineral from Silver Gill, Caldbeck Fells, Cumbria, England. The strongest six lines of the X-ray powder-diffraction pattern [d in Å, (I)(hkl)] are: 9.72 (90) (002), 7.11 (100) (012), 4.60 (30) (022), 4.068 (20) (023), 2.880 (30) (112,11), 2.318 (50) (131,13). It occurs as translucent to transparent grass-green bladed crystals up to 0.15 mm long with squared-off or tapering terminations; usually in radiating groups. Forms observed are {001} prominent, {010} as composite stepped faces, and {100} irregular. Redgillite has white streak, vitreous lustre and Mohs hardness of ∼2. Blades are slightly flexible with irregular fracture and exhibit a perfect {001} cleavage and good {100} and {010} cleavages. The measured density (by sink-float) is 3.45(5) g/cm3; the calculated density is 3.450 g/cm3. The mineral dissolves slowly in dilute HCl. Redgillite is biaxial- negative with α = 1.693(2), β = 1.721(2), γ = 1.723(2), 2V = 30(2)° (meas.) and 30° (calc.); dispersion is r > v, medium; pleochroism: Y blue-green α X blue-green α Z yellow-green; orientation: X ≈ c , Y = b, Z ≈ a. Electron microprobe analyses yielded CuO 68.9, SO3 11.6, total 80.5. With water inferred from the structure analysis, the empirical formula is: Cu5.995(OH)9.991(SO4)1.003·H2O. Redgillite is typically found in thin fractures in partly oxidized sulphides where it is commonly associated with langite and more rarely with malachite, cuprite, connellite and brochantite. The name is for the Red Gill mine, from which the mineral is best known. The crystal structure of redgillite was determined and refined to R = 0.090 for 1529 observed reflections [I > 2σ(I)]. The redgillite structure consists of Jahn-Teller distorted CuO6 octahedra and SO4 tetrahedra. The octahedra share edges to form sheets that are zig-zag in cross section. The SO4 tetrahedra share an oxygen with the Cu layer and link the layers by hydrogen bonds to OH groups. The crystal structures of wroewolfeite, langite, posnjakite, spangolite and schulenbergite are similar to redgillite. They all contain edge sharing CuO6 layers connected to SO4 groups with the layers bridged via hydrogen bonds.

Stream sediment geochemistry provides an innovative method of assessing the basinal history of the Caledonian slate belts. Despite glaciation, the stream sediment geochemical patterns spatially mimic the outcrop of underlying bedrock lithologies. However, erosion from rock to sediment by fluvial processes may either increase or reduce an element’s abundance depending on the nature of its mineral host. An element held in heavy, resistate minerals will be concentrated, whereas one residing in unstable ferromagnesian minerals, which readily break down to clays during weathering, may be preferentially removed. Examples are provided from the Cr-Ni-V-Mg, base metal and Rb-Sr element suites. Primary and secondary bedrock patterns are recognized in the stream sediments. Primary patterns follow the original composition of the source bedrock, with steep gradients in the element distribution coinciding with lithostratigraphical boundaries. Such patterns also reveal subtle divisions within the established geological units for which the main compositional control was the nature of the ancient sedimentary provenance. Secondary patterns reflect remobilization of elements within the bedrock and so may cut across lithostratigraphical boundaries. These patterns (or their absence) are influenced by the thermal histories of the Caledonian basins, and so are indicative of the geotectonic regime in which the sedimentary sequences were originally deposited.