Unusual single kink-band sets in calcareous slates are described and their mechanism of formation discussed. Regional inferences are drawn concerning Armorican strike-slip movements.

The relative timing of extinctions and originations is a foundation for reconstructing evolutionary causes. However, there has been a tendency to dismiss reported Ediacaran holdovers in favour of effective extinction around the Cambrian boundary. Here, focusing on the classically Ediacaran frondose biota (Petalonamae), I suggest four main reasons why proposed Ediacaran survivors have previously been denied the acceptance they deserve: denials based on mistaken identity, doppelgängers, a last gasp or dead clades walking. I then point to the lower Cambrian species Stromatoveris psygmoglena as a key example which simultaneously meets these objections. Collectively, Cambrian survivors are a ‘smoking gun’ showing that extinction of the classically Ediacaran frondose biota did not occur until at least 30 Ma after the end of the Ediacaran period, registered by phylogenetic petalonamid Thaumaptilon from the Burgess Shale. Therefore, to paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of their earlier demise have been greatly exaggerated. Causes of their ultimate extinction should instead be sought in their total range and diversity dynamics. Overall, the Ediacaran–Cambrian transition shows extremely low numbers of recorded survivors, but diversity dynamics are dominated by the Cambrian explosion. In this context, recorded occurrences for the classically Ediacaran frondose biota are compatible with at least two extinction events, one within a possible mass extinction near the Cambrian boundary, and later, their ultimate extinction in, or after, the middle Cambrian (Miaolingian Series, Wuliuan Stage). There is, however, no correlative basis for a causal link between the Cambrian transition and the effective or final demise of the classically Ediacaran soft-bodied biota.

Until recently no Cambrian rocks were known in the Llangynog area. Detailed mapping has now revealed a succession of ?Lower and Upper Cambrian rocks overlain by Tremadoc rocks. The Allt y Shed Sandstones (new) rest unconformably on the Precambrian, but have yielded no diagnostic fossils and are tentatively assigned to the Comley Series. Succeeding with faulted or unconformable contact is an Upper Cambrian Merioneth Series succession which includes in ascending order: conglomerates, sandstones and siltstones with olenid trilobites and resembling the Treffgarne Bridge Beds of the Haverfordwest area; micaceous shales and siltstones referred to the Ffestiniog Flags Formation; and black mudstones with calcareous concretions and a rich olenid fauna referred to the Dolgellau Formation. Succeeding the latter with possible disconformity is a succession belonging to the lower part of the Tremadoc Series and earlier than any rocks of that series hitherto recorded from the area.

In August last, at the meeting of the British Association at York, I gave a general account of the zonal succession of the Carboniferous Limestone as developed in Westmoreland and North Lancashire, and I instituted a comparison with beds of a similar age in the Ingleborough and North Pennine districts.

Since the Omosaurus of the Kimeridge Clay may still be regarded as the only well-known European representative of the Stegosauridæ, it seemed advisable, after discussing in previous papers the Ornithopodous Hypsilophodon and the Acanthopholidid Polacanthus, to examine a representative of this type. I am therefore greatly indebted to Dr. A. S. Woodward for permitting me to do so at the Natural History Museum, and also for putting at my disposal a magnificent hitherto undescribed Stegosaurian discovered by Mr. Alfred Leeds, F.G.S., in the Oxford Clay of Fletton, near Peterborough.

The geological map of Crete shows that a large portion of the island is composed of ancient limestone, in itself almost a guarantee of the presence of Pleistocene cave deposits. In confirmation of this, Admiral Spratt in his most valuable work mentions finding two such deposits, from one of which he obtained a few mammalian remains.

1. The coral-rock commences nearly everywhere with a basal bed of varying thickness containing a fauna of pre-Pleistocene aspect among which the genus Haliotis (absent from these coasts at the present day), Pleurotomaria, Meiocardia, etc., are noticeable. This faunule may have lived at a depth of 700–1,000 feet.

2. The supposition that the southerly anticlines are a later uplift than the main portion of Barbados is supported by the absence of ravines, and the presence of post-coral-rock beds which occur as coastal veneers at low altitudes, and in greater thickness in the south-east corner near Whitehaven.

3. The south-east part of the island from Consett Point to Ragged Point has probably extended further seawards in comparatively recent times ; the series of converging faults and dislocations in the cliff sections suggest that the thrusts from the west or south-west may have been resisted by this part of the island.

4. The relative claims of fault-scarping or marine erosion in production of the rising terraces is discussed ; and new information regarding the thickness of the coral-rock at sea-level from a boring is detailed.

5. The finding of a faunule with Pliocene or possibly Miocene affinities at the base of the coral-rock puts the Oceanic series further back, into the Miocene.

The Bwlch y Cywion microgranite intrudes an Ordovician sedimentary sequence in northeast Snowdonia, North Wales. Its age is recorded by hornfelses within its metamorphic aureole which give an Ordovician age of 454 ± 20 Ma. The whole-rock Rb–Sr isotope systems of the intrusion, however, and of an associated ash-flow tuff and a rhyolite of the Llewelyn Volcanic Group (Caradoc), were reset during low-grade metamorphism and give Devonian ages of 392±11 Ma, 392±5 Ma, and 405 ± 6 Ma, respectively.

The first crossing of the Greenland Ice Cap by Fridjof Nansen in 1888 had shown that the southern part was a flattened dome rising to a height of 2,720 m. Crossings in 1912 by the Danish expedition of J. P. Koch and A. Wegener and by a Swiss expedition under de Quervain proved that there was a northern culmination, reaching to a height of at least 3,000 m., which was separated by a saddle of about 2,500 m. from the southern culmination traversed by Nansen. The form of the Ice Cap determined by these three crossings and by other expeditions near its margin of Rink, Jensen, Baron Nordenskiold, Peary, Gaarde, Mikkelsen, Rasmussen, and L. Koch, has been summarized in sketchmaps by L. Koch (1923) and de Quervain (1925). In the year 1930–31 several expeditions were simultaneously making further contributions to our knowledge of the Greenland Ice Cap. (See Fig. 1.)

The foraminifera here described were collected by C. Barrington Brown in the course of a survey as geological member of the Anglo-Italian Boundary Commission of Somaliland in 1929–30. We are indebted to him for the opportunity of investigating these specimens and for the use of his unpublished maps and field-reports.

Three samples of low-grade metamorphic rocks from the Hazara Group, northern Pakistan, analysed as total-rock samples by the Rb—Sr method, give model ages of 765±20 and 950±20 Ma. The results are discussed in terms of the stratigraphy of Hazara, northwestern Iran, and certain other areas.

The Strontian Granodiorite, a ‘Newer Granite’ emplaced late in the Caledonian orogenic cycle, has an aureole which is strongly asymmetrical: the metamorphic zones are broader to the east of the intrusion than to the west. The asymmetry is attributed to a gradient in the background, regional temperatures. The muscovite-out isograd, marking completion of dehydration of muscovite + quartz to sillimanite + K feldspar (estimated temperature 645 °C), lies within 2 km of the contact on the west, whereas the cordierite isograd, due to the onset of dehydration of biotite+sillimanite+quartz (estimated temperature 690 °C) is at least 2.5 km from the contact on the east. This temperature interval of 45 °C, which is rather insensitive to small errors in the estimated pressure (preferred value 4.1 kbar), is used in a simple geometrical treatment to estimate the regional gradient in the plane of present exposure: approximately 5 °C/km in a direction 30° S of E. Because the intrusion does not appear to have been tilted, this result is regarded as an estimate of the horizontal component of the temperature gradient on the west flank of a regional thermal dome, inherited from the regional metamorphic climax and decaying on a timescale which is suggested, by radiometric data in the literature, to be ˜ 10 Ma. A tectonic origin for the perturbed regional temperature distribution (uplift of hot rocks in the east relative to colder rocks further west) is suggested by the metamorphic petrology of the region, and supported by literature data on structural movements, notably of the Sgurr Beag Slide.

The chief metamorphic minerals are described and, in addition to those reported by Lamplugh, cordierite (at scattered localities along the structural axis) and staurolite (at Glion Darragh, Archal-lagan) are found to occur. The distribution of metamorphic minerals recorded by Lamplugh is confirmed. The age relation of the new minerals to the movements is deduced from microscopic evidence. This is: early folding and development of biotite; relaxation of stress and development of cordierite; shearing and recrystallization of biotite along planes of fracture-cleavage; high grade metamorphism at Archallagan which outlasted the fracture-cleavage movements.

It is concluded that the postulate of a buried granite beneath the axial belt most readily accounts for the distribution of the metamorphism.

U–Pb ages and Hf isotope compositions of zircons from the Chencai complex in Zhejiang Province have been determined to provide constraints on mechanisms of migmatization and tectonic evolution related to the early Palaeozoic orogeny in the Cathaysia Block, South China. Zircons from leucosome samples of migmatites are characterized by nebulous overgrowths enclosing inherited cores or occur as newly formed grains with weak zoning. Five samples gave weighted mean ages ranging from 438±3 Ma to 432±4 Ma, which are interpreted as recording the time of anatexis of a regional tectono-thermal event. Their εHf(t) values range from −21.4 to −4.8 (with peak at −11), with corresponding TDM2 ages of 1.73–2.77 Ga (with peak at c. 1.9–2.3 Ga), suggesting that the protoliths formed by reworking of ancient crust evolved from Late Palaeoproterozoic – early Archaean crust–mantle differentiation. The migmatization was spatially and temporally associated with reported 460–435 Ma metamorphism with a clockwise pressure–temperature (P–T) path and was most likely controlled by crustal thickening driven by the early Palaeozoic orogenesis. The TDM2 ages of the Chencai complex are consistent with those of the Wuyi–Yunkai structural belt in the Cathaysia Block, but distinct from those (with peak at 2.7–3.0 Ga) of the Badu complex which lacks early Palaeozoic tectono-thermal records. The data support the suggestion that a postulated geological entity, instead of the east domain (the Badu complex being its main part) of the Cathaysia Block, was probably involved in the early Palaeozoic orogeny.

Two heavy mineral populations characterize the siliciclastic material of the mid-Cretaceous turbidites of the Katafito Formation (‘First Flysch’) of the Pindos zone: a stable, zircon-rich group and an ophiolite-derived, chrome spinel-rich one. U/Pb and Pb/Pb dating on magmatic zircons from the stable heavy mineral group clearly illustrate the existence of Variscan magmatic complexes in the source terrain, but also provide evidence for magmatism as old as Precambrian. Based on microprobe analyses, the chrome spinel detritus was predominantly supplied from peridotites of mid-ocean ridge as well as suprasubduction zone origin. A small volcanic spinel population was mainly derived from MORB and back-arc basin basalts. The lithological variability of the mid-Cretaceous ophiolite bodies, based on spinel chemistry, is much broader than that of ophiolite complexes presently exposed in the Hellenides. The chrome spinel detritus compares closely with that from the Outer and Inner Dinarides. The source terrain of the ophiolite-derived heavy minerals was situated in a more internal palaeogeographic position than that of the Pindos zone. The zircon-rich heavy mineral group could have had either an external and/or an internal source, but the chrome spinel constantly accompanying the stable mineral detritus seems to be more indicative of an internal source terrain.

After the appearance of Mr. T. H. Holland's paper on Laterite in the Geological Magazine, February number (pp. 59–69), we can at once give the results of our analysis of Indian laterite, without further introductory remarks. They are as follows:—

The 1954, 1994, 1998 and 2006 block-and-ash flow deposits from Merapi volcano, Indonesia, contain andesite blocks that display localized, dark surface coatings. These coated blocks are typically found in clusters, but may also occur isolated within the block-and-ash flow deposits. The coatings form irregular patches (tens of centimetres across) on block surfaces, and are characterized by a silver, metallic appearance. The origin and composition of the coatings have not previously been determined, and no comparable deposits have been described in detail from any other volcanically active region of the world. Carbon isotope analyses of coated and uncoated bulk rock material, and of a range of charred and uncharred wood samples, suggest that the dark block coatings at Merapi volcano are organic in origin. Scanning electron microscopy and reflected light microscopy indicate that such coatings may form due to the migration and subsequent deposition of organic carbon in cavities within the andesite blocks. The most recent field evidence from the 2006 block-and-ash flow deposits at Merapi indicates that in situ charcoalification of plant material after block deposition and/or during the final stages of flow, is the major mechanism that forms localized concentrations of block coatings. Isolated coated blocks may result either from recycling of older deposits, or, more likely, from charcoalification and redistribution of plant material caught between colliding lava blocks during flow.

The Liziyuan goldfield is located along the northern margin of the western part of the Qinling Orogen (WQO). The goldfield consists of five gold-only deposits hosted by metavolcanic rocks, and one polymetallic (Au–Ag–Pb) deposit hosted by the Tianzishan Monzogranite. As the Liziyuan goldfield appears to be spatially and temporally related to the Jiancaowan Porphyry, the study of the deposit provides a crucial insight into the relationship between tectonic-magmatic events and gold metallogenesis in the WQO. In this paper, we present whole-rock major and trace element geochemistry, and in situ zircon U–Pb and Lu–Hf isotopic data from the Tianzishan Monzogranite and Jiancaowan Porphyry. The two granitic plutons are enriched in LILEs and LREEs, depleted in HFSEs and have zircon εHf(t) values between −14.1 and −5.1 for the Tianzishan Monzogranite and between −21.0 and −8.4 for the Jiancaowan Porphyry. These characteristics indicate that the granites are derived from the crust. The Tianzishan Monzogranite has LA-ICP-MS zircon U–Pb ages of 256.1 ± 3.7 to 260.0 ± 2.1 Ma, which suggests that it was emplaced in the WQO during the convergence of the North and South (Yangtze) China cratons in the early stage of the Qinling Orogeny. In contrast, the porphyry has a LA-ICP-MS zircon U–Pb age of 229.2 ± 1.2 Ma, which is younger than the peak collision age, but corresponds to the widespread Late Triassic post-collisional granitic plutons in the WQO. The Tianzishan Monzogranite has somewhat higher Sr contents (196–631 ppm), lower Y (2.23–19.6 ppm) and Yb (0.20–2.01 ppm) contents, and a positive Eu/Eu* averaging 1.15. These characteristics suggest the pluton was derived from partial melting of the thickened crust. In contrast, the relatively higher MgO content (0.85–2.08 wt%) and Mg no. (43.4–58.2) of the Jiancaowan Porphyry indicates that insignificant amounts of subcontinental lithospheric mantle-derived mafic melts were involved in the generation of the magma. The Liziyuan goldfield is hosted by faults in greenschist-facies metamorphic rocks. Fluid inclusion studies suggest that gold was precipitated from CO2-rich, low-salinity and medium temperature fluids. This feature is consistent with the other orogenic gold deposits throughout the world. The field relationships and zircon U–Pb ages of the two granitic plutons suggest that gold mineralization is coeval with or slightly younger than the emplacement of the Jiancaowan Porphyry. Therefore, both the porphyry and deposit formed during the post-collisional stage of the Qinling Orogen.

The fragmentary pterosaur material from the Campanian Grünbach Formation (Gosau Group) of Muthmannsdorf (Austria), previously identified as Ornithocheirus buenzeli Bunzel, 1871, is revised. A lower jaw fragment shows a helical type of articulation, which is known in several families of pterosaurs, and cannot be identified with great accuracy. The proximal part of a humerus shows distinctive features that allow it to be referred to as a member of the family Azhdarchidae, which is widespread in the Late Cretaceous Period of Europe. Ornithocheirus buenzeli is considered a nomen dubium. The pterosaur material from the Grünbach Formation cannot be used as evidence for the presence of ornithocheirids in the Late Cretaceous of Europe.

The results of a reconnaissance apatite fission track study from southeast Ireland are compared with modelled ages and length distributions predicted using both traditional thermal histories and the thermal history indicated by the fission track age and length data. All samples have experienced total annealing during the Variscan orogeny. There is strong evidence for significant post-Variscan, pre-Mid Jurassic heating and cooling. The modelling also recognizes a third thermal event subsequent to 100 Ma. The implications of these results are examined in terms of the timing and extent of subsidence and inversion along the northern margin of the North Celtic Sea Basin.