Thomas Pennant was born at Downing, Whitford, near Holywell, in 1726. A contemporary and correspondent of Linnaeus and Buffon, he is well known to zoologists as a pioneer of British zoology, and to him were addressed the letters of Gilbert White which form the greater part of 'The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne'. He travelled very extensively in the British Isles and wrote many accounts of his tours, perhaps the best known being his account of London and his 'Tour in Wales'.

Three isograds may be drawn, indicating increasing grades of metamorphism in the northern Adirondack area, based on the development of garnet successively in biotite-quartz-plagioclase paragneiss, metadolerite and metagabbro gneiss, and in syenite and quartz syenite orthogneisses. Changes in the accompanying minerals show that this is an order of increasing temperature. Rocks of similar chemical composition, suitable for the development of garnet, occur in each grade of metamorphism and geologic studies indicate adequate temperature and depth for the development of garnet even where it is not present. The degree of development of garnet in rocks of similar chemical composition, in even as high a grade as the pyroxene-granulite subfacies, is widely variable. All of the data are consistent with an hypothesis that the successive development of a garnetiferous facies for each of the different kinds of gneisses mentioned required special conditions that facilitated the kinetics of the reaction, such as temperature in excess of that for equilibria, in order for the garnet reaction to proceed. The data are not conclusive as to whether certain non-garnetiferous facies of amphibolites are due to the physical conditions (such as high partial pressure of H2O for the prevailing temperature and load pressure) or to non-equilibria.

A unique hybrid natrocarbonatite, collected from the new ash cone of the volcano Oldoinyo Lengai. Tanzania in July 2008, consists of phenocrysts of nyerereite and gregoryite together with xenocrysts of clinopyroxene, nepheline and Ti-andradite set in a groundmass of cuspidine, sodalite, ferroan manganoan monticellite, K-Fe sulphide and manganoan titanian magnetite and gregoryite. The xenocrysts were not in equilibrium with the melt which formed their current host, as clinopyroxenes and Ti-andradite are mantled by cuspidine, and nepheline by sodalite and phlogopite—potassian kinoshitalite solid solutions. A microxenolith of ijolite exhibits similar reaction phenomena. The minerals of the xenocryst suite have similar compositions to plutonic ijolites found at Oldoinyo Lengai, and are thus considered to be derived by the fragmentation of such material in a previously contaminated natrocarbonatite melt. The latter, which has cuspidine, sodalite and monticellite as primary liquidus phases, is considered to have been formed by the complete assimilation of ijolitic material in a natrocarbonatite magma at depth in the volcano conduit. The occurrence of trace amounts of cuspidine, Fe-Mn-monticellite, K-Fe sulphide and Mn-Ti-spinel in recently erupted natrocarbonatites is ascribed to similar, but less extensive, assimilation of silicate material prior to their eruption.

The crystal chemistry of allactite from Långban, Värmland (Sweden) was investigated by single-crystal X-ray and neutron diffraction, optical absorption spectroscopy, Fourier-transform infra-red spectroscopy (FTIR) and electron microprobe analysis by wavelength-dispersive spectroscopy (EPMA-WDS). The optical spectra indicate the presence of Mn in valence state 2+ only. Assuming 16 O atoms per formula unit, arsenic as As5+ and the (OH) content calculated by charge balance, the resulting formula based on the EPMA-WDS data is (Mn2+ 6.73Ca0.13Mg0.12Zn0.02)∑7.00(As5+)2.00O16H8, very close to the ideal composition Mn7(AsO4)2(OH)8. In the unpolarized FTIR spectrum of allactite, fundamental (OH)-stretching bands are observed at 3236, 3288, 3387, 3446, 3484, 3562 and 3570 cm–1, suggesting that a number of OH environments, with different hydrogen bond strengths, occur in the structure. The neutron structure refinement shows that four independent H sites occur in allactite with full site occupancy, all as members of hydroxyl groups. The complex hydrogen-bonding scheme in the allactite structure is now well defined, with at least nine hydrogen bonds energetically favourable with mono-, bi- and trifurcated configurations.

Data on the dehydration of pentahydroborite, CaB2O(OH)6·2H2O and nifontovite, Ca3B6O6(OH)12·2H2O from the Fuka mine, Japan are presented. Critical temperatures of the dehydration of the borates were determined by thermogravimetric analysis/differential thermal analysis measurements. The untreated mineral samples and their heating products were investigated by X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy. Upon dehydration, both minerals decompose and undergo amorphization, and at greater temperatures crystallize as an orthorhombic calcium borate, CaB2O4 (Pnca). The dehydration paths of the two minerals are different, with nifontovite showing a greater resistance to decomposition and amorphization than pentahydroborite. Differences in the dehydration processes are related to the residuals of the water content and structural accommodation of the borate polyanion.

The origin of hydrous cordierite from a granulite-facies terrain in the Strangways Range, Central Australia, reported by Wilson (1978) is reviewed. In the light of geochemical and microstructural evidence for a metasomatic episode which affected the terrain subsequent to the growth of the cordierites, it is contended that the hydrous character of the cordierites results from hydration of the cordierite at this time. Extraneous argon also recorded in these cordierites may either have been incorporated into the cordierites at this time or at a later stage in the history of the terrain due to partial loss of radiogenic argon from micas which grew during the metasomatic episode. Furthermore, in view of the history of these cordierites, oxygen isotope values for the cordierites reported by Wilson are likely to be anomalous, and the isotopically light oxygen in the host granulites recorded by Wilson and Baksi (1978) probably reflects exchange with the metasomatic fluids which permeated the terrain.

Heat-generating waste provides a number of additional technical challenges over and above those associated with the disposal of ILW. A priority area of work for Radioactive Waste Management (RWM) concerns the effect of heat on the engineered barrier system, and how this may be mitigated through the management of heat (thermal dimensioning) in a UK Geological Disposal Facility (GDF). The objective of thermal dimensioning is to provide a strategy to enable acceptable waste package loading and spatial configurations of the packages to be determined in order to enable high-heat generating waste to be successfully disposed in a GDF. An early focus of the work has been to develop a thermal modelling tool to support analyses of different combinations of package assumptions and other GDF factors, such as spacing of those packages, to assess the compliance with thermal limits. The approach has a capability to investigate quickly and efficiently the implications of a wide range of disposal concepts for the storage of spent fuel/HLW and the dimensions of a GDF. This study describes the approach taken to undertaking this work, which has included a robust appraisal of the key data (and the associated uncertainty); recent thermal dimensioning analysis has been performed to identify constraints on those disposal concepts.

Single crystals of magnetite and of hematite have been dissolved at atmospheric pressure in superheated melts in the systems CaO-MgO-Al2O3-SiO2 and CaO-Al2O3-SiO2, and in a basalt. The crystals were suspended in alumina crucibles containing ca 3.5 cm 3 of melt. Quenched run products were examined optically and by electron probe analysis to establish the distribution of Fe in the glassy charges. There is usually a concentration of Fe at the base of a run product, consistent with flow of dissolved matter from the crystal to the floor. One or more columns of brown, Fe-rich glass may extend from the underside of a relic crystal towards the floor. In CMAS run products, such columns typically extend this entire distance, whereas in the CAS and basalt run products, the columns are either detached from the crystal or do not reach the floor. In the CMAS melt (viscosity ~1 poise) there is apparently continuous release of Fe-bearing melt from around a dissolving crystal, whereas in the CAS and basalt melts (viscosities 7000 and 300 poise, respectively) release is intermittent. In CMAS run products the Fe content is usually greatest, in glass, at the base, and declines gradually upwards; in CAS and basalt runs the bottom of a crucible is occupied by discrete, sharply bounded pillows of Fetich glass, with only slight, or no, gradation in composition. Rising gas bubbles can elevate small blobs of the denser, Fe-bearing melt from around a dissolving crystal, and trains of bubbles in the CAS melt may guide this Fe-bearing melt, against gravity, to the surface of the charge. When the bubbles burst at the surface, this dense melt is left in an unstable location and releases diapirs which descend to the bottom of the crucible. In spite of the evidence that convective fractionation occurs in these haplomagmas and in the basalt, it remains to be demonstrated that it will occur during sidewall crystallization or during the growth of minerals in a cumulus mush to cause magmatic differentiation.

Awaruite is not known from Awarua River or Awarua Bay, Westland, New Zealand, but was first described from alluvial sands of the Gorge River and soon thereafter, in situ in serpentinite from the same valley. The name is a misnomer.

Goldmanite, the vanadium analogue of grossular and andradite, was found as subrounded green porphyroblasts ranging from 0.1 to 1.7 mm in size in the carbonaceous black slates from the Deokpyeong area of the Ogcheon belt in Korea. A radiating aggregate of slightly curved blades of goldmanite crystals displays birefringence and replaces the fine-grained black matrix. The V2O3 content ranges from 21.9 to 26.6 wt.% (24.0 wt.% average), higher than previously reported values. The calculated mole % of the goldmanite end-member ranges from 72 to 91. Its cell dimension was calculated to be 12.04 Å from X-ray diffraction. The black slate in the Deokpyeong area is the richest known accessible source of relatively pure goldmanite.

Vymazalováite, Pd3Bi2S2 is a new platinum-group mineral discovered in the Komsomolsky mine of the Talnakh deposit, Noril'sk district, Russia. It forms small (from a few μm to 20–35 µm) inclusions or euhedral grains in intergrowths of polarite, sobolevskite, acanthite and unnamed (Pd,Ag)5BiS2 in aggregates (up to ~200 µm) in galena and rarely in chalcopyrite. It occurs with telargpalite, cooperite, braggite, vysotskite, sopcheite, stibiopalladinite, sobolevskite, moncheite, kotulskite, malyshevite, insizwaite, Au-bearing silver and the newly described mineral kravtsovite (PdAg2S) in association with pyrite, chalcopyrite and galena in vein-disseminated mineralization in skarn rocks. Synthetic vymazalováite is brittle; it has a metallic lustre and a grey streak. In plane-polarized reflected light, vymazalováite is creamy grey and appears slightly brownish against galena in the assemblage with chalcopyrite. It exhibits no internal reflections. Average reflectance values in air for natural and synthetic vymazalováite are (R natural, R synthetic in %) are: 46.35, 45.7 at 470 nm, 47.65, 47.45 at 546 nm, 48.5, 48.2 at 589 nm and 49.5, 49.0 at 650 nm. Seven electron probe micro-analyses of vymazalováite give an average composition: Pd 40.42, Bi 49.15, Ag 0.55, Pb 1.02, S 7.77 and Se 0.26, total 99.17 wt.%, corresponding to the empirical formula Pd3.05(Bi1.89Ag0.04Pb0.04)Σ1.97(S1.95Se0.03)Σ1.98 based on a total of 7 atoms per formula unit. The simplified formula is Pd3Bi2S2. The mineral is cubic, space group I213, with a = 8.3097(9) Å, V = 573.79(1) Å3 and Z = 4. The density calculated on the basis of the empirical formula and cell dimensions of synthetic vymazalováite is 9.25 g/cm3. The strongest lines in the powder X-ray diffraction pattern of synthetic vymazalováite [d in Å (I) (hkl)] are: 4.15(32)(200), 2.93(78)(220), 2.40(100)(220), 2.08(53)(400), 1.695(34)(422), 1.468(35)(440) and 1.252(31)(622). The structural identity of natural vymazalováite with synthetic Pd3Bi2S2 was confirmed by electron back-scatter diffraction measurements on the natural sample. This new mineral honours Dr Anna Vymazalová of the Czech Geological Survey, Prague.