Grain boundary migration and the exsolution of albite from alkali feldspar, followed by the precipitation of myrmekite from the same source on to adjacent plagioclase grains, will explain the reversed zoning of these phases in contrast to the normal zoning seen in igneous rocks.

Within a reyerite-tobermorite (11 Å) amygdale assemblage in olivine basalt blocks, near Drynock, Skye, is a porcellaneous material which either lines or completely fills the amygdales (Livingstone, 1988). Electron-probe microanalysis combined with back-scattered electron imaging identifies individual components of the porcellaneous material as calcian analcime and bytownite, (An74-79). Back-scattered electron imaging reveals a second generation analcime pervading the calcian analcime-bytownite intergrowth and forming patches and discrete veinlets (Fig. 1A).

Specimens of the minerals beryl and löllingite were found by me among material collected in the summer of 1950 and the spring of 1951 for work on the distribution of trace elements in the New Consols mine, Stoke Climsland, Cornwall. Unfortunately, I was unable to collect further material, and in the case of the 1ö11ingite its presence on a specimen was recognized only after the mine had been abandoned and become flooded. This locality for the two minerals seems worthy of record in view of the small number of reported occurrences in Cornwall.

The beryl was found in specimens from a pegmatite vein, approximately 2 feet thick and dipping steeply southwards towards the main granite boss of Kit Hill, which was intersected 222 yards from the engine shaft by a south cross-cut at the 52-fathom level.

The structures of the fibrous zeolites edingtonite, thomsonite, and natrolite (with scolecite and mesolite) were determined by X-ray methods some years ago, and it was suggested shortly afterwards by M. H. Hey and F. A. Bannister in a private communication to one of us (W.H.T.) that ‘ptilolite’, another zeolite of fibrous habit, might prove to have a similar structure. An X-ray rotation photograph about the needle axis indicated a unit-cell dimension along the needle axis of approximately 7·5 Å., quite different from the axis c 6·6 Å. characteristic of the fibrous zeolites previously examined, and no further examination of ‘ptilolite’ was made at that time. We have now determined the unit cell and space-group of this crystal, and further work is in progress with a view to the complete analysis of the structure. This paper presents an account of the experimental data which we have obtained.

Hilgardite, Ca2B5O9Cl·H2O, has a zeolite-type framework structure consisting of cross-linked (010) layers of borate sheets having the fundamental building block (FBB) = 2Δ3☐:<Δ2☐>-<Δ2☐>. These layers are polar and the orientation, plus the number of layers in a sequence, determine the polytype. To date three hilgardite polytypes have been described: hilgardite-1A, -3A and -4M. A reliable means of polytype identification by micro X-ray powder diffraction (mXRPD) is outlined. Two polytypes are identified in the Sussex New Brunswick potash deposits: hilgardite-1A and -3A. Both cells are refined with XRPD data: hilgardite-1A, a 6.456(1), b 6.558(1), c 6.295(1) Å, α 61.62(1), β 118.76(1), γ 108.82(2)°, V 205.23(4) Å3 and hilgardite-3A, a 17.484(6), b 6.487(3), c 6.321(3) Å, α 60.78(3), β 79.58(3), γ 84.16(3)°, V 615.3(3) Å3. Hilgardite polytype assemblages are determined for 24 Millstream deposit core samples and 43 Penobsquis deposit core samples. The Millstream deposit occurs as an isolated, inner basin during evaporite formation. Borate formation from this marine environment was during the last stages of evaporation. Simple Mg-Ca borates precipitated from this highly saline brine. It underwent subsequent minor folding and all hilgardite samples are the hilgardite-1A polytype. The Penobsquis deposit occurs as an open fore-basin. This larger, less saline basin also precipitated borate minerals during the final stages of evaporation. The borate assemblage here is much more complex with borate minerals that have essential Ca, K, Fe, Mg and Sr. This deposit was subjected to major folding and recrystallization. Both hilgardite-1A and -3A occur here. Polytype-3A is concentrated in areas of maximum folding and it is proposed that pressure is the main control of hilgardite polytypes. Strontium substitution has no effect on polytype formation.

Published electron microprobe analyses of mattheddleite, a lead sulpho-silicate apatite from Leadhills, Scotland, have 9–13% IV site deficiencies. However, galena was used as a standard for S, which suggested that low S resulted from a shift in the S-Kα peak. Wavelength scans with a PET crystal show that the S-Kα peak is shifted down by 0.0026 Å for sulphates relative to sulphides. Quantitative analyses show a ∼30% increase of S in mattheddleite using a celestite standard, which fills the IV site, but with Si > S, on average Pb5S1.2Si1.8O11.7Cl0.6(OH)0.4. Direct analysis of oxygen with the electron microprobe implies that the charge imbalance engendered from the inequality of Si and S is compensated with substitution of a vacancy (□), as in Pb5S1.2Si1.8[O11.7□0.3] [Cl0.6(OH)0.4] or Pb5S1.2Si1.8[O11.7(Cl, OH)0.73]. [Cl,OH)0.7 □0.3]. Calculation of OH as l–C1 suggests the presence of both OH- and Cl-dominant mattheddleite at Leadhills, but direct analysis of H is needed to confirm the dominance of OH in the channel site. Wavelength-dispersive analyses of S in apatite and other sulphates must be undertaken with sulphate standards: use of sulphide standards yields a negative error on the order of 10–20% in the resultant S concentration. Reactions of mattheddleite with other Pb minerals at Leadhills show that their stability depends on fluid composition as well as pressure and temperature. An X-ray map of Cl shows complex zoning between Cl-poor and Cl-rich mattheddleite, recording rapid changes in the fluid chemistry during late-stage hydrothermal processes at Leadhills.

Cosalite, aikinite, zinckenite, jamesonite, and boulangerite occur at Grainsgill; the first three minerals have not hitherto been recorded from Britain. The specimens probably come from a series of low-temperature quartz-carbonate veins, later than the original mineralization and also distinet from the east west copper-lead veins.

The rare fluophosphate minerals wagnerite, ideally Mg2(PO4)F, and isokite, ideally CaMg(PO4)F, are intimately associated with magnetite-hematite deposits in sillimanite-, garnet-, and pyroxene-rich paragneisses and migmatites at the Benson Mines, near Star Lake in the west-central Adirondack Highlands of New York State. Coarsely crystalline wagnerite occurs in lenticular masses, typically 4 × 8 cm, delineated by sharply cross-cutting, sinuous, 2 cm-wide veins of fine-grained, fibrous to platy isokite and granular fluorapatite. These also penetrate transverse fractures across wagnerite lenses. Isokite formed from the introduction of Ca- and O-rich hydrothermal solutions into wagnerite. Both minerals are monoclinic: wagnerite crystallises in space group P21/a with a = 11.945, b = 12.717, c = 9.70 Å, β = 108.18°, V = 1400.2 Å3, D(calc) = 3.291 g/cm3 for Z = 16; isokite crystallises in space group A2/a with a = 6.909, b = 8.746, c = 6.518 Å, β = 112.20°, V = 364.7 Å3, D(calc) = 3.248 for Z = 4. Optical properties for wagnerite are: α = 1.5845, β = 1.5875, γ = 1.6010, 2V = 51°(calc.) disp = r < v weak, absorption α < β > γ with α = col., β = pale yel., γ = v. pale yel. For isokite only a mean index of refraction, n = 1.598, could be measured. Wet chemical analysis of wagnerite containing a calculated 11.4% of isokite as fine lamellae, gave the formula:

In a recent number of this Magazine (vol XI, 1895, p. 16) augelite was shown to be a definite mineral species, having the chemical composition AlPO4.Al(OH)3, and erystallising in the monosymme{ric system. Owing to its rarity, or perhaps to its similarity in appearance to barytes, it has previously only been described three times in mineralogieal literature, and has been f, mnd at only two localities, namely, Westans in Sweden and Machacamarca in Bolivia. It is therefore of interest to be able to record the mineral from a new locality.

Gypsum and anhydrite from the Neogene of the central Jordan valley associated with basalt bodies in the Menahamiya area contain abundant euhedral magnetite and diopside crystals and rarer grossular. The original calcareous shales above the gypsum were transformed into hydrogrossular cemented by secondary calcite and gypsum. The mineralization is assumed to be due to low-temperature, high water-pressure metasomatic activity similar to the process of rodingization. The described occurrence is unusual in that the hydrothermal solutions may have been partly formed in situ by thermal dehydration of the gypsum. In a nearby locality, Tel Shaharit, the mineralization occurred in a calcareous environment producing thomsonite, natrolite, and hydrogrossular.

Metastable authigenic 1M illite from shale of diagenetic grade has been studied using a high-resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM) equipped with energy-dispersive spectrometer, X-ray diffraction, and scanning electron microscope. The illite occurs as deformed flakes deficient in interlayer K+ cations with 0.6 per half cell, and with abnormally high Al in both octahedral and tetrahedral sites. Complex structural adjustments reflecting the unusual chemical composition are observed in images of illite at near-atomic resolution. Different distances and directions of intralayer shift between the upper tetrahedral sheet and the lower tetrahedral sheet within 2:1 layers are found in this sample. Intralayer undershift structure coupled with interlayer displacement is found in a 1M illite crystal, and intralayer overshift structure coupled with no interlayer displacement is found in a 1M domain of a larger crystal. Two tetrahedral sheets across the interlayer region sometimes deviate from ideal positions causing interlayer displacement. Two pyrophyllite layers are found overlying a stack of ordered 1M illite layers, and are overlain by illite layers with anomalous interlayer offsets. This offset is considered to result from an increase in the lateral dimensions of the tetrahedral sheet due to anomalous high Al content. Our observation of intralayer and interlayer deficiencies indicate that authigenic illite that crystallized in the early stage of diagenesis at low temperatures tends to give rise to heterogeneous, disordered, and metastable structures.

Some very brilliant and well-modified crystals of ilmenlte, recently found in the neighbourhood of the Ofenhorn, are of interest in that they exhibit a well-marked parallel hemihedrism and show the presence of a number of new forms. Although constantly sought for, it is more than fifteen years since crystals of this mineral were last found in the Binnenthal. The crystals described by H. Bücking in 1877 appear to differ in habit from those of the new find.

The Conakry Igneous Complex is a mafic-ultramafic intrusion emplaced contemporaneously with the opening of the Atlantic, forming a complex, 55 km x 5 km dyke-like body within which three main episodes of injection have been recognized, characterized by a lack of mineral layering. Unit 1 consists of dunite and related facies, Unit 2 of wehrlite and pyroxene peridotite and Unit 3 corresponds to various gabbro facies. Units 1 and 2 constitute the Kaloum Peninsula; Unit 3 is its NW extension, forming the 1010 m high Mount Kakoulima. Unit 3 intrudes the two previous units and corresponds to a tholeiitic liquid that crystallized in an almost closed system, and thus exhibits a strong differentiation trend, in contrast to Units 1 and 2. Mineral compositions suggest the existence of a deeper magma chamber where a first stage of differentiation occurred.

Disseminated base-metal sulfides (BMS) are present in all units of the complex and earlier descriptions have mentioned a “massive sulfide layer” with 2 to 4 g/t PGE. Platinum-group minerals (PGM) are almost everywhere included in or attached to composite Ni–Fe–Cu sulfides. Most PGM grains form complex associations resulting either from exsolution or alteration. It is characteristic of the Conakry Igneous Complex PGM, described here for the first time, to be dominated by (Pd,Pt)(Te,Bi) minerals with rare Pd,Sn and Pd,Pb compositions and an absence of Pt,Pd sulfides and Pt,Pd antimonides.

The constant association of the PGM with the BMS shows that the magmatic sulfide liquid acts as an efficient collector of PGE. In such a dynamic environment, the process leading to the formation of massive sulfides must be sought in the accumulation of sulfides in the conduit following host-rock assimilation. Accordingly, considering the multiple injection processes that characterize the whole intrusion, the potential for discovering additional Ni–Cu–PGE mineralization in the Conakry Igneous Complex remains high.

A test of the linearity of a photomultiplier has been made using crossed polars as an optical attenuator. An expression is derived that allows for the measurable transmission of a polarizing filter in directions other than the permitted vibration direction. The linearity is shown to be adequate for accurate reflectivity measurement.