When the highlands of Arabia were still covered with an ice shield in the latest Carboniferous/Early Permian period, separation of Gondwana started. This led to the creation of the Batain basin (part of the early Indian Ocean), off the northeastern margin of Oman. The rifting reactivated an Infra-Cambrian rift shoulder along the northeastern Oman margin and detritus from this high was shed into the interior Oman basin. Whereas carbonate platform deposits became widespread along the margin of the Neo-Tethys (northern rim of Oman), drifting and oceanization of the Batain basin started only in Late Jurassic/Early Cretaceous time. Extensional tectonics was followed in the Late Cretaceous by contraction caused by the northward drift of Greater India and Afro-Arabia. This resulted in the collision of Afro-Arabia with an intra-oceanic trench and obduction of the Semail ophiolite and the Hawasina nappes south to southwestward onto the northern Oman margin ∼80 m.y. ago. During the middle Cretaceous, the oceanic lithosphere (including the future eastern ophiolites of Oman) drifted northwards as part of the Indian plate. At the Cretaceous–Palaeogene transition (∼65 Ma), oblique convergence between Greater India and Afro-Arabia caused fragments of the early Indian Ocean to be thrust onto the Batain basin. Subsequently, the Lower Permian to uppermost Maastrichtian sediments and volcanic rocks of the Batain basin, along with fragments of Indian Ocean floor (eastern ophiolites), were obducted northwestward onto the northeastern margin of Oman. Palaeogene neo-autochtonous sedimentary rocks subsequently covered the nappe pile. Tertiary extensional tectonics related to Red Sea rifting in the Late Eocene was followed by Miocene shortening, associated with the collision of Arabia and Eurasia and the formation of the Oman Mountains.

A fragmentary specimen of pterosaur originally assigned to the genus Pterodaustro Bonaparte, 1970 is reassessed. The presence of a sagittal dorsal cranial crest on a fragment of nasopreorbital arcade with linear vertical trabeculae and the occurrence of alveolar protuberances on the os dentale indicate the new specimen has similarities with crested pterodactyloid pterosaurs of the family Ctenochasmatidae, and with members of the Dsungaripteridae. The presence of alveolar protuberances allows us to assign the specimen to the Dsungaripteridae. It forms the basis of a new genus and species, Domeykodactylus ceciliae.

Arrested-type charnockite formation occurs in an assemblage of high-grade gneisses at several localities of the Chilka Lake area that belongs to the Proterozoic Eastern Ghats Belt of India. The isolated ellipsoidal domains are found exclusively in leucogranite (leptynite) bands that intruded lit-par- lit interbanded granulite-grade supracrustal and intermediate igneous rocks (khondalite–enderbite). Macrostructures and microfabrics document a multiple deformation of the rock assemblage under high-grade conditions. The intrusion of the leucogranitic melts separates a first episode of deformation, D1, from a younger progressive deformation, D2–D4. A transpressive regime and inhomogeneous deformation is indicated for D2–D4 by the associated structures and fabrics. But quartz c-axis patterns show that pure shear prevailed during the closing stages of deformation. The spatial distribution and orientation of the ellipsoidal charnockite domains within the host leptynite and the orientation pattern of orthopyroxene c-axes inside the domains provide evidence for a synkinematic in situ formation of the domains during D3, through partial breakdown of the leptynite assemblage (Bt+Grt+Qtz+Fl1[rlhar ]Opx+Fsp+Ilm+Fl2/L). Local fluid migration along steep foliation planes associated with large-scale D3 folds triggered the reaction. Orthopyroxene blastesis was confined to the centre of the domains, and an envelope formed in which the residing fluid caused secondary intergranular formation of chlorite, ore and carbonate, imparting the domains' typical greenish-brown charnockite colour. The shape of the envelope, which varies from prolate in limbs to oblate in hinges of D3 folds, is responsive to the local stress field. Comparison of chemical rock compositions supports the in situ formation of charnockite in leptynite. Subtle compositional differences are controlled by the changing mineralogy. Compared to the host leptynite, the charnockite domains are enriched in K2O, Ba, Rb and Sr, but depleted in FeO*, MnO, Y and Zr. The data obtained in this study provide conclusive evidence that the ellipsoidal charnockite domains do not represent remnants of stretched enderbite layers as proposed by Bhattacharya, Sen & Acharyya, but formed in situ in the leptynite as a result of localized synkinematic fluid migration late in the deformation history.

A laterally extensive, Neoproterozoic extensional detachment (the Betsileo shear zone) is recognized in central Madagascar separating the Itremo sheet (consisting of Palaeoproterozoic to Mesoproterozoic sediments and underlying basement rocks) from the Antananarivo block (Archaean/Palaeoproterozoic crust re-metamorphosed in the Neoproterozoic). Non-coaxial deformation gradually increases to a maximum at a lithological contrast between the granitoids and gneisses of the footwall and the metasedimentary rocks of the hangingwall. Ultramylonites at this highest-strained zone show mineral-elongation lineations that plunge to the southwest.

σ-, δ- and C/S-type fabrics imply top-to-the-southwest extensional shear sense. Contrasting metamorphic grades are found either side of the shear zone. In the north, where this contrast is greatest, amphibolite-grade footwall rocks are juxtaposed with lower-greenschist-grade hangingwall rocks. The metamorphic grade in the hangingwall increases to the south, suggesting that a crustal section is preserved.

The Betsileo shear zone facilitated crustal-scale extensional collapse of the East African Orogeny, and thus represents a previously poorly recognized structural phase in the story of Gondwanan amalgamation. Granitic magmatism and granulite/amphibolite-grade metamorphism in the footwall are all associated with formation of the Betsileo shear zone, making recognition of this detachment important in any attempt to understand the tectonic evolution of central Gondwana.

Conodont faunas from the Arenigian Lanna/Volkhov Stage in Baltoscandia have been the subject of intensive study, particularly during the last decade, and different biozonations based on them have been proposed. The application of some of these zones is discussed here. The present investigation is mainly based on 64 samples from ten sections in Sweden, but conodont collections from Bornholm (Denmark) and Tamsalu (Estonia) have also been studied. Lindström's (1971) concept of the upper Arenigian Microzarkodina parva Zone is essentially replaced by a revised Baltoniodus norrlandicus Zone. The zone corresponds closely to Bagnoli & Stouge's (1997) recently distinguished B. norrlandicus and Lenodus antivariabilis zones, which can be recognized in sections where a more detailed subdivision and correlation is possible under the names of the T. quadrangulum Subzone and the L. antivariabilis Subzone, respectively.

Most bolides that collide with the Earth hit the sea. Limited knowledge about marine-target impacts hampers predictions about their perilousness. This study presents geological features that are particular to craters formed at sea. The features are most likely a result of the influence of the target on the cratering process. Marine-target craters form only if the target sea is shallow enough to admit sufficient kinetic energy into the sea bed. When the crater diameter is large compared to the water depth, the crater resembles its counterparts that are formed on land. Craters formed in deeper water are concentric, and often lack melt sheets and rim walls, but have deposits and radial gullies formed by the resurge of the sea. Impacts on the deep shelf are probably much more energetic than is suggested by the dimensions of the preserved crater.

Combined shear-sense criteria, finite-strain data and vorticity analyses were used to study the deformation path in a curved crustal-scale shear zone (Phyllite–Quartzite Series) of the southwestern Hellenides. The results are combined with data on the structural evolution of a cover nappe (Pindos thrust belt) to provide new insights into the orogenic evolution of this region.

Ductile deformation within the Phyllite–Quartzite Series was associated with a top-to-the-west-southwest shearing and was partitioned into two structural domains: a root zone and a frontal domain. The root zone is characterized by vertical coaxial stretching, high strain and upward movement of the material, while the frontal domain comprises simple-shear deformation at the base and pure shear at the top. This pattern suggests superposition of pure shear on simple-shear deformation, and implies tectonic extrusion of the material from the root zone.

The initiation of brittle deformation in the Pindos thrust belt was associated with westward translation above the sub-horizontal Pindos Thrust. Later, as the mountain range elevated, normal faulting at high altitudes and migration of thrusting to the west occurred, while east-directed folding and thrusting in the belt started to the east.

According to the proposed model, crustal thickening was taking place throughout the Oligocene and early Miocene, including the subduction of the Apulian beneath the Pelagonian microcontinent and the intracontinental subduction of the Phyllite–Quartzite Series. During the lower Miocene, vertical buoyancy forces led to the successive steepening of the shear zone and the simultaneous duplexing of its basement, facilitating tectonic extrusion of the material from its root zone. Finally, an indentation process caused vertical expulsion of the orogenic wedge and gravity collapse in the brittle crust.