The metamorphic sole along the base of the Semail ophiolite in Oman records the earliest thrust slice subducted and accreted to the base of the ophiolite mantle sequence. In the Bani Hamid area (United Arab Emirates) a c. 870 m thick thrust slice of granulite facies rocks includes garnet+ diopside amphibolites, enstatite+cordierite+sillimanite+spinel±sapphirine quartzites, alkaline mafic granulites (meta-jacupirangites) quartzo-feldspathic gneisses and calc-silicates. The latter contain garnet+diopside+scapolite+plagioclase±wollastonite. P–T conditions of granulite facies metamorphism are in the range 800–860°C and 10.5±1.1 kbar to 14.7±2.8 kbar. Garnet+clinopyroxene+hornblende+plagioclase amphibolites from the metamorphic sole record peak P–T conditions of 840±70°C and 11.6±1.6 kbar (THERMOCALC average P–T mode) and 840–870°C and 13.9–11.8 kbar (conventional thermobarometry) with low degrees of partial melting producing very small melt segregations of tonalitic material. Pressure estimates are equivalent to depths of 57–46 km beneath oceanic crust, much deeper than can be accounted for by the thickness of the ophiolite. 40Ar39Ar hornblende ages from the amphibolites range from 95–93 Ma, synchronous with formation of the plagiogranites in the ophiolite crustal sequence (95 Ma), eruption of the Lasail (V2) volcanic sequence and deposition of Cenomanian–Turonian radiolaria in metalliferous sediments between the Geotimes (V1) and Lasail (V2) lavas. Protoliths of the metamorphic sole were Triassic–Jurassic and early Cretaceous Haybi volcanic rocks, Exotic limestones and quartzites and were clearly not equivalent to the Semail ophiolite rocks, showing that initiation of subduction could not have occurred at the ridge axis. Heat for metamorphism was derived from the mantle sequence harzburgites and dunites which were at or around 1100–1500°C. All data from the sub-ophiolite metamorphic sole in Oman and the United Arab Emirates indicate that the ophiolite was formed in a Supra-Subduction zone setting and that obduction occurred along a NE-dipping high-temperature subduction zone during Late Cretaceous times.

Since late Miocene time, post-collisional extension of the internal parts of the Apennine orogenic belt has led to the opening of the Tyrrhenian basin. Extensive, mainly acidic peraluminous magmatism affected the Tuscan Archipelago and the Italian mainland during this time, building up the Tuscan Magmatic Province as the fold belt was progressively thinned, heated and intruded by mafic magmas. An intrusive complex was progressively built on western Elba Island by emplacement, within a stack of nappes, of multiple, shallow-level porphyritic laccoliths, a major pluton, and a final dyke swarm, all within the span from about 8 to 6.8 Ma. New geochemical and Sr–Nd isotopic investigations constrain the compositions of materials involved in the genesis of the magmas of Elba Island compared to the whole Tuscan Magmatic Province. Several distinct magma sources, in both the crust and mantle, have been identified as contributing to the Elba magmatism as it evolved from crust-, to hybrid-, to mantle-dominated. However, a restricted number of components, geochemically similar to mafic K-andesites of the Island of Capraia and crustal melts like the Cotoncello dyke at Elba, are sufficient to account for the generation by melt hybridization of the most voluminous magmas (c. εNd(t) −8.5, 87Sr/86Sr 0.715). Unusual magmas were emplaced at the beginning and end of the igneous activity, without contributing to the generation of these hybrid magmas. These are represented by early peraluminous melts of a different crustal origin (εNd(t) between −9.5 and −10.0, 87Sr/86Sr variable between 0.7115 and 0.7146), and late mantle-derived magma strongly enriched in incompatible elements (εNd(t) = −7.0, 87Sr/86Sr = 0.7114) with geochemical–isotopic characteristics intermediate between contemporaneous Capraia K-andesites and later lamproites from the Tuscan Magmatic Province. Magmas not involved in the generation of the main hybrid products are not volumetrically significant, but their occurrence emphasizes the highly variable nature of crust and mantle sources that can be activated in a short time span during post-collisional magmatism.

A new Late Cambrian trilobite–brachiopod fauna from the Kurchavinskaya Formation, Severnaya Zemlya, northern Siberia, allows correlation of the Ketyi Horizon of the NW Siberian succession with the praecursor Zone of the Baltic olenid zonation. The presence on Severnaya Zemlya of the typically Siberian trilobite Kujandaspis ketiensis indicates that even if Severnaya Zemlya lay on a separate plate, whether Kara or Arctida as postulated by other authors, then it was still probably not far from Siberia. However, the associated brachiopods are partly endemic to Severnaya Zemlya, thus giving some support to the independent palaeomagnetic evidence for their origin on a plate separate from Siberia.

The Maures Massif forms an important piece of the southernmost part of the Variscan belt of western Europe. This massif exhibits high-grade bimodal felsic–basic volcanic complexes, a distinctive lithological feature documented elsewhere in similar domains of the European Variscides and referred to the Cambro-Ordovician extensional episode. Two major alkalic and tholeiitic compositional groups and subordinate transitional metabasites have been identified, occurring at several distinct horizons or in bimodal complexes. This chemical diversity is interpreted in terms of variable degrees of partial melting of progressively depleted mantle source(s), which experienced melting at different depths, from garnet to spinel stability domains, during a progressive mantle upwelling associated with intracontinental rifting. This setting is reinforced by the presence of metabasites with compositions similar to continental flood basalts, showing slightly humped REE patterns, and interpreted as resulting from the melting of a partially depleted source at a relatively low degree of melting, in the garnet–spinel transition zone. The metafelsites from the tholeiitic bimodal complex exhibit the distinctive major and trace element characteristics of A-type rhyolites. Their elemental variations are consistent with fractional crystallization of major and accessory phases, but some discontinuous REE profiles result from a hydrothermal fractionation mechanism. The modelling of common anhydrous fractionating assemblages suggests that these A-type compositions may be derived from the associated tholeiites by extensive degrees of fractionation (90 %) with some continental crust involvement, or by anhydrous partial melting (∼30 %) of an underplated mafic parent of tholeiitic composition. The bimodal character of the Late Cambrian Maures magmatism, together with the chemistry of the various metabasites and metafelsites, suggests plume-induced intracontinental magmatic activity, resulting in lithospheric thinning prior to the onset of rifting and break-up of the Palaeozoic continental lithosphere, at this northern margin of Gondwana.

The Cretaceous Fossil Bluff Group on Alexander Island, on the west side of the Antarctic Peninsula, contains a remarkably complete record of the evolution of a forearc basin. The latest (Aptian–Albian) stages in the basin history are recorded in a well-exposed succession at the southern end of the island, where a series of nunataks provide exposure of over a thousand metres of shallow marine and continental deposits. An abrupt facies shift from upper shoreface marine facies to braided fluvial deposits is interpreted as the record of regional uplift in the volcanic arc. This event coincides with the Palmer Land deformation event which may be related to a mid-Cretaceous mantle plume. A gradual reduction in depositional gradient and a return to shallow marine conditions towards the top of the exposed section is interpreted as a consequence of erosion of the arc and subsidence within the basin. Palaeocurrent data and facies distributions indicate that the continental deposits formed a fan-shaped wedge at least 30 km in diameter in the southern part of the forearc basin. Fossil plants indicate that the palaeoclimate was warm and humid throughout the period of deposition. Mapping and facies analysis of the upper part of the Fossil Bluff Group in southern Alexander Island has resulted in a revision of the stratigraphic terminology for the area. The Triton Point Member, formerly part of the Neptune Glacier Formation, has been raised to formation status and two members (the Citadel Bastion Member and the Coal Nunatak Member) and a Bed (the Upper Coal Nunatak Sandstone Bed) are defined here within the formation.

The blind reverse Bajo Segura Fault is located at the eastern extreme of the Trans-Alboran shear zone (Betic Cordillera, southeast Iberian Peninsula). The surface expression of recent activity of this blind ENE–WSW fault is represented by coseismic surface anticlines and growth synclines on both sides of the anticlines. In the synclines, the deformation of the most recent Quaternary materials is obscured by a sedimentary unit more than 30 m thick which was deposited during the later part of the Late Pleistocene and the Holocene. The present study reports three high-resolution seismic profiles made in the northern growth syncline, which was the one developed most by the Bajo Segura Fault. In these seismic profiles we recognize the boundary between pre-growth strata and growth strata. This marker, Early Pliocene in age, dates the start of the activity of this blind reverse fault. The geometry observed in the seismic profiles of the syntectonic strata, dating from the Late Pliocene and Quaternary, indicates a limb rotation folding mechanism. On seismic profile 2, the complex geometry of the Benejúzar anticline forelimb can be attributed to several splay faults close to the surface of Bajo Segura Fault.

Fingerprints of the opening of the Western Black Sea Basin and collision of Pontides and Sakarya Continent along the Intra-Pontide suture can be traced in the area between Cide (Kastamonu) and Kurucaşile (Bartin) in northern Turkey, along the southern coast of the Black Sea. The Western Black Sea Basin is an oceanic basin opened as a back-arc basin of the northward-subducting Intra-Pontide Ocean. Basement units related to this opening are represented by Lower Cretaceous and older units. The first arc magmatism related to this subduction began during Turonian times. Coeval with this magmatism, back-arc extension affected the region and caused development of horst-graben topography. This extensional period resulted in the break-up of continental crust and the oceanic spreading in the Western Black Sea Basin during Late Santonian times. During the Late Campanian–Early Maastrichtian period, the Sakarya Continent and Pontides collided and arc magmatism on the Pontides ended. After this collision, the Western Pontides thickened, imbricated and developed a mainly N-vergent foreland fold and thrust belt character since Late Eocene–Oligocene times. The palaeostress directions calculated from thrust faults of this foreland fold and thrust belt are 4.6°/156.6° for σ1, 6.4°/66.1° for σ2, and 83.2°/261.9° for σ3. The nature of the imbrication indicates that it was a northward prograding foreland system connected to a floor thrust (detachment) fault at the bottom. Field observations on curved slickenfibres support the theory that the thrust faults of this imbricated structure have transformed to oblique thrusts and strike-slip faults over time.