After a long period of subaerial fissure-fed extrusions of basaltic magmas (∼ 12 to > 3 Ma) volcanic activity was then concentrated in the central part of Tenerife. Phonolitic magma chambers formed and a central volcanic complex was constructed (the Las Canadas edifice). The formation of a large depression (the Las Canadas caldera) truncated the top of the edifice. The active twin strato-cones Teide—Pico Viejo are sited in this depression. The history of the Las Canadas caldera and edifice are established from stratigraphy, geochronology (K—Ar dates) and volcanological studies. Two different groups are recognized, separated by a major unconformity. The Lower Group is dated at 2 to 3 Ma and includes the products of several volcanic centres, which together represent several cycles. The Upper Group ranges from 1.56 to 0.17 Ma and includes three different formations representing three long-term (∼ 100 to 300 Ka) volcanic cycles. The periods of dormancy between each formation were of ∼ 120 to 250 Ka duration. The Las Canadas caldera is a multicyclic caldera which formed over the period 1.18–0.17 Ma. Each cycle of activity represented by a formation culminated in caldera collapse which affected different sectors of the Las Canadas edifice. Geological observation and geochronology support an origin by collapse into a magma chamber. The minimum volume of pyroclastic ejecta is substantially greater than the present caldera depression volume (45 km3), but approaches the inferred volume of the original caldera depression (> 140 km3). After the formation of the caldera, sector collapses could also occur at the northern flank of the volcano causing the disappearance of the northern side of the caldera wall.

Neoproterozoic-early Cambrian successions in Iberia are reexamined. A gradual transition across the Neoproterozoic-Cambrian boundary is present in Central Iberia, whereas in the Cantabrian region and the Iberian Chains Lower Cambrian arenaceous successions rest with profound angular unconformity on Neoproterozoic turbidites. In Central Iberia, the Neoproterozoic sedimentary succession is referred to the informal Domo Extremeño group, representing mostly basinal facies, and the overlying Rio Huso group consisting of slope deposits and proximal turbidites that grade into shallower marine deposits. The latter is inferred to represent distal slope to outer platform depositional conditions and contains widespread carbonate olistostromic units. The position of the Precambrian-Cambrian boundary is within the Pusa shale of the Rio Huso group and can be correlated at the regional level by the occurrence of trace fossils, acritarchs, and in particular the abundant shelly metazoan Cloudina. The succession also yielded megascopic carbonaceous fossils, such as vendotaenids and Beltanelioides? sp. ind., and Sabellidites. Contrary to former interpretations assuming transport of older platform carbonates from the Ibor region into ‘younger’ olistostromic beds of the Rio Huso group, we interpret sedimentary and fossil evidence to suggest that shallower platform deposits of the informal Ibor group were penecontemporaneously incorporated in the olistostromic lower part of the Rio Huso group. Hence, the olistostromes are not believed to mark a major erosive unconformity. Based on the ichnofossil record and recent U-Pb age determinations, we argue that a proposed disconformity between Lower and Upper ‘Alcudian’ strata is neither regional nor does it mark a significant hiatus. Neoproterozoic-early Cambrian deposition in Central Iberia can be accommodated in a model that implies a generalized stretching of the crust during an extensional event which closely followed the Cadomian phase of the Pan-African Orogeny and which eventually could have included transcurrent components. An extensional phase with transcurrent components during the deposition of the Ibor and lower Rio Huso groups is regarded as a probable cause of widespread ponding resulting in the juxtaposition of platform and basinal successions, eventually leading to anoxic conditions in Pusa shale deposition times. A possible cause for repeated collapse events developing olistostromes and intra-sequential folding could be sought in this tectonic context.

Four sections from the mid-Atdabanian to lowest Toyonian (middle Cambrian) along the Lena River of Siberia were sampled for carbon isotope stratigraphy. These show a mainly heavy but highly oscillatory δ13C signature for the Atdabanian to mid-Botomian interval, coincident with the major phase of invertebrate innovation. A prolonged interval of negative δ13C followed until late Toyonian times, coincident with Botomian-Toyonian mass extinctions. Eleven carbon isotope cycles are identified through the lower Cambrian, which should now be tested for their utility in global correlation and relationship to bioevents in the Cambrian explosion.

The southwestern part of Naples was the site of small volume volcanic activity prior to 12000 y B.P. Lava domes and possibly a lava flow were erupted during the earliest period. Explosive activity followed and produced pyroclastic sequences that are the proximal deposits of tuff cones within the city and at its southwestern extreme. The explosive activity was complex but predominantly phreatomagmatic. As the volcanic activity more than 12000 y B.P. in western Campi Flegrei shows a similar evolution from effusive to explosive, it is suggested that a large volcanic field ‘Paleoflegrei’, encompassing the western part of the city of Naples, existed prior to emplacement of the Neapolitan Yellow Tuff. The Neapolitan Yellow Tuff eruption about 12000 y B.P., from a vent in Campi Flegrei, produced widespread deposits up to 150 m thick that blanketed the area of the city of Naples, although the present day topography is strongly influenced by the pre-Neapolitan Yellow Tuff centres. Following the Neapolitan Yellow Tuff a small explosive eruption occurred in the bay of Chiaia, immediately south of the city, and results in the possibility of future eruptions within the city of Naples, outside the confines of Campi Flegrei and Vesuvius.

A sparse but moderately diverse nannoflora is recorded through the Cenomanian-Turonian Boundary Event (CTBE) at Menoyo, Spain and allows recognition of the late Cenomanian Eiffellithus turriseiffelii Zone and the early Turonian Quadrum gartneri Zone, as well as five significant nannofossil bioevents associated with the CTBE. Carbon isotopes record a modest excursion which lasted 250–270 thousand years (ka) in three phases, buildup (105 ka), plateau (126 ka) and recovery (42 ka). Acid insoluble residue values imply that sea level rose through the buildup phase, indicated by a reduction in the accumulation rate of siliciclastic sediment. However, oceanic productivity apparently declined through the CTBE, indicated by reduction in accumulation rates of total carbonate and intact coccoliths to less than a quarter of their initial values. These patterns are very similar to those found through the CTBE at Dover, England and reflect widespread not local effects. A combination of lithological changes, seven key bioevents, and details of the δ13C curve, allows us to suggest a bed-by-bed correlation through the CTBE between Dover and Menoyo, demonstrating the practicality of cyclostratigraphy for international correlation at a precision of ± 10 ka. Graphic correlation produces a straight line fit despite wide fluctuations in sediment accumulation rates at both localities. This can only occur if changes were in phase and of similar magnitudes at both localities, again suggesting widespread, perhaps global, control.

The transition from the carbonate to the flysch facies in the Arachova sequence of the Parnassus-Ghiona Zone is represented by argillaceous limestone beds with flaser structures deposited during latest Maastrichtian-Palaeocene time in a pelagic carbonate environment with a periodic clastic influx. Deposition was continuous except for a short interruption during the K/T boundary interval and the earliest Palaeocene when the area was subaerially exposed. This interruption gave rise to the development of a brecciated carbonate horizon through soil-forming processes. The mineralogical composition of the clastic influx (i.e. quartz, feldspars, clay minerals, amorphous iron oxides, amorphous phosphatic compounds), in particular the clay mineral assemblages (i.e. illite, chlorite, irregularly interstratified illite-vermiculite), shows that the clastic supply represents erosional material that originated from a tectonically active continental setting of both carbonate and clastic rocks, presumably the Pelagonian Zone, as for the flysch of the Beotian and Sub-Pelagonian Zones. The arrival of the first clastic material in the Arachova area as early as latest Maastrichtian time, its Pelagonian origin and the persistence of pelagic conditions of sedimentation throughout the Palaeocene, indicate that the Arachova area was situated along the northeastern margin of the Parnassus platform and that it subsided into the Beotian basin. While the central areas of the platform remained tectonically stable during middle Palaeocene times and there was an extensive development of stromatolites, the northeastern marginal areas transitional to the Beotian basin continued to subside allowing pelagic carbonate sedimentation with periods of clastic influx. The total collapse of the platform in the late Palaeocene gave rise to the deposition of the flysch over the entire zone.

Two temnospondyl intercentra from non-marine middle Jurassic rocks at Mab Ching, in the southern peninsula of Thailand, are the first remains of post-Triassic labyrinthodont amphibians to be reported from the Shan-Thai block. They closely resemble an intercentrum recently reported from the middle Jurassic of the Khorat Plateau of northeastern Thailand, which is part of the Indochina block. Although the Mab Ching specimens are too fragmentary to warrant a precise identification, they confirm that temnospondyl amphibians were widespread on the various Asian continental blocks in the Jurassic.

Recent collecting in the Lower Lias of localities at St Audrie's Bay, north Somerset, Sedbury Cliff, Gloucester and Lavernock Point, South Glamorgan has yielded Psiloceras planorbis (J. de C. Sowerby) in beds considered by some to be of Rhaetian, Triassic age. These are the earliest records of this ammonite to date in southwest Britain. Evidence is provided of a major facies change at the top of the pre-planorbis beds followed by the diachronous first occurrence of Psiloceras planorbis. These new data have implications for the use of earliest occurrence of Psiloceras planorbis as a chronostratigraphic marker in defining the base of the Jurassic System, and for the definition of the base of the Hettangian Stage in the recently proposed candidate Global Stratotype Section at St Audrie's Bay.

Dropstones are clasts which pose a hydrodynamic paradox or which have an exotic lithology with uncertain provenance. Dropstones are usually associated with glacial processes and have recently been used to substantiate the presence of cool climatic phases in the geological record. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate, using an example from southeast Spain, that dropstones can be unreliable palaeoclimatic indicators, and that greater care is required in their interpretation.