Flood basalts in associated volcanic rifted margins, such as the North Atlantic Igneous Province, have a significant component of lavas which are preserved in the present day in an offshore setting. A close inspection of the internal facies architecture of flood basalts onshore provides a framework to interpret the offshore sequences imaged by remote techniques such as reflection seismology. A geological interpretation of the offshore lava sequences in the Faroe–Shetland Basin, using constraints from onshore analogues such as the Faroe Islands, allows for the identification of a series of lava sequences which have characteristic properties so that they can be grouped. These are tabular simple flows, compound-braided flows, and sub-aqueously deposited hyaloclastite facies. The succession of volcanic rocks calculated in this study has a maximum thickness in excess of 6800 m. Down to the top of the sub-volcanic sediments, the offshore volcanic succession has a thickness of about 2700 m where it can be clearly identified across much of the area, with a further 2700 m or more of volcanic rock estimated from the combined gravity and seismic modelling to the north and west of the region. A large palaeo-waterbody is identified on the basis of a hyaloclastite front/apron consisting of a series of clinoforms prograding towards the eastern part of the basin. This body was > 500 m deep, must have been present at the onset of volcanism into this region, and parts of the water body would have been present during the continued stages of volcanism as indicated by the distribution of the hyaloclastite apron.

Integrated field structural studies and SHRIMP U–Pb zircon and monazite dating have been undertaken in Renland, west of Scoresby Sund district in the southern part of the East Greenland Caledonides. Southwest Renland is dominated by metasedimentary rocks correlated with the Krummedal supracrustal succession of East Greenland and which on Renland were intruded by augen granites. Krummedal psammite from Renland yielded a spectrum of Mesoproterozoic to Palaeoproterozoic detrital U–Pb zircon dates, the youngest of which indicate deposition of the psammite occurred c. 1000 Ma ago, thus post-dating Grenvillian continent–continent collision in North American Laurentia. These Krummedal metasediments were deformed into regional nappe-scale folds prior to metamorphism, crustal anatexis and genesis of augen granites; an example of the latter has been dated at 915±18 Ma (U–Pb zircon). This demonstrates early Neoproterozoic high-temperature tectono-metamorphism affecting rocks within the southern East Greenland Caledonides, broadly contemporaneous with similar rocks farther north in East Greenland and with Sveconorwegian events on Baltica. Still in southwestern Renland, a later thermal event led to development of uppermost amphibolite to granulite facies metamorphic assemblages, veins and patches of in situ garnetiferous melt-bearing neosome in both metasediments (432±6 Ma, U–Pb zircon) and in the augen granites, and contemporaneous biotite-bearing granite sheets in top-down-to-the-E extensional shear zones (434±5 Ma, U–Pb zircon). Monazites from southwestern Renland record Caledonian thermal events as late as 410−400 Ma. In contrast, southeastern Renland is dominated by quartzofeldspathic migmatites with a strongly Caledonian signature but enclosing relicts of augen granite and retrogressed granulite facies psammitic and pelitic metasediment. There is also a sequence of Caledonian granitoid intrusions. Two samples from a hypersthene monzonite intrusion yielded U–Pb zircon dates of 424±8 Ma and 424±6 Ma. This pluton shows the marginal effects of the regional migmatization and was intruded early in the sequence of granitoid emplacement. An amphibolite facies migmatite, textural evidence from which suggests that it had never hosted granulite facies assemblages, records zircon growth at 423±6 Ma, and closure of monazite by 402±10 Ma. High grade metamorphism, and the protracted sequence of granitoid emplacement and still younger thermal events which together span the period between 430 and 400 Ma may, in part, reflect complicated lithospheric dynamics associated with subduction outboard of the Laurentian margin. Crustal segments carrying the relict evidence of Neoproterozoic and early Caledonian events must then quickly have been thrust northwestwards in foreland-propagating, northwesterly directed thrusts over Cambro-Ordovician platformal sequences on the Laurentian margin. This records the final closure of Iapetus, encroachment of Baltica and continent–continent collision from late Llandovery times (425–430 Ma).

Many volcanic ash layers preserved in deep-sea sediments are the products of large magnitude ignimbrite eruptions. The characteristics of such co-ignimbrite ash-fall deposits are illustrated by two layers from the Eastern Mediterranean: the Minoan ash, Santorini, and the Campanian ash, Italy. These layers are divisible into a coarse lower unit and a fine upper unit in proximal cores. Both layers also show striking bimodal grain size distributions in more distal cores. The coarser mode decreases in median diameter with distance from source whereas the finer mode shows no lateral variation. These features are interpreted in terms of a model for ignimbrite formation by eruption column collapse. Comparable volumes of ignimbrite and associated air-fall ejecta are produced.

The six exposures of the Upper tectonic Unit of the Cycladic Massif occurring on the island of Tinos are shown to comprise a metamorphosed dismembered ophiolite complex. The common stratigraphic section consisting of tens-of-metres- thick tectonic slices of mafic phyllites overlain by serpentinites and gabbros is considered to have been derived by a combination of thrusting during obduction and subsequent attenuation by low-angle normal faults. All rock types show evidence of a phase of regional greenschist-facies metamorphism, which in the case of the phyllites is accompanied by penetrative deformation. The greenschist-facies metamorphism in gabbros is preceded by high temperature sea-floor amphibolite-facies alteration, whereas in the serpentinites, the antigorite + forsterite greenschist-facies assemblage overprinted an earlier low temperature lizardite serpentinite. Trace element patterns of the mafic phyllites and a harzburgitic origin of meta-serpentinites suggest a supra subduction zone (SSZ) affinity for the ophiolitic suite. ρ18O values of phyllites, gabbros and serpentinites range from 6 to 15%o. Model calculations indicate that such values are consistent with low temperature (50–200°C) alteration of parent rocks by sea-water at varying water/rock ratios. This would agree with the early low temperature mineralogy of the serpentinites, but the early high temperature alteration of the gabbros would require the presence of 18O-enriched sea-water.The following overall history is suggested for Tinos ophiolitic slices. (1) Oceanic crust was generated at a supra-subduction zone spreading centre with high temperature alteration of gabbros. (2) Tectonic disturbance (its early hot stages recorded in an amphibolitic shear zone at the base of serpentinites) brought the already cooled ultramafics into direct contact with sea-water and caused low-T serpentinization. (3) Tectonism after cooling involved thrusting which caused repetition and inversion of the original order of the oceanic suite. (4) Regional metamorphism of all the ophiolite components at greenschist-facies conditions (−450°C) overprinted the early alteration mineralogy. It was probably induced by continued thrusting and piling up of nappes. The Tinos ophiolite, dated as late Cretaceous and genetically related to other low pressure rock-units of the same age in the Aegean, differs in age and degree of dismemberment and metamorphism from ophiolites in mainland Greece.

This work develops an analytical model of shear senses within an inclined ductile simple shear zone with parallel rigid boundaries and incompressible Newtonian viscous rheology. Taking account of gravity that tends to drive the material downdip and a possible pressure gradient that drives it upward along the shear zone, it is shown that (i) contradictory shear senses develop within two sub-zones even as a result of a single simple shear deformation; (ii) the highest velocity and least shear strain develop along the contact between the two sub-zones of reverse shear; (iii) for a uniform shear sense of the boundaries, a zone of reverse shear may develop within the top of the shear zone if the pressure gradient dominates the gravity component; otherwise it forms near the bottom boundary; (iv-a) a ‘pivot’ defined by the intersection between the velocity profile and the initial marker position distinguishes two sub-zones of opposite movement directions (not shear sense); (iv-b) a pivot inside any non-horizontal shear zone indicates a part of the zone that extrudes while the other subducts simultaneously; (v) the same shear sense develops: (v-a) when under a uniform shear of the boundaries, the shear zone remains horizontal and the pressure gradient vanishes; or alternatively (v-b) if the shear zone is inclined but the gravity component counterbalances the pressure gradient. Zones with shear sense reversal need to be reinterpreted since a pro-sheared sub-zone can retro-shear if the flow parameters change their magnitudes even though the same shear sense along the boundaries is maintained.

A recently computed fit of the African and South American continents is astonishingly close, apart from an overlap of some 120 miles in the vicinity of the Niger delta. This paper attempts to determine whether there is a genuine misfit at this point or whether the delta may have grown beyond the continental margin after the continents separated. The evidence suggests that final separation took place in Albian times, and that the bulge of the present continental edge into the Atlantic Ocean has resulted from post-Cretaceous development of the delta. The gross structure of the delta region and also the associated minor structures are considered to represent a passive response to the influx of sediment from the Niger River.

After the formation of the ~ 260 Ma Emeishan large igneous province, there were two volumetrically minor magmatic pulses at ~ 252 Ma and ~ 242 Ma, respectively. Alkaline mafic dykes intruding both 260 Ma and 252 Ma felsic plutons in the Panxi region, southwestern China, have compositions similar to the Emeishan flood basalts. One dyke is dated using the SHRIMP zircon U–Pb technique at 242 ± 2 Ma, ~ 18 Ma younger than the start of Emeishan magmatism. The dykes have enriched light rare earth element patterns (La/YbN = 4.4–18.8) and trace element patterns similar to the Emeishan flood basalts and average ocean-island basalts. Some trace element ratios of the dykes (Zr/Nb = 3.8–8.2, La/Nb = 0.4–1.7, Ba/La = 7.5–25.6) are somewhat similar to EM1 source material, however, there are differences. Their εNd values (εNd = +2.6 and +2.7) and ISr (ISr = 0.704542 and 0.704554) ratios are indicative of a mantle source. Thus Emeishan magmatism may have lasted for almost 20 Ma after the initial eruption. However, geological evidence precludes the possibility that the post-260 Ma magmatic events were directly related to Emeishan magmatism, which began at and ended shortly after 260 Ma. The 252 Ma plutons and 242 Ma dykes represent volumetrically minor melting of the fossil Emeishan plume-head beneath the Yangtze crust. The 252 Ma magmatic event was likely caused by post-flood basalt extension of the Yangtze crust, whereas the 242 Ma event was caused by decompressional melting associated with the collision between the South China and North China blocks during the Middle Triassic.

1. Geological observation provides abundant evidence of fractures in the upper crust, the relative displacements of the sides of a fracture being anything from a few centimetres to thousands of metres. It is generally believed that earthquakes are produced in these displacements, but little attention seems to have been given to the quantitative relations involved. The geologist sees the record of the total displacement, but has no direct information about how long it took to occur, or whether it took place all at once or by several stages. Except in cases where an earthquake has been associated with fracture of the outer surface, and we can say how much displacement occurred up to the time of inspection, he has no means of knowing whether it took seconds, hours, years, or geological periods to form. Even in these rather rare cases the displacement is not more than a few metres, and extrapolation to the larger known faults is impossible. Seismology on the other hand is well adapted to the study of sudden shifts, but the instruments do not record large movements spread over a long time; thus the geological and seismological data are largely complementary. It is known also that a large earthquake is often followed by a swarm of small ones, called aftershocks, apparently from the same focus and continuing for, possibly, several months; there may be a thousand in a single series. The geological displacement observed long afterwards will include those due to all the aftershocks, supposing, as is generally done, that they all are due to shifts on the same fault.

Determination of zircon ages as well as geochemical and Sm–Nd isotope systematics of granitoids in the Khetri Copper Belt of the Aravalli mountains, NW India, constrain the late Palaeoproterozoic crustal evolution of the Aravalli craton. The plutons are typical A-type within-plate granites, derived from melts generated in an extensional tectonic environment. They display REE and multi-element patterns characterized by steep LREE-enriched and almost flat HREE profiles and distinct negative anomalies for Sr, P and Ti. Initial εNd values range from −1.3 to −6.2 and correspond to crustal sources with mean crustal residence ages of 2.5 to 2.1 Ga. A lower mafic crustal anatectic origin is envisaged for these granitoids, and the heterogeneous εNd(t) values are inferred to have been acquired from the magma source region. Zircon Pb–Pb evaporation and U–Pb ages indicate widespread rift-related A-type magmatism at 1711–1660 Ma in the northern Delhi belt and also suggest a discrete older magmatic event at around 1800 Ma. The emplacement ages of the compositionally distinct A-type granitoid plutons, and virtually coeval granulite metamorphism and exhumation in another segment of the Aravalli mountains, further signify that part of the Aravalli crust evolved during a widespread extensional event in late Palaeoproterozoic time.

The Cenozoic volcanic field of the Akkar region in northern Lebanon consists of a thick succession (200 m) of basaltic lava flows, erupted at the junction between a restraining bend (the Yammouneh transform fault) and its northern extension (the Ghab transform) in Syria. Both faults are part of the Dead Sea transform fault system, which represents the boundary between the Arabian and African plates and the Levantine subplate. The lavas are made up of about 15–25 vol. % olivine (Fo79–84), 30–40 % clinopyroxene (salite), 40–50 % plagioclase (An58–67), and opaque Fe–Ti oxides (∼ 5 %). Geochemically, they exhibit a narrow range of SiO2 (44.6 to 47.0 wt %), and MgO (2.9 to 7.5 wt %), are relatively enriched in TiO2 (2.0 to 2.9 wt %), and are classified as alkali basalts. Mg-numbers range from 0.32 to 0.59, with an average of 0.47. The rocks are enriched in incompatible trace elements such as Zr (98–184 ppm), Nb (16–39 ppm) and Y (25–34 ppm). The REE patterns are fractionated ((La/Yb)N=8.2), and are generally parallel to subparallel. Such compositions are typical of those of HIMU-OIB and plume-related magmas. Elemental ratios such as K/P (2.9), La/Ta (21.8), La/Nb (0.80), Nb/Y (0.92) and Th/Nb (0.35), and the low average SiO2 content (46.1 wt %) suggest that the magma was subjected to minimal crustal contamination. This may be related to a rapid ascent of the parental magma, in agreement with the nature (mafic, oceanic crust-like) and the thickness (only about 12 km) of the crust of the Eastern Mediterranean region. Cenozoic volcanism in this region is interpreted to have occurred in association with an episode of localized extension, particularly at the junction between the Yammouneh restraining bend and the Dead Sea–Ghab Transform (that is, in a transtensional tectonic regime). The 143Nd/144Nd isotopic composition of the basaltic rocks of northern Lebanon ranges from 0.512842 to 0.512934 (εNd=4.0 to 5.8), and 87Sr/86Sr from 0.703317 to 0.703579, suggesting a HIMU-like mantle source. Modelling indicates that the magma was produced by a small degree of partial melting (F=2 %) of a primitive, garnet lherzolitic mantle source, possibly containing a minor spinel component.

Markedly different cooling histories for the hanging- and footwall of the Vari detachment on Syros and Tinos islands, Greece, are revealed by zircon and apatite fission-track data. The Vari/Akrotiri unit in the hangingwall cooled slowly at rates of 5–15 °C Myr−1 since Late Cretaceous times. Samples from the Cycladic blueschist unit in the footwall of the detachment on Tinos Island have a mean zircon fission-track age of 10.0±1.0 Ma, which together with a published mean apatite fission-track age of 9.4±0.5 Ma indicates rapid cooling at rates of at least ∼60 °C Myr−1. We derive a minimum slip rate of ∼6.5 km Myr−1 and a displacement of <∼20 km and propose that the development of the detachment in the thermally softened magmatic arc aided fast displacement. Intra-arc extension accomplished the final ∼6–9 km of exhumation of the Cycladic blueschists from ∼60 km depth. The fast-slipping intra-arc detachments did not cause much exhumation, but were important for regional-scale extension and the formation of the Aegean Sea.

The Tiñu Formation of Oaxaca State is the only fossiliferous lower Palaeozoic unit between the Laurentian platform in northwest Mexico and Gondwanan successions in Andean South America. The Tiñu traditionally has been referred to the Lower Ordovician (Tremadoc) and regarded as having a provincially mixed fauna with Laurentian, Avalonian, and Gondwanan elements. Bio- and lithostratigraphic re-evaluation demonstrates that the Tiñu is a Gondwanan, passive margin succession. It includes a lower, thin (to 16 m), condensed, uppermost Cambrian Yudachica Member (new). The Yudachica nonconformably overlies middle Proterozoic basement as a result of very high late Late Cambrian eustatic levels. The Yudachica changes from storm-dominated, but slightly dysoxic, shelf facies (fossil hash limestone and shale) in the south to an upper slope facies with debris flows 50 km to the north. Three biostratigraphically distinct depositional sequences comprise the Yudachica. The Yudachica has Gondwanan-aspect trilobites with low-diversity conodonts characteristic of unrestricted marine/temperate facies. The upper Tiñu, or Río Salinas Member (new), is a Lower Ordovician (Tremadoc) depositional sequence that records strong early, but not earliest, Tremadoc eustatic rise marked by graptolite- and olenid-bearing dysoxic mudstones. Higher strata shoal upward into shell-hash limestones and proximal tempestite sandstones with upper lower Tremadocian unrestricted marine/temperate conodonts. New taxa include Orminskia rexroadae Landing gen. et sp. nov. from the Cordylodus andresi Zone; this euconodont is related to hyaline coniform genera best known from Ordovician tropical platform successions. Cornuodus? clarkei Landing sp. nov. resembles the coeval, upper lower Tremadoc tropical species Scalpellodus longipinnatus (Ji & Barnes).

A transpressive crustal-scale dextral shear zone is documented in the Variscan Basement of northeastern Sardinia. It indicates the presence of a shear deformation parallel to the belt overprinting previous D1 structures related to nappe stacking and top-to-the-S and -SW thrusting. The L2 stretching lineation points to an orogen-parallel stretching and to a general change in the tectonic transport from D1 to D2. Phase D1 developed during initial frontal collision, whereas the D2 deformation was characterized by dextral shearing during the increasing curvature of the Ibero-Armorican arc. Transpressional deformation developed in a regime of decreasing pressure. It caused telescoping of the Barrovian isograds and the exhumation of the low- to medium-grade metamorphic rocks. In this sector of the Variscan belt, exhumation is due to continuing compression with an increasing component of horizontal displacement. The overall change of the shortening direction in a large sector of an orogenic belt, with the occurrence of increasing orogen-parallel displacement, may be regarded as a general mechanism affecting the exhumation of rocks and preventing the thickened collisional crust from undergoing a generalized gravitational collapse.

Rb–Sr whole-rock isochron ages from shale horizons in the Late Pre-Cambrian tillite succession in Varangerfjord, Northern Norway, are presented. Although data from the Stappogiedde Formation, which overlies the tillite horizons, give a Caledonian, metamorphic age of 530±50 m.y., ages obtained from shales occurring between and below the tillites are believed to represent the approximate times of deposition of the sediments. An age of 810±90 m.y. for the Tanafjord Group enables this group to be correlated with the Upper Torridonian and the age of 668±23 m.y. for the Nyborg Formation, which is taken as the age of the Varanger Ice Age, allows a tentative correlation to be made with the Egan and Marinoan Glaciation in Australia.

As a result of three recent expeditions to East Greenland a remarkable dyke swarm, following closely the general direction of the coast, has been found to run from the neighbourhood of Scoresby Sound to Angmagssalik, a distance of 500 miles. The dykes are dolerites of various kinds and for the most part they are intruded into a thick Tertiary basalt series and the underlying metamorphic compled.

Vegetation diversity and pattern changes, and their relation to tectono-sedimentary histories are compared between selected Euramerican Late Palaeozoic coalfields, to understand better the controls on the dynamics of the Pennsylvanian terrestrial ecosystems and to demonstrate the problems with comparing data from various basins. The analysis is based on data from the following basins of different geotectonic and palaeogeographical positions: the cratonic Pennines Basin, the foreland South Wales and Upper Silesia basins, and the fault-related Intra Sudetic and Central and Western Bohemia basins. The analysis indicates that complex factors are responsible for changes in plant diversity and vegetation patterns. These are related to climate, tectonics, preservation potential, sampling biases and the current state of revision of the flora in each basin. Plant diversity patterns in the basins differ because of local controls and/or the character and detail of the available data. Maximum diversity varies among the basins within the Langsettian and Duckmantian substages. Two apparent step-like drops in diversity were detected within coal-bearing strata of most basins: at the Duckmantian/Bolsovian boundary and at the Bolsovian/Asturian boundary. Further and more prominent falls are related to transitions from coal-bearing to non-coal-bearing (mostly red bed) strata or vice versa during Stephanian times. Interpretation of climatic signals recorded in the sedimentary successions indicates that Westphalian and middle Stephanian times were wet intervals, whereas early and late Stephanian times were drier.

The Serbo-Macedonian Massif is a basement complex in the Internal Hellenides of northern Greece, situated between the Vardar Zone to the west and the Rhodope Massif to the east. The Serbo-Macedonian Massif comprises several distinct basement units interpreted as terranes, the largest of which is the Gondwana-derived Vertiskos Terrane in the northwestern and central parts of the massif. A series of leucocratic meta-granites intrude the Silurian orthogneiss basement of the Vertiskos Terrane. No similar granites are found in any of the other units of the Internal Hellenides. The meta-granites have a pronounced crustal within-plate signature which is visible in lithology, major- and trace-element geochemistry and the Sr isotopic compositions. These intrusions were dated using the Pb–Pb single-zircon evaporation method, and yielded a Triassic age of between 240.7 ± 2.6 Ma and 221.7 ± 1.9 Ma on 17 samples, with a mean age of 228.3 ± 5.6 Ma. The zircons are purely magmatic, indicating that ages are primary crystallization ages. A Rb–Sr errorchron of the whole-rock samples of the Arnea granite yielded an age of 231.6 ± 9.9 Ma (MSWD = 82), and a mean 87Sr/86Sr initial ratio is 0.7142, indicating a crust-dominated source, and suggesting an A-type origin for the granites. The A-type meta-granites together with mafic intrusive bodies (amphibolites) in the Vertiskos Terrane may be evidence of Triassic rifting that led to the formation of a branch of Neotethys (Vardar–Meliata Ocean). Similar rock associations are also exposed in the Cyclades, and in massifs of the wider eastern Mediterranean realm related to the Gondwana-derived Hun Terrane, indicating that the Arnea-type granites are representatives of a major regional rifting event in Triassic times.

The paper deals with disturbances of bedding contemporaneous with deposition in Torridonian rocks of Skye and Raasay. Most of the structures described have the general form of sharp upwardly-directed peaks separated by areas of more or less undisturbed bedding; within the peaks the bedding is often contorted or destroyed. The structures are developed in sandstones and are thought to have been formed more or less in situ by the shifting and rearrangement of quicksands. An origin as a result of slumping is rejected. The appearance of the structures is thought to be connected with the environment of deposition which appears to be that of very shallow water.

A crystal-rich volcaniclastic sandstone in the lower Peltura scarabaeoides Zone at Ogof-ddû near Criccieth, North Wales, yields a U–Pb zircon age of 491∓1 Ma. This late Late Cambrian date indicates a remarkably young age for the Cambrian–Ordovician boundary whose age must be less than 491 Ma. Hence the revised duration of the post-Placentian (trilobite-bearing) Cambrian indicates that local trilobite zonations allow a biostratigraphic resolution comparable to that provided by Ordovician graptolites and Mesozoic ammonites.

The Limpopo Belt is a zone of thickened Archaean crust whose origin is currently explained by a late Archaean continent-continent collision between the Kaapvaal and Zimbabwe cratons. This review shows that the two cratons have fundamentally different geological histories and that the Zimbabwe Craton was unlikely to have behaved as a stable ‘cratonic’ block at the time of the Limpopo Belt collision. The geological histories of the Zimbabwe Craton, the North Marginal, Central and South Marginal zones of the Limpopo Belt and the Kaapvaal Craton are shown to be sufficiently different from one another to warrant their consideration as discrete terranes. The boundaries between the five units outlined above are all major shear zones, further supporting a terrane model for the Limpopo Belt. The five units were all intruded by late- to syn-tectonic granites c.2.6 Ga, constraining the accretion event to c. 2.6 Ga.