The onshore record of Cenozoic glaciation in the Antarctic Peninsula region is limited to a number of isolated localities on Alexander Island, the South Shetland Islands and in the James Ross Island area. In the James Ross Island area, Late Cretaceous sedimentary rocks are unconformably overlain by a unit of diamictites and tuffs, which occur at the base of the James Ross Island Volcanic Group. These rocks are here defined as the Hobbs Glacier Formation, and on the basis of palynological studies are assigned to a Miocene (?late Miocene) age. The diamictites are interpreted as representing glaciomarine sedimentation close to the grounding line of either a floating ice shelf or a grounded tidewater glacier in a marine basin. Provenance studies indicate that the glacier was flowing from the Antarctic Peninsula towards the southeast. Volcanic tuffs conformably overlie the diamictites and are interpreted as representing deposition in a periglacial delta front setting in either a marine or non-marine basin, away from direct glacial influence. The Hobbs Glacier Formation and overlying James Ross Island Volcanic Group help to enhance our understanding of the Neogene glacial chronology of West Antarctica.

Whether the latitudinal distribution of climate-sensitive lithologies is stable through greenhouse and icehouse regimes remains unclear. Previous studies suggest that the palaeolatitudinal distribution of palaeoclimate indicators, including coals, evaporites, reefs and carbonates, has remained broadly similar since the Permian period, leading to the conclusion that atmospheric and oceanic circulation control their distribution rather than the latitudinal temperature gradient. Here we revisit a global-scale compilation of lithologic indicators of climate, including coals, evaporites and glacial deposits, back to the Devonian period. We test the sensitivity of their latitudinal distributions to the uneven distribution of continental areas through time and to global tectonic models, correct the latitudinal distributions of lithologies for sampling- and continental area-bias, and use statistical methods to fit these distributions with probability density functions and estimate their high-density latitudinal ranges with 50% and 95% confidence intervals. The results suggest that the palaeolatitudinal distributions of lithologies have changed through deep geological time, notably a pronounced poleward shift in the distribution of coals at the beginning of the Permian. The distribution of evaporites indicates a clearly bimodal distribution over the past ~400 Ma, except for Early Devonian, Early Carboniferous, the earliest Permian and Middle and Late Jurassic times. We discuss how the patterns indicated by these lithologies change through time in response to plate motion, orography, evolution and greenhouse/icehouse conditions. This study highlights that combining tectonic reconstructions with a comprehensive lithologic database and novel data analysis approaches provide insights into the nature and causes of shifting climatic zones through deep time.

Geographical Information Systems (GIS) have been applied extensively to analyse spatial data relating to varied environmental issues, but have not so far been used to address biostratigraphical or macroevolutionary questions over extended spatial and temporal scales. Here, we use GIS techniques to test the stability, validity and utility of proposed Middle and Late Triassic ‘Land Vertebrate Faunachrons’ (LVFs), a global biostratigraphical framework based upon terrestrial/freshwater tetrapod occurrences. A database of tetrapod and megafloral localities was constructed for North America and Western Europe that also incorporated information on relevant palaeoenvironmental variables. This database was subjected to various spatial analysis techniques. Our GIS analysis found support at a global level for Eocyclotosaurus as an Anisian index taxon and probably Aetosaurus as a Norian indicator. Other tetrapod taxa are useful biostratigraphical/biochronological markers on a regional basis, such as Longosuchus and Doswellia for Late Carnian time. Other potential index fossils are hampered, however, by taxonomic instability (Mastodonsaurus, Metoposaurus, Typothorax, Paleorhinus, Pseudopalatus, Redondasaurus, Redondasuchus) and/or are not clearly restricted in temporal distribution (Paleorhinus, Angistorhinus, Stagonolepis, Metoposaurus and Rutiodon). This leads to instability in LVF diagnosis. We found only in the western Northern Hemisphere is there some evidence for an Anisian–Ladinian biochronological unit amalgamating the Perovkan and Berdyankian LVFs, and a possible late Carnian unit integrating the Otischalkian and Adamanian.

Megaplants are generally not useful for biostratigraphical correlation in the Middle and Upper Triassic of the study area, but there is some evidence for a Carnian-age floral assemblage that corresponds to the combined Otischalkian and Adamanian LVFs. Environmental biases do not appear to strongly affect the spatial distribution of either the tetrapods or megaplants that have been proposed as index taxa in biostratigraphical schemes, though several examples of apparent environmental bias were detected by the analysis. Consequently, we argue that further revision and refinement of Middle and Late Triassic LVFs is needed before they can be used to support global or multi-regional biostratigraphical correlations. Caution should therefore be exercised when using the current scheme as a platform for macroevolutionary or palaeoecological hypotheses. Finally, this study demonstrates the potential of GIS as a powerful tool for tackling palaeontological questions over extended timescales.

Three-dimensional coastal exposures of the Middle Jurassic (Bathonian) Scalby Formation in Yorkshire, England, exhibit a complex, exhumed meander belt. The lateral accretion surfaces (epsilon-cross stratification) of individual meander loops are described. Field and aerial photograph measurements of accretion-surface dimensions have enabled direct determination of channel bankful depths and widths and meander wavelengths. Values for mean annual discharge of the channel system are derived using existing empirical equations. Palaeocurrents measured in the meander belt sandstones show a wide dispersal due to many periods of meander migration and cut off.

The protoliths of mylonitized augen gneisses exposed in the southern sector of the Menderes Massif (West Turkey) are calc-alkaline, peraluminous, S-type, late- to post-tectonic tourmaline- and garnet-bearing, two-mica leucogranites. They cut and post-date the fabrics of the ‘main Menderes metamorphism’ which took place between the early Eocene and early Oligocene and intrude metamorphic basement rocks comprising the so-called ‘Palaeozoic schist envelope’ of the massif. They are themselves cut by an extensive network of tourmaline-rich dykes. Chemical, mineralogical, isotopic and field relations suggest that the granitic protolith crystallized from a boron-rich, water-saturated melt, derived from partial melting of metagreywacke in the lower crust during peak Barrovian-type metamorphism. The protolith was probably emplaced during lateorogenic extensional collapse of the thickened crust in west Turkey during late Oligocene time.

The nucleation of barite has been studied in a system involving the doublediffusion of Ba2+ and SO42- in an Na-rich aqueoussolution, through a porous medium. The evolution of the concentration profiles in the medium, which is a column of porous silica gel, has been determined as a function of time by direct chemical analysis of the diffusion-controlled mass transfer. By measuring the pH evolution, a Debye–Huckel treatment of ionic complexing has enabled the supersaturation evolution to be determined. The location of barite precipitation in the column is controlled both by the need to exceed a threshold supersaturation, as well as achieve an ‘equality range’ in which [Ba2+]/[SO42−] is close to unity. The value of the threshold supersaturation is a kinetic parameter and depends on the rate at which supersaturation increases. The experimental system described here has wide application to the study of crystallization phenomena in rocks. Experiments on the effect of additives designed to inhibit nucleation of barite in North Sea oil wells are used to quantify the resultant increase in supersaturation threshold.

Field observations from the Trinity Peninsula Group at View Point on the Antarctic Peninsula indicate that thick, southward-younging and overturned clastic sedimentary rocks, comprising unusually coarse conglomeratic lenses within a succession of fine-grained sandstone–mudstone couplets, are the deposits of debris and turbidity flows on or at the foot of a submarine slope. Three detrital zircons from the sandstone–mudstone couplets date deposition at 302 ± 3 Ma, at or shortly after the Carboniferous–Permian boundary. Conglomerates predominantly consist of quartzite and granite and contain boulders exceeding 500 mm in diameter. Zircons from granitoid clasts and a silicic volcanic clast yield U–Pb ages of 466 ± 3 Ma, 373 ± 5 Ma and 487 ± 4 Ma, respectively and have corresponding average εHft values between +0.3 and +7.6. A quartzite clast, conglomerate matrix and sandstone interbedded with the conglomerate units have broadly similar detrital zircon age distributions and Hf isotope compositions. The clast and detrital zircon ages match well with sources within Patagonia; however, the age of one granite clast and the εHf characteristics of some detrital zircons point to a lesser South Africa or Ellsworth Mountain-like contribution, and the quartzite and granite-dominated composition of the conglomerates is similar to upper Palaeozoic diamictites in the Ellsworth Mountains. Unlike detrital zircons, large conglomerate clasts limit possible transport distance, and suggest sedimentation took place on or near the edge of continental crust. Comparison with other upper Palaeozoic to Mesozoic sediments in the Antarctic Peninsula and Patagonia, including detrital zircon composition and the style of deformation, suggests deposition of the Trinity Peninsula Group in an upper plate basin on an active margin, rather than a subduction-related accretionary setting, with slow extension and rifting punctuated by short periods of compression.

The role of travertine fissure-ridges in reconstructing tectonics and related earthquakes is a challenging issue of recent debate directed at delineating historical/prehistorical seismic records. Indeed, direct measurements on a travertine fissure-ridge immediately after a seismic event have never been previously performed. We describe the co- and post-seismic effects of a M = 3.6 earthquake on fluid flow and travertine deposition in a geothermal area of Tuscany (Italy). Direct observation allows us to demonstrate that thermal spring (re)activation is directly influenced by transient seismic waves, therefore providing a basis for reconstructing seismic events in the past.

Small shelly fossils, especially conoidal microfossils, have potential for biostratigraphic correlation of Precambrian–Cambrian boundary rocks where evolutionary successions of taxa can be recognized. A succession of hyoliths, brachiopods and species of Sunnaginia, Torellella, Eccentrotheca and Rhombocorniculum can be recognized in the Home Farm Member of Nuneaton and/or the Comley Limestone of Shropshire, England. Revised ranges of taxa are given and Sunnaginia neoimbricata n.sp., S. parva n.sp., S. angulata n.sp., Eccentrotheca grandis n.sp. and several new records are described from Nuneaton and Comley. The similarity in the sequence of small shelly fossils in England and Siberia indicates that a correlation can be achieved between the two areas. It is suggested that the lower Tommotian to lower Atdabanian correlates with the Hartshill Formation of Nuneaton, of which the condensed Home Farm Member spans the mid Tommotian to lowest Atdabanian, while the upper Atdabanian to lower Botomian correlates with the condensed Comley Limestone of Shropshire.

A large rapakivi granite batholith in the Neo-Archaean/Palaeoproterozoic Odesan complex, northeastern Gyeonggi massif, South Korea, has been dated at 1839±10 Ma using SHRIMP U–Pb analysis of zircons. The age, petrological and geochemical characteristics of this batholith are similar to those of the rapakivi granite batholiths exposed in the Rangnim massif of North Korea and in the Miyun–Chengde complex of North China. The country rocks of these rapakivi granite batholiths are also comparable; all are composed of granitic gneisses and banded iron formation (BIF)-bearing supracrustal rocks metamorphosed to amphibolite- to granulite-facies. This study provides new evidence for the suggestion that the Gyeonggi and Rangnim massifs may share an affinity with the Precambrian basement of the North China craton. The study provides new insight into the possible eastward extension of the Sulu orogenic belt in the Korean peninsula and further provides evidence to correlate the Korea basement to a possible global 2.1–1.8 Ga supercontinent.

Several rock stratigraphic successions, metamorphosed and non-metamorphosed, are found to be similar and/or identical with each other across the so-called ‘Main Zagros Thrust’. Stratigraphic successions form thin allochthonous sheets carried from northeast to southwest by numerous low-angle thrust faults of either ductile to brittle-ductile type or brittle type. Similarities in lithic and faunal characteristics of the stratigraphic units and in the style of structural deformation across the ‘Main Zagros Thrust’ imply that either the suture between the Afro-Arabian and Iranian lithospheric plates is not located in the Nahavand region or, if it is, it must be buried under several thrust sheets.

Cumulative curves of grain-size against frequency often show segmented shapes. These shapes have been interpreted as resulting from a combination of normally distributed populations each of which should reflect a mode of transport. The present study deals with samples in motion as bedload, pure saltation load and suspended load. All of these exhibited segmented shapes on cumulative curves. An explanation of this is that the populations are better described as log-hyperbolic distributions rather than as a mixture of log-normal distributions. The log-hyperbolic distribution when plotted on probability paper has a shape which can be misinterpreted as consisting of segments.

A revised interpretation of the sequence of marine invertebrate faunas from the Svalbard Triassic is given. Correlations are made with the unusually complete sequence now recognized in Canada. The position of the faunas is given in terms of the recently proposed lithostratigraphic scheme. In the Lower Triassic, Griesbachian, Dienerian, Smithian and Spathian faunas are represented; in the Middle, Anisian and Ladinian. In the Upper Triassic only a small part of the Karnian is represented by a marine fauna. No new faunas are recorded but for the first time three ammonoid zones are discriminated within the Anisian.

Trilobites from the Soom Shale, Cedarberg Formation, of the Table Mountain Group, South Africa, have been identified as Mucronaspis olini Temple, indicating a latest Ordovician (Rawtheyan–Hirnantian) age. This new data is taken as an opportunity to present new records of some non age-diagnostic brachiopods and molluscs from the area, and also to review the substantial shelly fauna from the overlying Disa Member of the Cedarberg Formation. It is concluded that that fauna is of Hirnantian age and not early Llandovery as stated by some previous authors.

The Late Miocene Sorbas Member of the Sorbas Basin, Almería Province, southeast Spain contains an extensive avian ichnofauna preserved in lagoonal marls. Three distinctive avian ichnotaxa can be identified: Antarctichnus fuenzalidae Covacevich and Lamperein, 1970; Iranipeda millumi n. ichnosp.; and Roepichnus grahami n. ichnogen, n. ichnosp. In common with many other Cenozoic avian ichnofaunas, these traces are associated with shorebirds, including plovers, storks, ducks and/or gulls, respectively. Associated mammalian tracks include possible cat and artiodactyl footprints. The avian tracks are abundant and show a range of behavioural aspects in common with other recorded examples of Cretaceous–Recent shorebird tracks. These include both solitary and group activities consistent with their postulated avian tracemakers.

The Neogene extensional province of southern Tuscany in central Italy provides an outstanding example of fossil and active structurally controlled fluid flow and epithermal ore mineralization associated with post-orogenic silicic magmatism. Characterization of the hydrodynamic regime leading to the genesis of the polysulphide deposit (known as Filone di Boccheggiano) hosted within the damage zone of the Boccheggiano Fault is a key target to assess modes of fossil hydrothermal fluid circulation in the region and, more generally, to provide inferences on fault-controlled hydrothermal fluid flow in extensional settings. We provide a detailed description of the fault zone architecture and alteration/mineralization associated with the Boccheggiano ore deposit and report the results of fluid inclusion and stable oxygen isotope studies. This investigation shows that the Boccheggiano ore consists of an adularia/illite-type epithermal deposit and that sulphide ore deposition was controlled by channelling of hydrothermal fluids of dominantly meteoric origin within the highly anisotropic permeability structure of the Boccheggiano Fault. The low permeability structure of the fault core compartmentalized the fluid outflow preventing substantial cross-fault flow, with focused fluid flow occurring at the hangingwall of the fault controlled by fracture permeability. Fluid inclusion characteristics indicate that ore minerals were deposited between 280° and 350°C in the upper levels of the brittle extending crust (lithostatic pressure in the order of 0.1 GPa). Abundant vapour-rich inclusions in ore-stage quartz are consistent with fluid immiscibility and boiling, and quartz ore vein textures suggest that mineralization in the Boccheggiano ore deposit occurred during cyclic fluid flow in a deformation regime regulated by transient and fluctuating fluid pressure conditions. Results from this study (i) predict a strongly anisotropic permeability structure of the fault damage zone during crustal extension, and (ii) indicate the rate of secondary (structural) permeability creation and maintenance by active deformation in the hangingwall of extensional faults as the major factor leading to effective hydraulic transmissivity in extensional terranes. These features intimately link ore-grade mineralization in extensional settings to telescoping of hydrothermal flow along the hangingwall block(s) of major extensional fault zones.

Recent finds of tetrapod ichnites in the red-bed and volcaniclastic succession of the Iberian Pyrenean Basin permits an assessment of the faunal diversity and palaeoenvironment of a late early Permian setting. The tetrapod ichnoassemblage is inferred with the aid of photogrammetry and constituted by Batrachichnus salamandroides, Limnopus isp., cf. Amphisauropus (these three ichnotaxa present associated swimming traces, assigned to Characichnos), cf. Ichniotherium, Dromopus isp., cf. Varanopus, Hyloidichnus isp. and Dimetropus leisnerianus. These ichnotaxa suggest the presence of temnospondyls, seymouriamorphs, diadectomorphs, araeoscelids, captorhinids and synapsid pelycosaurs as potential trackmakers. These faunas correlate to the late early Permian. Two ichnoassociations correspond to two different palaeoenvironments that were permanently or occasionally aquatic (meandering fluvial systems and unconfined runoff surfaces, respectively). Ichnotaxa in the fluvial system is more diverse and abundant than in the runoff surfaces system. The Iberian Pyrenean ichnoassemblage reveals the faunistic connection and similarities among nearing basins (Spain, southern France and Morocco) differing from the Central European basins (i.e. German Tambach Formation). Based on the palaeogeography and the climate models of the early Permian, we suggest the correlation of ichnofaunal composition with different palaeoclimate biomes. This results in a diffuse boundary of Gondwana–Laurasia land masses, indicating no geographic barriers but a possible climate control on the faunal distribution. Further studies, integrating data from distant tracksites, should refine these biome boundaries.

Integrated graptolite, conodont and chitinozoan biostratigraphical data are presented from the lower Silurian of the Ohesaare core, Saaremaa, Estonia. A precise correlation of graptolite and conodont biozonations for much of the Telychian and Sheinwoodian is presented; this differs significantly from correlations suggested previously, which were based on inadequate graptolite data. The boundary between the celloni and amorphognathoides conodont biozones lies close to that between the spiralis and lapworthi graptolite biozones. The boundary between the bicornis and procerus conodont superzones lies mid-way through the murchisoni graptolite Biozone. The top of the procerus conodont Superzone lies at or very close to the boundary between the murchisoni and firmus graptolite biozones. The boundary between the Lower and Upper ranuliformis conodont biozones lies close to the boundary between the firmus and riccartonensis graptolite biozones. The precise position of the Llandovery–Wenlock boundary cannot be identified in the core. The newly demonstrated biozonal correlations are significant for studies of Silurian chronostratigraphy (previous estimates of the duration of the epochs and ages of the Silurian were based on inaccurate correlations) and sea-level changes. Palaeogeographically, the setting of Ohesaare is considered to be relatively deep shelf. Perhaps surprisingly, there is a major unconformity in the Llandovery of the core: much, if not all, of the Aeronian is missing, as is the lower part of the Telychian.

The subsidence history of the Aquitaine basin has been determined from deep exploratory well data. The contribution of sediment loading to the subsidence has been evaluated and removed, including corrections for effects of compaction, water depth and changes of sea-level but not of flexural rigidity of the lithosphere. The tectonic subsidence curves obtained indicate that the basin underwent two periods of subsidence acceleration in the Trias–Early Lias and Late Jurassic–Early Cretaceous. They are interpreted in relation to the displacements of Iberia with respect to Europe as two periods of extension followed by periods of passive subsidence due to conductive cooling of the lithosphere; the formation of the ‘flysch trough’ in the southern part of the basin is then discussed.

Limestones consisting of recrystallized shells of lamellibranchs, originally composed of aragonite, contain a brown-coloured calcite which is strongly pleochroic. Maximum “absorption’ corresponds to the extraordinary ray. The effect is shown to be a pseudo-pleochroism, caused by scattering of the extraordinary ray by inclusions, which follow the shell structure, in the calcite. Aragonite shells, which have not recrystallized, show a pseudo-pleochroism of similar colour but reversed sign. The inclusions originate in the conchiolin of the lamellibranch shell; their present nature is not known. Their progressive destruction by thermal metamorphism is described.