Six volcanic vents, trachybasaltic bosses, and new dykes replaced by kaolinite were discovered. The vents are built of trachybasaltictrachytic and basaltic plugs and of tuffisites and tuffs. In the trachybasalts, plagioclase and anorthoclase display complicated reaction phenomena, reflecting changes in crystallization conditions. The trachybasaltic and trachytic bodies were emplaced first and subsequently were altered to kaolinite (Upper Jurassic). Magmatic activity was resumed after an intense erosion period leading to the formation of the vents and of the Lower Cretaceous basaltic volcanic complex which was in part extruded through these vents.

A microfaunal analysis of four Mesozoic core samples from The Wash is discussed, together with an interpretation of a continuous reflection profile. The profile demonstrates an expanded Lower Cretaceous succession compared with Norfolk and Lincolnshire and the clay facies of the Valanginian Hundleby Clay is shown to extend at least to the middle of The Wash. The other core samples are proved to be of Kimmeridgian, Barremian and Upper Albian age. Two Chalk samples are also plotted.

A conodont fauna from a thin limestone bed, considered to be of Wenlockian age, in the Usk inlier, Monmouthshire, is described. Ninety-seven specimens are assigned to four genera and eight species. The fauna is referable to the sagitta conodont zone and suggested correlations are made with the upper part of the Ostra-coden-Kalkes in Germany, with part of the Aulacopleura Schichten and Kok-Kalk in Austria, and with part of the Lockport Dolomite and Rochester Shale in North America.

A geological synopsis of the three main islands of the Tristan da Cunha group is given and their rate of growth by volcanic processes, and their subsequent erosion, are examined in the light of recent radiometric age data. These data, though few as yet, suggest that each island has a “life cycle” consisting of a brief constructional volcanic phase lasting less than 1,000,000 years, followed by an erosional phase of some 20,000,000 years. The possibility that other oceanic islands have had comparable histories is discussed.

The position of Cretaceous volcanic arcs in Japan may be indicated by outcrops of basic and ultramafic rocks.

Preliminary mapping of south-western Andorra has disclosed the presence of late Llandoverian graptolites in rocks of previously unknown age

At Cil-maenllwyd (Cardiganshire) glacial outwash sands were found to contain layers of small wood fragments. A radiocarbon age determination of 33,750 yrs B.P. indicates that the wood fragments are probably of Middle Würm age, and that the last glaciation of St. George's Channel occurred during the Main Würm. Pollen and spores contained in the sands suggest that the environment prior to the last glaciation was at one stage predominantly forested. The organic remains are thought to relate to the problematical “ Middle Würm Interstadial ”, rather than the Paudorf Interstadial.

The area to the north of Barnstaple (North Devon) was covered by a detailed gravity survey. The main gravity gradient of the Bouguer anomaly map (estimated to be 1·2 mgals per mile) confirmed the conclusions drawn by Bott et al. (1958), who attributed it to a basin of possibly Carboniferous sediments and/or Old Red Sandstone, about 4 miles thick, separated from the outcropping Devonian rocks by an assumed thrust plane.

A negative residual gravity anomaly is located over the outcrop of the Pickwell Down Sandstone. Analyses of the anomaly show that it is caused by the southwards dipping belt of sandstone and that the angle of dip of the formation decreases with depth. At a depth of about 2 miles the formation becomes nearly horizontal. Alternatively, it may terminate against an assumed thrust plane underlying the whole outcropping Devonian.

The aeromagnetic map of the area shows an elongated magnetic “high” following the outcrop of the Morte Slates. The anomaly is probably caused by near surface, highly magnetized rocks in association with the Morte Slates.

Porphyroblastic and alabastrine secondary gypsum from the Middle Carboniferous sequence of Central Vestspitsbergen is described. Evidence is presented to show that the earliest alabastrine gypsum formed from anhydrite by rapid, near-surface, volume for volume hydration, contrary to some previous explanations for similar secondary gypsum elsewhere.

Cheirurus (Eccoptochile) Frederici Salter, 1864, the type species of Anacheirurus is redescribed. It is considered to be synonymous with Lehua, thus extending the stratigraphical range of Anacheirurus upwards to the Llanvirn, or perhaps Llandeilo, Series.

In his splendid volume Geology of the Himalayas (1964; reviewed in this Number, p. 86), Professor Augusto Gansser refers (p. 164) to the rock specimens brought back from the summit of Mount Everest by the successful Swiss climbers in 1956, and also by the American team in 1963. All the various summit specimens, Professor Gansser states, are lithologically quite identical. They consist of fine-grained, thin-bedded grey calc-schists or platy limestones. The calcites are elongated conformably with the schistosity, which seems to parallel the bedding. The detrital grains are mostly quartz, acid plagioclases and some microline, together with fine sericite lamellae, paralleling the calcites. Gansser continues: “Of special interest is the fact that both samples contain crinoidal fragments. Their large uniform calcite crystals contrast with the otherwise much finer crystalline matrix. In one elongated stem-fragment the segmentation is visible (Photo. 46), while one small plate still shows the well-preserved perforation (Photo. 47).” Moreover, he observes: “These remnants, representing the highest fossils in the world, are unfortunately not sufficiently well-preserved to allow an age-determination of the top Everest limestone. They do, however, support rather than contradict the Carboniferous (to Lower Permian) age generally assigned to the Everest limestones, on the grounds that they are overlain by the (Upper) Permian Lachi Series (Odell, 1943; Wager, 1939).”

The Karasuk Group comprises a series of meta-sedimentary rocks of the amphibolite facies with localized areas of granulites. The granulites have been subjected to retrogressive metamorphism, and acid granulites are much more retrograded than associated basic granulites. It is suggested that this differential retrogression of the granulites is related to differing susceptibilities of the two types to the penetrative deformation to which they have been subjected.