A well-preserved stratigraphic record of the organic carbon isotopic composition across the Precambrian–Cambrian transition has been obtained from a sequence of entirely detrital rocks underlying the Lublin Slope, East European Platform, Poland. The observed δ13C pattern for organic carbon is comparable to isotope data determined for coeval carbonate platform sequences elsewhere. These results underline the truly global nature of these secular variations within the carbon cycle during the terminal Proterozoic and early Cambrian, largely independent of host lithology and facies. The direct combination of micropalaeontological and geochemical results from sedimentary organic matter allows a detailed interpretation of the isotope record as probably caused by secular changes in the net balance of burial and erosion rates of repositories of organic carbon. Furthermore, these variations appear to be directly correlatable with changes in the diversity and abundance of the biota and radiation/extinction events.

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.

This issue marks the departure of the longest-serving of the current editors of Geological Magazine, Dr Chris Hughes, and his replacement by Dr Tim Palmer (University of Wales, Aberystwyth). The Geological Magazine has always had a strong content of palaeontology and biostratigraphy, and Chris Hughes has efficiently maintained the quality of these contributions since 1973. He is moving on from his lectureship in the Cambridge Earth Sciences Department to head the Associated Examining Board, based in Guildford. The other editors thank him warmly for his experienced guidance over the past 24 years and wish him success in his new post.

The editors welcome Tim Palmer, whose appointment from outside the Cambridge department represents a significant and deliberate departure from custom. Some 13 years ago, the Magazine broadened its editorial advice in a major way by appointing an Editorial Board, most of whose members have come not just from outside Cambridge, but from beyond the UK. Our new editorial appointment signals an extension of this same policy.

An important advantage of having all the Magazine's editors under one roof has been the efficiency and speed of communicating with each other. However, with the Cambridge editors now talking to each other as much by Email as face-to-face, geographical proximity has become a less crucial asset. The spread of Email is changing many other aspects of the editorial practice and the Geological Magazine office, run by Jane Holland, is now on-line at [email protected]. The editors now encourage the use of Email for all business except for submission of manuscripts, and in particular for contributors' queries and for referees' reports.

Abundant microfossils have recently been discovered in the late Palaeoproterozoic Changzhougou Formation, Changcheng Group, Jixian, north China. The Changzhougou microbiota consists dominantly of sphaeromorph acritarchs and some osillatoriacean cynobacterial filaments. The micro-fossils were recovered from shales and are compressed on bedding surfaces. The sphaeromorph acritarchs, ranging from 8.4 to 237.8 μm in diameter, are morphologically simple. On the basis of their dimensions and morphological considerations, the sphaeromorph acritarchs are interpreted as probably representing the resistant, reproductive cysts of unicellular protists. This assemblage is evidently among the oldest known clastic-facies microbiotas in the geological record and provides evidence of protist eukaryotes being extant at 1848 Ma.

The Trans-European Suture Zone (TESZ) is the boundary between ancient Precambrian lithosphere of the East European Craton (EEC) and the younger lithosphere beneath the latest Neoproterozoic–Palaeozoic mobile belts of western Europe. The former is characterized by a thick crust (c. 45 km), low heat flow and a tectono-thermal age of about 3000 to 800 Ma, the latter by a thinner crust (c. 30 km), higher heat flow and a tectonothermal age of 560 to 290 Ma. These contrasting types of crust were juxtaposed during the Caledonian and Variscan orogenic episodes. The crystalline basement of the TESZ is largely concealed by sedimentary basins controlled by the reactivation of structures within the suture zone during Permian–Mesozoic extension and Cenozoic inversion. The pre-Permian evolution of the craton and the mobile belts, and the location of the sutures, is inferred from isolated outcrops, hundreds of boreholes and geophysical evidence. Existing seismic data demonstrates that the TESZ is rather narrow and has an expression at all levels of the lithosphere and deep into the asthenosphere. Teleseismic studies have demonstrated that the differences in the velocity structure of the asthenospheric and lithospheric mantle across the TESZ persist to depths of c. 400 km (Zielhus & Nolet, 1994).

Palaeozoic volcanism in the Avalon Terrane of northern Nova Scotia occurred during three time intervals: Cambrian–early Ordovician, late Ordovician–early Silurian and middle–late Devonian. In the Meguma Terrane of southern Nova Scotia, Palaeozoic volcanism is limited to the middle Ordovician. Geochemical data show that most of these volcanic rocks are bimodal, within-plate suites. Initial εNd signatures range from +5.4 to −1.9 in the rhyolites and +6.8 to +2.7 in the basalts, a difference attributable to the absence or presence, respectively, of a significant crustal component. The data and regional tectonic settings of the Avalon and Meguma terranes suggest that the volcanism was generated in three different within-plate settings: (1) Cambrian–early Ordovician volcanism related to thermal decay of late Proterozoic arc magmatism during transtensional deformation; (2) middle Ordovician–early Silurian volcanism during sinistral telescoping between Laurentia and Gondwana where extensional bends in the Appalachians produced rifting; and (3) Devonian volcanism resulting from lithospheric delamination during dextral transpression and telescoping. In each setting, active faults served as conduits for the magmas. Nd isotopic data indicate that the source of the Palaeozoic felsic volcanic rocks is isotopically indistinguishable beneath southern and northern Nova Scotia and did not substantially change with time. This crustal source appears to have separated from the mantle during the Proterozoic, a conclusion consistent with the hypothesis that the Palaeozoic rocks in Nova Scotia were deposited upon a late Proterozoic oceanic–cratonic volcanic arc terrane. The Nd data, when combined with published faunal, palaeomagnetic and U–Pb isotopic data, suggest that the Avalon Terrane was peripheral to Gondwana off northwestern South America during Neoproterozoic and early Palaeozoic times.

Stratigraphic, petrographic and geochemical evidence indicate that the volcano-sedimentary rocks of the Late Devonian Piskahegan Group, located in the northern Appalachians of southwestern New Brunswick, represent the eroded remnants of a large epicontinental caldera complex. This complex – the Mount Pleasant Caldera – is one of few recognizable pre-Cenozoic calderas and is divisible into Exocaldera, Intracaldera and Late Caldera-Fill sequences. The Intracaldera Sequence comprises four formations that crop out in a triangular-shaped area and includes: thick ash flow tuffs, thick sedimentary breccias that dip inward, and stocks of intermediate to felsic composition that intrude the volcanic pile or are localized along caldera-margin faults. The Exocaldera Sequence contains ash flow tuffs, mafic lavas, alluvial redbeds and porphyritic felsic lavas that comprise five formations. The Late Caldera-Fill Sequence contains rocks that are similar to those of the outflow facies and comprises two formations and two minor intrusive units. Geochemical and mineralogical data support the stratigraphic subdivision and indicate that the basaltic rocks are mantle-derived and have intraplate chemical affinities. The andesites were probably derived from basaltic magma by fractional crystallization and assimilation of crustal material. The various felsic units are related by episodes of fractional crystallization in a high-level, zoned magma chamber. Fractionation was repeatedly interrupted by eruption of material from the roof zone such that seven stages of caldera development have been identified. The genesis of the caldera is related to a period of lithospheric thinning that followed the Acadian Orogeny in the northern Appalachians.

The Agrio Formation of the Neuquén Basin, Argentina, contains an extensive sequence of ammonite faunas, most of which are monogeneric. Detailed collecting through 15 sections across the basin has facilitated a major revision of the ammonite zonation. Formerly embracing four broad zones, the Agrio Formation is now divided into nine zones, the lowest four of which are divided into a total of 11 subzones. The new zonation provides a standard against which other South American faunas can be compared. The degree of subdivision now achieved is comparable to that for the ‘standard’ sequences of the West Mediterranean region. Although it is not possible to correlate the two regions in detail, the occurrence of some widely distributed genera (Olcostephanus, Karakaschiceras, Oosterella, Spitidiscus and Crioceratites) at well-defined levels in the Neuquén Basin provides some crucial links. Thus the approximate positions of the Lower/Upper Valanginian, Valanginian/Hauterivian and Lower/Upper Hauterivian boundaries can be determined.

Four hundred and eighty-four whole rock dolomite samples from early Proterozoic strata have been analysed for carbon isotopes. The carbon isotope composition is strata-specific, but abrupt variations have been observed between the Jianancun and the Daguandong as well as the Daguandong and Huaiyincun formations. The carbon isotope composition of dolomites is believed to reflect δ13C of oceanic total dissolved inorganic carbon during the early Proterozoic and reflect changing rates of organic carbon burial.

A passive seismological experiment across the northern boundary of the Tornquist Fan was carried out from December 1994 until April 1995 along a 100 km long profile in Denmark and Sweden. Observed PS converted seismic waves indicate an abrupt increase in Moho depth of 4–5 km within 5 km horizontal distance at about 50 km to the northeast of the Øresund. This is a much sharper jump than that inferred from the wide-angle data of EUGENO-S line 1. Preliminary analysis of seismic shear wave anisotropy indicates asthenospheric mantle flow parallel to the Sorgenfrei-Tornquist Zone. These parallel directions are already observed between the Elbe Line and the Sorgenfrei-Tornquist Zone while further south in central Europe the flow directions follow the trend of the Alpine belt.

The horizontal opening of vertical fractures during emplacement of pegmatite-dyke swarms is an important mid-crustal mechanism of large-scale horizontal extension. This is documented in the south-western Grenville Province, a deeply eroded part of the collisional Grenville orogen. In the Georgian Bay region of central Ontario, Grenville gneisses host c. 990 Ma old, angular dykes which attest not only to horizontal extension but also to vertical thinning. The original dilation dykes probably varied in strike and were statistically vertical. However, many dykes had subhorizontal or inclined segments that were oblique or quasi-concordant to the gneissic foliation in the host rocks. The number of dykes exposed per 0.25 km2 varies on the scale of a few kilometres, and this is indicative of heterogeneous late orogenic extension of the Grenville gneisses. The apparent absence of regional gradients of peak palaeo-pressure, at the present erosion level, suggests that the extension was horizontal and initially unaccompanied by vertical contraction of the host gneisses. Subsequent buckling of the pegmatite dykes led to gentle, open or close folds with vertical enveloping surfaces. The geometric effects of gentle buckling of pegmatite dykes can be difficult to recognize in the field, especially where the late-stage vertical thinning is relatively weak. Among the geometric indicators of buckle-shortened dykes, the characteristic deflection (‘fanning’) of coplanar, inherited folia in gneissic host rocks is most sensitive. Systematic changes in the local degree of vertical shortening are indicative of heterogeneous vertical thinning, and may be associated with pull-apart structures at the horizontal scale of several kilometres.

Recent (Quaternary) lava fields, such as those of Citlaltépetl (Pico de Orizaba) volcano in Mexico, are excellent places to obtain precise measurements of flow-field dimensions that can be used to estimate volume, eruption duration and effusion rates. The relationship between these parameters and the influence of some other interrelated features such as lava composition, superficial structures and lava type are important tools that can help to infer conditions when the lavas were active and thus improve understanding of how flow fields grow. The Holocene lavas of Citlaltépetl volcano are homogeneous in composition (dacites) and are generally blocky with well-developed levees. The eruption duration obtained for the Citlaltépetl lavas by a method proposed by C. Kilburn and R. Lopes presents a good correlation with the different lava types morphologically classified here. Results from that method compare favourably with the inferred effusion rates estimated by an empirical cooling method (Graetz). The lavas show different behaviour, mainly controlled by fluctuations in the effusion rate that promote changes from single- to multiple-flow style. The maximum distance achieved by a flow is directly proportional to the effusion rate in Citlaltépetl lavas, but it is always lower for multiple flows, independent of the volume of erupted lava. Observations of Citlaltépetl lavas can be used to understand how lava flow growth occurs on other volcanoes.

The oldest rocks in the Penbegˇli-Tut inlier of southeastern Turkey belong to the Meryemuşagˇi Formation (base not seen); they are mostly clastic rocks of ?late Precambrian age, overlain with angular unconformity by unfossiliferous quartzites (270 m est.) of the Zabuk Formation. The latter unit is succeeded conformably by the Koruk Formation (Lower?/Middle Cambrian), comprising almost 200 m of dolomite and grey and red nodular limestone, and the Sosink Formation (Middle Cambrian), about 600 m of silty mudstone and sandstone with a few thin limestone beds, overlain unconformably by Cretaceous carbonates. The closest comparison is with the Derik-Mardin area, 220 km to the east, where the section is more complete. The upper Koruk Formation contains trilobites of the Pardailhania and Solenopleuropsis biozones; trilobites from the Sosink Formation indicate the Solenopleuropsis Biozone, a post-Solenopleuropsis interval, and a level with Holasaphus mesopotamicus, known only from the Derik area. Acritarchs from the highest Koruk Formation and the whole of the Sosink belong to the lower part of microflora A2, described from the Middle Cambrian of eastern Newfoundland.

The Tornquist Fan is a northwestward widening splay of late Carboniferous–early Permian fault zones in the region of Denmark emanating from the Teisseyre-Tornquist Zone in northern Poland. The crust–mantle boundary shows an undulating topography which correlates with the main tectonic features of the area. Zones of high average velocity through the consolidated crust coincide with pronounced positive Bouguer gravity anomalies in the deep basins and in the border zone of the shield. Less pronounced, similar correlation to gravity is found for the thickness of the lower crust, whereas the thickness of the upper crust in parts is inversely related to the gravity anomalies. Some magnetic anomalies appear to be related to the gravity anomalies. The positive features are interpreted as magmatic bodies that formed during late Carboniferous to early Permian transtensional movement along the faults of the Tornquist Fan, which explains pull-apart structures in the area and the Ringkøbing-Fyn basement High. The magmatism has strong implications for the subsequent formation of the regional Mesozoic basins. Localized dextral strike-slip movement on the Teisseyre-Tornquist Zone became distributed over the Tornquist Fan, which formed part of the rigid Baltic Shield and was situated at the northwestern end of this major, long-reaching Central European zone. As defined by late Cretaceous–early Tertiary compressional inversion structures, the Sorgenfrei-Tornquist Zone cuts across the Tornquist Fan area.

The collision of India and Asia can be defined as a process that started with the closing of the Tethyan ocean that, during Mesozoic and early Tertiary times, separated the two continental plates. Following initial contact of Indian and Asian continental crust, the Indian plate continued its northward drift into Asia, a process which continues to this day. In the Ladakh–Zanskar Himalaya the youngest marine sediments, both in the Indus suture zone and along the northern continental margin of India, are lowermost Eocene Nummulitic limestones dated at ∼54 Ma. Along the north Indian shelf margin, southwest-facing folded Palaeocene–Lower Eocene shallow-marine limestones unconformably overlie highly deformed Mesozoic shelf carbonates and allochthonous Upper Cretaceous shales, indicating an initial deformation event during the latest Cretaceous–early Palaeocene, corresponding with the timing of obduction of the Spontang ophiolite onto the Indian margin. It is suggested here that all the ophiolites from Oman, along western Pakistan (Bela, Muslim Bagh, Zhob and Waziristan) to the Spontang and Amlang-la ophiolites in the Himalaya were obducted during the late Cretaceous and earliest Palaeocene, prior to the closing of Tethys.

The major phase of crustal shortening followed the India–Asia collision producing spectacular folds and thrusts across the Zanskar range. A new structural profile across the Indian continental margin along the Zanskar River gorge is presented here. Four main units are separated by major detachments including both normal faults (e.g. Zanskar, Karsha Detachments), southwest-directed thrusts reactivated as northeast-directed normal faults (e.g. Zangla Detachment), breakback thrusts (e.g. Photoksar Thrust) and late Tertiary backthrusts (e.g. Zanskar Backthrust). The normal faults place younger rocks onto older and separate two units, both showing compressional tectonics, but have no net crustal extension across them. Rather, they are related to rapid exhumation of the structurally lower, middle and deep crustal metamorphic rocks of the High Himalaya along the footwall of the Zanskar Detachment. The backthrusting affects the northern margin of the Zanskar shelf and the entire Indus suture zone, including the mid-Eocene–Miocene post-collisional fluvial and lacustrine molasse sediments (Indus Group), and therefore must be Pliocene–Pleistocene in age. Minimum amounts of crustal shortening across the Indian continental margin are 150–170 km although extreme ductile folding makes any balancing exercise questionable.

Spinel lherzolite and harzburgite xenoliths hosted in an alkali basalt dyke near Inver, Donegal, Ireland show abundant evidence of interaction between xenolith minerals and the host melt. Of particular interest are primary Cr-diopside and spinel with sieve-textured coronas. Coronas on primary Cr-diopside are up to 3 mm wide and are associated with veinlets of devitrified glass. The coronas comprise secondary Cr-diopside with vermicular, interstitial alkali feldspar and chlorite grains up to 100 µm in size. The inclusion-free Cr-diopside cores are Al- and Na-rich whereas the coronas are Al- and Na-depleted and Ti-enriched. Sieve-textured spinels have similar texture to the clinopyroxene grains and are also associated with veinlets of infiltrated glass. However, the interstitial inclusions in the sieve-textured region are chlorite and nepheline. Inclusion-free spinel is part of a chromite–spinel solid solution and is Ti-poor. Spinel in the coronas has a greater chromite and ulvospinel component and falls close to a mixing line with spinel in the host alkali basalt. In addition to the sieve-textured grains, primary olivine in contact with infiltrated glass has Fe-rich rims, and orthopyroxene has broken down to form rims of olivine, clinopyroxene and a K-rich phase similar in composition to alkali-feldspar. Comparison of the compositions of the inclusion-free cores and sieve-textured rims shows that the rims have chemical signatures consistent with partial melting, that is, Al and Na depletion for clinopyroxene and Cr-enrichment for spinel. The textures of the coronas, particularly those around spinel and the reaction margins on orthopyroxene are identical to those produced during dissolution experiments.

We suggest that silicate liquid from the host magma infiltrated the xenoliths during their ascent and since it was not in equilibrium with the xenolith minerals caused reaction. The occurrence of K-bearing interstitial minerals in the sieve-textured grains and reacted orthopyroxenes indicate that the coronas did not form by simple melting since none of the minerals that underwent breakdown are K-bearing. We suggest that the sieve-textured grains formed initially by partial melting and reaction associated with decompression and infiltration of liquid from the host magma. The melts included in the reacted phases were enriched in K by diffusion from the Si-poor infiltrated melt into the more Si-rich melt inclusions in the coronas.

The stratigraphy of the Siktefjellet and Red Bay groups of northwestern Spitsbergen is revised in the light of new fieldwork. An early Early Devonian (Lochkovian) age is indicated by the rich fossil vertebrate faunas of the Red Bay Group. The underlying Siktefjellet Group is likely to be Late Silurian in age, although there is no direct fossil evidence of this. The most abundant sediment type in the two groups is fine-grained fluvial sandstone, although conglomerates and lacustrine siltstones also occur. The conglomerates that predominate in the lowest parts of both groups imply the presence of fault scarps at the surface. There has been much debate about the importance of strike-slip faulting in the area, particularly in relation to the major north–south trending Raudfjorden and Breibogen faults. Between these faults, the Biskayerhuken–Holtedahlfonna terrane contains a zone for which the deliberately genetic name ‘Siktefjellet Strike-slip Zone’ is proposed. This zone is characterized by evidence for a succession of events that, taken together, suggest a history of continuing, repeated strike-slip. These events were: (1) the tectonism and metamorphism of the basement (Krossfjorden Group) and the emplacement of the high-grade Richarddalen Complex, (2) development of crush zones in the basement, (3) deposition of the Siktefjellet Group in two distinct basins (perhaps of pull-apart origin), (4) deposition of the Red Bay Group (first as discrete scarp-related conglomerates, and then as part of a more stable fluvial basin), (5) localized compressional deformation of the Siktefjellet and Red Bay groups.

This paper expands the K–Ar dating and palynologically controlled stratigraphical data base reported in earlier papers to the north trending Selendi and Uşak-Güre basins located to the north of east–west trending Alaşehir graben in western Turkey. These north trending basins began to form during Early Miocene times and most of their basin fills accumulated before 14 Ma, except for the youngest Asartepe formation. Recent studies of both east–west grabens and north trending basins show that they started to develop simultaneously during Early Miocene times under the north–south extensional regime, and the classification of the structures as ‘replacement’ and ‘revolutionary’ has no meaning for the Alaşehir graben and the basins located to its north.

The first British Pleistocene record of Larix (Larch) is described from the Brays Pit near Mathon in the English West Midlands. This new record is the most westerly from the European Pleistocene and is also beyond the western limit of the distribution of any extant species of Larix within Europe. Today there are no native species of Larix in the British Isles. The fossil remains comprise of macrofossils and pollen, which are not, however, well enough preserved to allow determination to species level. The fluvial sediments which yielded the fossils were probably deposited in the early Anglian Stage or possibly during an earlier Pleistocene event.

The lower part of the post-Variscan succession around Exeter, south Devon, England, comprises some 800 m of breccias, with subordinate sandstones and mudstones, which rest upon Devonian and Carboniferous rocks folded during the Variscan Orogeny and are overlain, disconformably, by the Aylesbeare Mudstone Group (Early Triassic?). These deposits comprise the most westerly of the early post-Variscan successions preserved onshore in northwest Europe and lie to the south of the Variscan Deformation Front; they are assigned to the Exeter Group (new term). Geochronological and palaeontological studies, in conjunction with detailed geological mapping, show that the constituent formations comprise a lower (Late Carboniferous(?)–Early Permian) sequence separated from an upper (Late Permian) sequence by an unconformity which represents an hiatus with a duration of at least 20 m.y. The lower sequence contains volcanic rocks dated at between 291 and 282 Ma (Early Permian) and pre-dates intrusion of the nearby Dartmoor Granite (280 Ma). In the overlying, palynologically-dated, Late Permian sequence, older breccias contain clasts of the Dartmoor Granite aureole rocks, and younger ones contain clasts of that granite. The lower sequence occurs mainly within the Crediton Trough, an east–west trending, partly fault-bounded, sedimentary basin that probably formed by extensional reactivation of a Variscan thrust. Breccias in this sequence formed largely on alluvial fans; the common occurrence of debris flows and a down-fan passage from gravity flows into fluvially deposited sediments is typical of deposition on semi-arid fans. The upper (Late Permian) sequence is more widespread but includes similar deposits overlain, at the top of the Exeter Group, by aeolian dune and interdune deposits. Correlation within the laterally variable facies associations which comprise these sequences has been achieved using a combination of sedimentary facies analysis, sedimentary geochemistry, and petrographical and geochemical clast typing. The stratigraphy revealed within the Exeter Group is broadly comparable with that recognized in the early post-Variscan Rotliegend successions elsewhere in Europe. This similarity may, however, be deceptive; the upper part of the Exeter Group may be coeval with the Zechstein, and apparently correlatable major unconformities in the group and the Rotliegend may reflect different events in the Variscan fold-belt and Variscan Foreland areas, respectively.