Geochemical data (including REE determinations) are presented for all five Mourne Mountains granites and three Northern Ireland rhyolites. These confirm (1) the extremely fractionated nature of some of the rocks (Sr and Ba < 10 ppm, Rb > 400 ppm, Eu/Eu* < 0.1, and K/Rb < 100), and (2) a major revision to the outcrops of the E. Mourne granites G1 and G2 in which much of the former is reclassified as G2. Combined petrographic and geochemical studies have also indicated that magmatic pulses were involved in the emplacement of Mourne intrusions G2 (Revised)-G5 inclusive.

The N. Ireland Tertiary acid rocks exhibit general geochemical similarities to their analogues elsewhere in the British Tertiary Igneous Province (in which Sr is generally < 100 ppm and CeN/YbN generally < 8 with Eu/Eu* often < 0.6), but as a suite the Mourne granites are enriched in Rb and some other LIL elements relative to their N. Arran counterparts.

The more fractionated acid magmas of NE Ireland are believed to have evolved from primitive granitic parent liquids by crystal fractionation at depth which involved major and accessory phases (including zircon and allanite). In the Mourne (and County Antrim) areas the primitive acid compositions lie at the ends of basaltic (tholeiitic) differentiation series, and in the Mourne central complex there is a complete geochemical sequence from basic rocks through intermediate members to primitive and ultimately highly evolved, subalkaline, granitic intrusions. It is concluded that the data are consistent with the Mourne granites and Northern Ireland rhyolites being essentially basaltic differentiates, although Sr isotope evidence indicates some (probably minor) crustal involvement.

Kusachiite, CuBi2O4, has been found in a calcite vein cutting gehlenite-spurrite skarns at Fuka, Okayama Prefecture. It is associated with calcite, henmilite, sillenite, bakerite, tenolite, bultfonteinite, apophyllite, cuspidine and thaumasite. Kusachiite occurs as prismatic crystals or globular aggregates of platy crystals. It is black, opaque with a metallic lustre. Kusachiite is tetragonal with space group P4/ncc, a = 8.511(2), c = 5.823(2) Å, Z = 4. The strongest lines in the X-ray powder pattern [d in Å (I)(hkl)] are 3.191 (100)(211), 2.695 (18)(310), 1.947 (18)(411), 4.26 (17)(200), 2.913 (16)(002), 2.404 (13)(202), 1.728 (12)(213), and 1.652 (9)(332). The Mohs hardness is 4.5, and the density is 8.5(3) g/cm3 (meas.) and 8.64 g/cm3 (calc.). Cleavage is perfect on {110}. Six electron probe analyses gave the following mean values CuO 13.91, Bi2O3 86.00 and total 99.91 in wt.%. The empirical formula calculated on the basis of O = 4 is Cu0.960Bi2.027O4 with the simplified formula CuBi2O4.

In the Halls Creek Orogen of north-western Australia, the distance of melt migration through migmatitic metasedimentary rocks and adjacent metabasites is partly constrained by relationships of leucosomes and small mafic magma veins to rock boundaries and structural elements. Stromatic leucosomes in metasediments are cut by a network of small extensional fractures and shear zones, oriented steeply during melt migration. These shear zones allowed cm- to 10 m-scale migration of felsic magma derived by in situ anatexis. In the adjacent metabasite layers, a similar shear array allowed injection of H2O-undersaturated mafic to ultramafic magma, locally dehydrating and chemically modifying these rocks. However, these mafic to ultramafic veinlets are too mafic to be explained by in situ anatexis, necessitating an external magma source. Also, the lack of felsic veinlets cutting metabasites, and mafic veinlets cutting metasediments, requires that vertical inter-connectivity of these fracture systems was restricted. We propose along-layer migration of mafic to ultramafic magma through the metabasite, assisted by horizontal connection of the shear zones. This migration occurred independantly of metre-scale felsic magma migration in the adjacent metasediments, even though these two deformation-assisted magma migration systems may have been operating at the same time.

Two Mg-Al spinels (FAS1 and FAS2) in high-grade hornfels from the Toal de Mason skarn (Predazzo Monzoni, NE Italy) were investigated by means of single crystal X-ray diffraction and electron microprobe analysis in order to evaluate the last intra-crystalline closure temperature.

The evidence provided by crystal chemical data from the investigated spinels, compared with that for two other spinels from a websterite dyke and a chlorite schist (TS2 and SP78a, respectively) with similar chemical characteristics, yielded a new empirical geothermometer. This allowed estimation of intra-crystalline temperatures as low as c. 400°C and indicates that the closure temperature of FAS1 and FAS2 is c. 500°C i.e. 150–200°C lower than the spinel crystallisation temperature.

A multidisciplinary approach has been used to study Au occurrences within pyrite and arsenopyrite in four refractory Au ores from Colombia, France (Le Châtelet and Villeranges) and Portugal (Neves Norte). The Au was characterized by optical and scanning electron microscopy and analysed using electron and ion microprobes to determine Au distribution, with particular attention to spectral interferences in electron and ion microprobes, background measurements in electron probes, and quantitative analysis using external standardization in ion probes. The ionic emission rate is proven to be dependent on the Au status; combined Au has a greater ion emission than metallic Au. Invisible Au occurrences are closely linked to As distribution. Gold bonding in arsenopyrite, examined by transmission electron microscopy, is shown to be dispersed within the FeAsS crystal structure. Typical growth patterns and As-Au diffusion zoning in pyrite and arsenopyrite may account for the very irregular distribution of Au in these minerals.

Understanding flow along fractures and faults is of importance to the performance assessment (PA) of a geological disposal facility (GDF) for radioactive waste. Flow can occur along pre-existing fractures in the host-rock or along fractures created during the construction of the GDF within the excavation damage zone (EDZ). The complex fracture network will have a range of orientations and will exist within a complex stress regime. Critical stress theory suggests that fractures close to localized shear failure are critically stressed and therefore most conductive to fluid flow. Analysis of fault geometry and stress conditions at Sellafield has revealed that no features were found to be, or even close to being, classified as critically stressed, despite some being conductive. In order to understand the underlying reasons why non-critically stressed fractures were conductive a series of laboratory experiments were performed. A bespoke angled shear rig (ASR) was built in order to study the relationship between fluid flow (water and gas) through a fracture surface as a function of normal load. Fluid flow reduced with an increase in normal load, as expected. During unloading considerable hysteresis was seen in flow and shear stress. Fracture flow was only partially recovered for water injection, whereas gas flow increased remarkably during unloading. The ratio of shear stress to normal stress seems to control the fluid flow properties during the unloading stage of the experiment demonstrating its significance in fracture flow. The exhumation of the Sellafield area during the Palaeogene–Neogene resulted in considerable stress relaxation and in fractures becoming non-critically stressed. The hysteresis in shear stress during uplift has resulted in faults remaining, or becoming, conductive. The field and laboratory observations illustrate that understanding the stress-history of a fractured rock mass is essential, and a mere understanding of the current stress regime is insufficient to estimate the flow characteristics of present-day fractures.

Surface areas of ‘amorphous’-type opals measured by nitrogen-absorption techniques were not consistent either with the surface area of the spheres of about 2000 Å diameter observable by electron microscopy or with the thermal dehydration data. This apparent inconsistency can be explained in terms of a smaller particulate structure of the order of 100–200 Å shown by higher resolution electron micrographs. This structure also accounts for a marked shrinkage shown in dilatometer curves of this type of opal.

The Penouta Sn-Ta deposit, in the northwest of Spain, is a greisenized granitic cupola where Ta minerals occur mainly as disseminations in a leucogranite body intruded in Precambrian–Lower Cambrian gneisses and mica-schists. This leucogranite is a medium- to fine-grained inequigranular rock consisting mainly of quartz, albite, K-feldspar and muscovite. Accessory minerals are mainly of spessartine, zircon, cassiterite, Nb-Ta oxides, monazite, xenotime, native bismuth and pyrite. The alteration processes were mainly albitization, muscovitization and kaolinitization.

This leucogranite is peraluminous and P-poor, with 0.03–0.07 wt.% P2O5, 900–1500 ppm Rb, 30–65 ppm Cs, 120–533 ppm Li, 80–140 ppm Ta, 51–81 ppm Nb and up to 569 ppm of Sn.

Mineralogical characterization of Nb-Ta oxide minerals was determined by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, electron microprobe analysis and mineral liberation analysis. Mn-rich members of the columbite-group minerals (CGM) are the most common Ta-bearing phases, but microlite, wodginite, tapiolite and Ta-rich cassiterite occur also. CGM crystals are commonly zoned concentrically, with a Nb-rich core surrounded by a Ta-rich rim, with a sharp boundary between them. Convoluted zoning occurs also. Dissolution textures resulting from the corrosion of columbite and tantalite rims, in particular, are common. The Mn/(Mn + Fe) ratio varies between 0.33 and 0.97 and the Ta/(Ta + Nb) ratio between 0.07 and 0.93. Wodginite and microlite formed as late replacements of CGM and occur associated with tantalite and cassiterite. Subhedral to anhedral cassiterite crystals, usually up to 200 μm across, occur in two generations: the earlier one is Nb,Ta-poor whereas in the later generation, the Ta content can reach >9 wt.% of Ta2O5 and 1.7 wt.% of Nb. The presence of a fluid phase in the apical zone of the granite, probably related to the separation of a fluid/vapour of the melt, could explain the sponge-like textures, the Ta enrichment associated with these textures, the occurrence of Ta-enriched mineral phases (microlite and wodginite) and their common interstitial character.

The experiments described below on the dehydration of halloysite were largely carried out in the laboratoire Central des Services Chimiques de l'État, Paris, where we enjoyed not only the excellent facilities of the laboratory but also the advice of Monsieur J. Méring and Mile R. Glaser who had made similar studies of montmorillonite. The use of a Guinier-type focusing camera with strictly monochromatic radiation was especially useful. These experiments were undertaken because little was known about the dehydration process beyond the recognition that it occurs very readily in dry atmospheres and at low temperatures. The main experimental difficulty lies in differentiating between water adsorbed oil external surfaces of the clay particles (adsorbed water) and water internally absorbed between the kaolin layers (interlayer water).

An alternative explanation for the occurrence of chrome-spinel layers in the Eastern Layered Series of the Rhum intrusion is suggested by extreme concentrations of chrome-spinel in small-scale structures in the layer at the unit 7–8 boundary (Brown, 1956). These take the form of downward pointing cones several centimetres across and deep, and lined or wholly filled with chrome-spinel; lamination in the underlying allivalite exhibits quaquaversal dips around these cones. By comparing these structures to fluid escape structures in clastic sediments, it is proposed that spinel is the product of mixing and reaction of upward moving interstitial liquid and more primitive liquid newly emplaced in the chamber. Further evidence for the presence of a second liquid during spinel crystallization is provided by spherical silicate inclusions within spinel grains. Complex zoning in feldspars in the underlying allivalite suggests that the newly emplaced primitive liquid was able to penetrate the crystal mush on the intrusion floor.

An electron microprobe study of Y-REE-Th phosphate, silicate and Nb-Ta-Y-REE accessory-mineral assemblages revealed the compositional variations and evolution in post-orogenic, hypersolvus Permian A-type metagranite from Turčok, in the Gemeric Unit, of the Western Carpathians, eastern Slovakia. Prismatic zircon I and allanite-(Ce) are primary magmatic phases. However, the late-magmatic to early-subsolidus processes led to the formation of a more complex younger assemblage: bipyramidal zircon II, xenotime-(Y), thorite, gadolinite-hingganite-(Y), Nb-Ta-Y-REE oxide phases [fergusonite-(beta)/ samarskite-(Y), aeschynite/polycrase-(Y), and Nb-rich rutile?] and possibly monazite-(Ce). However, monazite-(Ce) and the partial alteration of allanite-(Ce), xenotime-(Y) and the Nb-Ta-Y-REE minerals are probably connected with a younger Alpine metamorphic overprint of the granite. Thorite appears as a solid solution in the thorite-xenotime-zircon series; it is also enriched in Al. Fergusonite-(beta)/ samarskite-(Y) and especially aeschynite/polycrase-(Y) show increased P, Si and Al contents.

Phase relations along the join bornite (Cu5FeS4)-digenite (Cu8.52Fe0.12S4.88) have been redefined using a combination of in situ high-resolution neutron diffraction and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Time-of-flight neutron diffraction patterns were collected on a synthetic sample of bn90 at 16 temperatures between 35 and 350°C. This data is compared with data from a natural end-member bornite sample obtained in an earlier study under identical conditions. Phase relations along the bornite-digenite join are inferred from the temperature evolution of the lattice parameters and the intensity of subcell and supercell reflections of coexisting phases.

The DSC scans over the temperature range 50–300°C were performed on a natural digenite sample and samples synthesized at 5 mol.% intervals along the join Cu5FeS4-Cu9S5. The thermal anomalies are correlated with structural phase transitions in componen phases and the solvus temperature for each bulk composition. A phase diagram topology is defined, which was consistent with both diffraction and calorimetric data, but in marked contrast to previous diagrams, shows a consolute point at X = Cu5FeS4 and T = 265°C. This temperature corresponds to that of the tricritical intermediate-high transition in bornite. Isothermal annealing experiments carried out on synthetic starting materials for up to 7 months showed coarsening behaviour consistent with the revised phase diagram topology.

Barea and Emery are typical mesosiderites, whereas Dyarrl Island is unique in having the lowest metal content and the highest FeO/(FeO + MgO) ratio of any meteorite of this class. Average pyroxene compositions have been determined for the individual mesosiderites, and show a sequential increase in FeSiO3 content, ranging from a mean of 21 mole % for Veramin to 45 mole % for Dyarrl Island. Steinbach may possibly be classed as a mesosiderite, since its mineralogy is identical except for the absence of plagioclase. Dalgaranga and Mt. Padbury may be a paired fall. The chemical and mineralogical composition of the silicate material of the mesosiderites is similar to, but not identical with the howardites; the overall range of composition is greater in the mesosiderites.

According to their atomic arrangement the minerals found in clays can be divided into the two-layer and the three-layer structures. The members of the first group have alternating silica and alumina layers, e.g. kaolinite; the members of the second group have one alumina (or magnesium or iron) layer between two silica layers, e.g. pyrophyllite. The clay minerals can also be classified into two groups according to their power to diffract X-rays. The first group gives good powder photographs with twenty to forty well-developed lines if copper or iron radiations are used, whereas the second group gives poor diagrams with only a few lines, usually under fifteen, some of which are wide and indistinct. Exposure times for the second group are about two to three times as large as those for the first group. The poor diffracting power for X-rays may be due either to a lack of regularity (‘roughness’) of the lattice, or to an extremely small size of the single crystallites. It is possible that both effects are aetive to some extent, but the lack of regularity of the lattice is probably the main reason. Neither the microscopic evidence nor sedimentation data based on Stokes's law show these minerals to have particles smaller than 10-6 cm., though it is possible that the optical effects such as double refraction are due to aggregation, and it is clear that the equivalent radius is an unsatisfactory measure for plate~shaped particles. Both classifications are shown on p. 141.

The new mineral mössbauerite (IMA2012−049), Fe6 3+O4(OH)8[CO3]·3H2O, is a member of the fougèrite group of the hydrotalcite supergroup. Thus, it has a layered double hydroxide-type structure, in which brucite-like layers [Fe6 3+O4(OH)8]2+ are intercalated with CO3 2− anions and water molecules. Mössbauerite is the fully oxidized analogue of fougèrite and trébeurdenite, related to them chemically by the exchange of (Fe3+O2−) with (Fe2+OH−). Mössbauerite, intimately intergrown with trébeurdenite, was discovered in intertidal gleys from Mont Saint-Michel Bay, France, along with quartz, feldspars and clay minerals. Mössbauerite is formed by the oxidation of the other members of the fougèrite group. Like them, it occurs as μm-scale platelets in gleys with restricted access to atmospheric O and decomposes rapidly when exposed to air. Identification and characterization of these minerals has relied on an electrochemical study of synthetic analogues and Mössbauer spectroscopy, which inspired the name of the new mineral.

Unlike fougèrite and trébeurdenite, which are blue-green, pure synthetic mössbauerite is orange in colour. Detailed optical and other physical properties could not be determined because of the small platelet size and instability. The hardness is probably 2−3, by analogy with other members of the supergroup and the density, calculated from unit-cell parameters, is 2.950 g/cm3. Synchrotron X-ray data indicate that the natural material is a nanoscale intergrowth of 2T and 3T polytypes; the latter probably has the 3T7 stacking sequence. The corresponding maximum possible space group symmetries are P m1 and P3m1. Unit-cell parameters for the 3T cell are a = 3.032(7) Å, c = 22.258(4) = 367.420 Å and Z = ½.

Mössbauer spectroscopy at 78 K indicates that two distinct Fe3+ environments exist in a 2:1 ratio. These are interpreted to be ordered within each layer, but without the development of a threedimensional superlattice. Mössbauerite undergoes gradual magnetic ordering at 70−80 K to a ferromagnetic state, below which it splits into three sextets S 1m, S 2m and S 3m, as measured at 15 K, and shows the same intensity ratio ½:⅙:⅓ as the three doublets for fougèrite D 1f, D 2f, D 3f in the paramagnetic state at 78 K. This suggests that there is also short-range coupling of interlayer carbonate anions with respect to the octahedral layers and that the 2D long-range order of carbonates in interlayers remains unchanged.

The Inagli complex, one of several Mesozoic intrusive complexes of the Aldan Shield (Siberian Platform), exhibits a concentric structure comprising several alkaline ultramafic rock-types. A central dunite body is surrounded by olivine- and phlogopite-clinopyroxenites forming an inner rim. The outer rim consists of different shonkinitic and malignitic rocks. The K-Ar ages obtained for the whole complex vary around 132 Ma.

The dunites and clinopyroxenites are characterized by cumulate textures. With increasing modal abundances of clinopyroxene and subordinate phlogopite, the rocks develop to olivine-clinopyroxenite, shonkinite, and malignite with intercumulus potassium feldspar. Mineralogical characterization of the rocks suggests they evolved by fractional crystallization. The highly forsteritic olivines (Fo up to 95) require a melt as magnesian as mg# 87.1, representing ±26 wt.% MgO. The parental melt is likely to be an olivine-, H2O- and K2O-rich picritic liquid of shoshonitic character. Major and trace element systematics show high LILE/LREE and LREE/HFSE ratios indicating the involvement of a subduction zone component in the genesis of these rocks.

Textures produced by reactions involving garnet in a sillimanite-staurolite schist have been investigated using an irreversible thermodynamic model. The model predicts that the local production or consumption of garnet is strongly influenced by the proximity of garnet to growing sillimanite and dissolving staurolite. Garnets within sillimanite segregations should dissolve near the sillimanite-bearing centre of the segregation while garnets within or adjacent to staurolite poikilo-blasts should grow as the staurolite is replaced by a muscovite-rich pseudomorph. Garnets located in the matrix may grow, not react at all, or dissolve depending on the local configuration of nearby sillimanite, staurolite, and garnet. Textures predicted by the model are similar to those observed in thin section: many garnets are truncated within sillimanite segregations; garnets located in pseudo-morphs after staurolite are equant and have thick unpoikilitic rims that suggest growth; most matrix garnets also have thick inclusion-free rims that suggest growth but a few have thin rims, indicating little growth, or are irregularly shaped, suggesting dissolution.

The Dabie Mountains is a collisional orogen between the North China and Yantze Continental plates. It is composed, from south to north, of the foreland fold and thrust belt alternated with molasse basin, the subducted cover and basement of the Yangtze continental plate, the meta-ophiolitic melange belt, the forearc meta-flysch nappe (bounded by southward and northward thrust belts) in which there may be a buried volcanic arc and a relict back-arc basin (Fig. 1A) (Xu et al., 1992a, 1994).

Metamorphosed stratabound iron- and base-metal sulphide deposits often exhibit microtextures in which fractures in cataclastically-deformed pyrite porphyroblasts are filled with matrix sulphides; chalcopyrite, sphalerite, pyrrhotite or galena. Discussions of such textures have mostly centred on whether solid-phase or fluid-phase mechanisms were responsible for the movement of the matrix sulphides.

The small Zn-Cu sulphide body at Gressli, in the central Norwegian Caledonides, shows these textural features to an extreme degree. Both chalcopyrite and sphalerite show heavy replacive relations to the cataclastically deformed metablastic pyrite, along fracture walls and grain boundaries. They also occur injected along the opened-up triple junctions of foam-textured pyrite. In addition, parts of the ore show patchy quartz with clear replacive relationship to all three sulphides, a feature not often reported from such ores. Such textures can be interpreted to support a mobilisation sequence chalcopyrite-sphalerite-quartz within the Gressli ore. Their extent and degree of development indicate that fluid-phase mobilisation of the three minerals must have played a dominant role. Chalcopyrite and sphalerite are most likely derived from within the ore-mass itself; an external source for the SiO2 seems most probable, in the form of metahydrothermal solutions moving along retrograde shear zones at or near ore-walls.