To produce a lattice expansion readily detectable by conventional X-ray photographic means in α-irradiated diamond, a dose of order 1018α.cm−2 is required. Such a dose could be produced by pitchblende in ∼2 × 108 yr. and a previously reported lattice expansion in a natural diamond could therefore have occurred by long-term contact with a radioactive material. α-particle doses greater than ∼1014 cm−2 produce observable green colouration on the surface of an initially colourless diamond.

The results of a petrofabric study on recrystallization of quartz in nature are presented and compared with recent experimental work. The orientations of newly recrystallized quartz grains are shown to be dependent on the orientation of host grains from or in which they grew. The results are compatible with the experiments of Hobbs (1968). The orientation of new grains appears to be unrelated to stress.

Traces of a green chromian tourmaline occur in calcareous rocks in contact with serpentinite near Alpurai, Swat, West Pakistan. The petrography of the rocks and the optical properties of the tourmaline are presented along with its chemistry (it contains over 8 % Cr2O3 and about 0·2 % V2O3). The mineral is compared with other chromian tourmalines and its paragenesis discussed: it is thought to have been produced by silica-rich hydrothermal (or gaseous) solutions, which have crystallized as thin quartz veins in the calcareous rocks, introducing boron and other constituents.

Cenomanian glauconite grains from the Isle of Wight often possess a thin, pale green shell or ‘corona’ of glauconite. Optical investigation led to recognition of two types of microstructure in these shells; an outer layer with tangentially orientated c-axes, and an inner isotropic layer. A third type of layer with radially orientated c-axes occurs both subjacent to the corona and at lower levels in glauconite grains. This latter occurrence is frequently a relic of a former corona, and indicates two or more periods of glauconite formation. The disposition of the microstructures allows some conclusions to be drawn with respect to the depositional history of individual glauconite grains.

Aluminium hydroxide gels have been prepared by the hydrolysis of amalgamated aluminium in water and by precipitation from aluminium salt solutions with an anion exchange resin in the hydroxyl form. The products crystallizing from such gels have been examined by electron microscopy and by X-ray and electron diffraction. Bayerite crystallizes as cone or pyramid-shaped particles and gibbsite as hexagonal plates or prisms. Two types of gel are postulated. The first type, pseudoboehmite, predominates in the absence of acids, is uncharged and rapidly crystallizes to bayerite; the second type, pregibbsite gel, occurs in carboxylic acid solutions, is positively charged and, in the absence of inorganic anions, crystallizes slowly to gibbsite.

Two vanadates, tangeïte and volborthite, new to Britain, their association with vanadiferous nodules, and their geological environment are described. A percentage composition graph for vanadium taken across a vanadiferous nodule, by scanning electron probe, is given.

Rapid, accurate silica determinations have been made titrimetrically following decomposition by HClO4-HF in a ‘Teflon’ vessel, the volatilized silicon tetrafluoride being precipitated as K2SiF6 in a HF-KF-glycerol-alcohol mixture. After filtration and washing with alcohol the precipitate is dissolved in boiling water, then titrated with NaOH. This method has many advantages over conventional gravimetric or spectrophotometric procedures.

Examination of published procedures for the decomposition and subsequent analysis of chromite and chrome ores shows some to be unnecessarily complicated and time consuming. Others fail to yield consistent and reproducible results. Decomposition is rapidly and effectively accomplished using the peroxide frit technique of Rafter. Chromium may then be removed and determined volumetrically allowing the rest of the analysis to proceed along conventional silicate lines. Fe2+ is determined by oxidimetry following digestion with a mixture of phosphoric and sulphuric acids in the presence of ceric sulphate.

Materials similar to the natural hydrated magnesium silicate mineral deweylite have been synthesized hydrothermally under low-temperature-low-pressure conditions from magnesia-silica gels. Optical, X-ray, infra-red, and DTA examinations have shown that both the natural and synthetic materials are mixtures of badly crystallized talc and badly crystallized serpentine. The mineral is thought to be a coarse mixture of these two components while the synthetic products are intimately interlayered. These materials are believed to be closely related to the hydrated magnesium silicates detected in high-magnesia cement hydration products.

Detailed methods are described for the laboratory preparation of the manganese minerals manganosite, hausmannite, manganite, partridgeite, birnessite, cryptomelane, pyrolusite, and todorokite. New data are presented on the conversion of birnessite to cryptomelane, and on the exchange properties of potassium in these two minerals. It was found that the upper limit of potassium in cryptomelane is about 7 % K, while the lower limit lies between 0·25 % and 2·2 % K.

Seventy-nine black tourmalines collected over a 12 000 km2 area of Precambrian to lower Palaeozoic rocks in northern Nigeria show a close correlation between maximum R.I., absorption colour, and occurrence in non-feldspathic micaceous schists and schorl rocks on the one hand, and in gneisses, migmatites, and feldspathic pegmatites on the other. Pleochroism is known to depend upon the total iron content and the Fe2+Fe3+ interaction. Colour variations may thus provide useful indicators of the geochemical environment during crystallization.

Limited published data, supplemented by additional measurements on four tourmalines from outside the original area, suggest that similar correlations would be obtained for the rest of Nigeria.

Selective processes of boron metasomatism may have been important in the association of different coloured tourmalines with feldspathic and non-feldspathic rocks, and the apparent lack of biotite in most tourmaline-rich rocks. The source of the boron probably lay within the upper Proterozoic to lower Palaeozoic metasedimentary belts with which the tourmaline is most strongly associated.

The Molteno meteorite was seen to fall in South Africa in 1953. It is a howardite, with pyroxene varying from En76Fs22Wo2 to En38Fs58Wo4 and then to En33Fs26Wo41. Also present are twinned plagioclase (An 84·4%) and small quantities of olivine (Fa 12%), troilite, nickel-iron (Ni 4%), ilmenite, and an aluminian chromite with 0·71% V2O3. A bulk analysis and analyses of the metal, troilite, and combined silicates and oxides are given.

The Angra dos Reis (iron) has been studied metallographically and an attempt has been made to discuss the circumstances under which the following elements of structure formed: clear etching and frosty etching kamacite, decorated Neumann lines, giant rhabdites, plate rbabdites, rhabdite clusters, microrhabdites, cohenite, and remelted troilite. The remelted troilite is taken to indicate a shock event. However, since there are no metallographically visible indications of shock in the kamacite and since the back reflection X-ray diffraction pattern shows only very faint Debye-Scherrer arcs superimposed on a pattern of sharp spots, it is concluded that the shock event took place at a temperature that allowed shock effects to anneal out of the kamacite almost completely. A submicroscopic precipitate in the metallic matrix is observable with the electron microscope and may represent the final precipitation of phosphide from shocked kamacite.

Alkalic rhyolites with peralkaline affinities, bearing quartz and potassic feldspar phenocrysts, are described from Iceland for the first time. Evidence from electron-probe analyses of feldspar phenocrysts indicates crystallization in or near the thermal valley of the system SiO2-Or-Ab. Icelandic acid volcanic rocks are subdivided into alkalic rhyolites, belonging to transitional and alkalic basalt lineages, and the mildly calc-alkaline rhyolites of tholeiite lineages.

The manganese ores of Elba, South-eastern Desert, occur as numerous veins located within a narrow belt trending N.W.-S.E. Three ore-types were distinguished: hard crystalline ore consisting mainly of pyrolusite or ramsdellite or both, banded colloform ore consisting mainly of psilomelane, and in places cryptomelane, and soft nodular ore consisting of todorokite with minor amounts of psilomelane (or cryptomelane), nsutite, and pyrolusite. Black calcite and baryte occur in some of the veins and increase with depth.

Based on the field and mineralogical evidence the origin of the ore is discussed. It is suggested that the ore is a very low-temperature epithermal fissure deposit of black calcite type that occurs near the surface (oxidation zone) in brecciated zones along faults.