The variation in the structural state of potassium feldspars from the St. George pluton, New Brunswick, Canada, is discussed. Monoclinic potassium feldspars occur near the eastern end of the pluton whereas the granites at the western end contain triclinic potassium feldspars. Although the bulk compositions of the host rocks are all very near the granite minimum melt composition there is a systematic increase in the degree of ordering for both the triclinic and monoclinic suites of feldspars with the more ordered variants tending to occur within rocks nearest the minimum melt composition. There is more abundant textural evidence for the presence of a late-stage fluid phase in the granites containing the monoclinic potassium feldspars. It is proposed that a slower post-crystallization cooling rate was also a factor in the nucleation of triclinic domains in the potassium feldspars at the western end of the pluton.

Sedimentary analcime in a small basin in Cainozoic basalt at Murrurundi, New South Wales, has probably resulted from the reaction of Na-rich water on colloidal nontronite derived from volcanic ash. Based on cell dimension (13.713 Å) and Δ2θ(1·81) determined by Saha's (1959) method it is a Group C low-silica type of Coombs and Whetten (1967).

Garnet containing up to 26% SnO2, and pyroxene and spinel containing 12% and 10% SnO2 respectively, occur in a tin-refining slag in association with cassiterite. These tin contents probably represent minimum values for the limit of ionic replacement of Sn4+ in the structure of these minerals. The absence of tin from coexisting melilite suggests that Sn4+ is only able to substitute for ions in octahedral co-ordination.

Manganoan ilvaite forms as an early retrograde metamorphic phase from calcic rhodonite in the polymetamorphosed Pb-Zn sulphide/manganese silicate rocks at Broken Hill and from grossular-andradite in a skarn at Ban Ban. Ilvaite exists as a probable metastable phase into which Mn is apparently strongly partitioned. The manganoan ilvaites analysed contain up to 13·5 % MnO substituting for FeO and this substitution shifts the 020 peak.

The Dhajala meteorite shower, the latest recorded fall in India, comprises pieces fragmented near the lower limit of the break-up zone. The meteorite is a chondrite consisting of silica-rich chondrules making up to 34 vol.%, and fine-grained, Fe-Ni metal-rich groundmass admixed with a few irregular lithic fragments. Dhajala contains olivine of variable compositions, ortho- and clinopyroxenes, troilite, kamacite, taenite, chromite, and clear to opaque glass; magnetite occurs only in the fusion crust. The chondrules, which are of variable shape, mineral composition, and texture, represent different stages of quenching, leading to incomplete crystallization of minerals and some degree of disparity between norm and mode. Lithophile elements are less in Dhajala than in average chondrites. Two chemical analyses of Dhajala are presented and it has 27·10% total iron and 2·38 % sulphur (maximum). Chemical and petrological data indicate that it is an H3 olivine-bronzite chondrite. Evidence for the crystallization of chondrules from melt is overwhelming. Some chondrules have been permeated by later troilite and NiFe from the groundmass, which might have crystallized directly from a gaseous environment.

A new mineral, sasaite, occurs as white chalky nodules in the soil of a dolomitic cave and seems to be derived from the action of bat guano on clay minerals. Under the microscope it consists of an agglomeration of plates 10–20 µm on greatest dimension and with a rhombic shape. Its formula is (Al, Fe3+)14(PO411(OH)7SO4·83H2O and it is orthorhombic or quasi-orthorhombic. Preliminary crystallographic data based on an orthorhombic cell are a 21·50, b 30·04, c 92·06 Å, Z10, based on a calculated density of 1·747 (observed 1·75). The optical indices are α 1·465, β 1·473, γ 1·477 all ±0·001, and the principal vibration directions are parallel or quasi-parallel to the crystallographic axis.

Two new analyses of magnesian cordierites (MgO ∼ 12 %) reveal about 1% by weight of H2O +, and one sample contains 15 × 10−5 cm3STP/gm argon, which is twenty times in excess of argon expected for its age. Host granulites contain unexpectedly light oxygen, and three cordierites have δ 18O values of 2·0, 2·8, and 3·1 ‰, respectively.

Analcime of hydrothermal origin occurs in the gabbros and in the amphibolites and granulites. Crystals from the different rock suites display the same unusual characteristics upon dissolution: the interior is much more susceptible to attack than the outer growth zone; the former may be converted to a skeletal boxwork, and the latter may suffer extreme differential dissolution along successive narrow growth horizons. Pseudomorphs of adularia after analcime have been found in various stages of development, from partial to complete replacement. Some of the latter preserve the very delicate dissolution structures in detail. Up to fourteen growth horizons have been detected in the outer millimetre of the crystal. This demonstrates that both the growth and dissolution of analcime occurred prior to the formation of adularia, an event that has been dated.

Five members of the linnaeite series of sulphides linnaeite Co3S4, siegenite (Co, Ni)3S4, carrollite Co2CuS4, violarite Ni2FeS4, and polydymite Ni3S4 occur in nickel-sulphide-mineralized rocks in areas adjacent to the Kambalda and Scotia deposits of the Kalgoorlie district, Western Australia. Linnaeite, siegenite, carrollite, and polydymite occur in trace amounts as disseminated grains and veinlets. Violarite is also found as disseminations but its major occurrence is in the supergene enriched zones of the ore deposits. Aspects of their mineralogy, including mode of occurrence, general mineragraphy, reflectance at 546 nm, 589 nm and 644 nm, microhardness, and electron probe microanalyses are described.

A suite of unusual acicular hornblende schists is found at Warsak (34° 10′ N. 71°C 23′ E.), some 30 km WNW. of Peshawar, North-West Pakistan. The schists occur in association with sill-like masses of amphibolite facies meta-igneous rocks, possibly a metamorphosed gabbroic and doleritic, dioritic, and granitic calc-alkaline series, and intrusions of alkaline granite and microgranite. These rocks lie within Palaeozoic metasediments and all are folded synclinally. The area was first described by Ahmad et al. (1969).

The rocks of the acicular hornblende schist suite (fig. I) consist essentially of large, idioblastic hornblende crystals—comprising some 30–60 % of the rock—in a fine-grained granoblastic matrix of oligoclase feldspar with minor quartz, iron oxide, biotite, and rutile. The boat-shaped, blue-green hornblendes, twinned on {100}, reach 5 mm in length and are often grouped in sprays or clusters; they are sieved with quartz, ilmenite, and patchy calcite. The groundmass also contains patches and veins of calcite, associated with ragged patchy areas of reddish brown, amorphous iron oxide or hydroxide, perhaps introduced hydrothermally. The schists coarsen in grain size outwards through the sill-form, the hornblendes reaching 4 cm, become rich in chlorite and biotite, and grade into the apparently metagabbroic amphibolitic rocks.

The acicular hornblende schists have a generally basaltic composition, while the hornblendes are tschermakitic. An analysed amphibole has 16·5% Al2O3, is slightly zoned with alumina increasing from core to rim, and has the formula:

Three hypotheses of the origin of the rocks were considered; metamorphism of a suite of basic tufts is the most favoured. Origins involving metamorphism of a lamprophyre-appinite suite or of a gabbroic marginal facies are therefore rejected. Texturally the rocks strongly resemble metatuffs (fig. 2) that occur associated with metagreywackes in the Otago schists of New Zealand (Turner, 1933); like many similar Alpine schists they also contain tschermakitic hornblendes. The Warsak tufts could have formed originally, together with the meta-igneous rocks, possibly as lavas, in an inter-plate tectonic environment; the high A1 content of the hornblende, which is typical of many amphiboles from the surrounding alpine environment in North-West Pakistan, and other mineralogical evidence in the region support a highpressure environment for the metamorphism of the rocks to just within the amphibolite facies, at moderate temperatures of approximately 465 °C.

Several types of microscope-mounted drills have been described in literature to obtain pure mineral material from thin sections or polished sections (e.g. Granigg, 1915; Moritz, 1929; Haycock, 1931; Russanow, 1937; Machairas, 1967), but all of them appear to be of limited mechanical stability and reliability. This paper describes an improved drill to extract under the microscope minute quantities of pure material from thin or polished sections. The drilling is performed in a liquid (silicon-oil) to minimize loss of the drilled-out mineral powder. With the help of a micromanipulator the liquid, together with the borings, is drawn up into a microcapillary tube (less than 30 µm in diameter) made of Lindemann glass. For identification of the mineral powder the microcapillary is mounted in a Debye-Scherrer X-ray diffraction camera.

Tugtupite, space group 1, belongs morphologically to the crystal class 2m. The paper describes pseudotrigonal contact triplets recently found as freely developed individuals on two specimens donated to the Geological Museum, Copenhagen. The contact triplets, described as a symmetric twin, have the composition planes, which are also the twin planes, (10) and (01); the pseudo-threefold axis, along which the crystals are pronouncedly elongate, is [111]. The calculated reentrant angles on the two sides of the pseudotrigonal prism, the protruding angle on the third side, and the ‘central misfit’, expressed as the geometrical angles, are 178° 41′, 181° 20′, and 2° 39′ respectively. Tetragonal crystals forming pseudotrigonal twins are rare and it is emphasized that the pseudotrigonal habit has become apparent only because: the faces developed on individual I and on individuals II and III are not the same; and the proportion between the lengths of the traces of the faces (01) individual I and (01) individuals II and III in a plane perpendicular to the pseudo-threefold axis and the traces in the same plane of all other faces constituting the pseudo-threefold prism are 2:1.

Titaniferous clinohumite occurs as a major constituent in the centres of late magmatic veins in the Tertiary ultramafic, strongly alkaline Gardiner Plateau Complex in East Greenland (69° N. and 32° W.). The complex is briefly described and an electron microprobe analysis of titaniferous clinohumite is presented. This gives the following: 38·44% SiO2, 2·99% TiO2, 4·87% FeO, 51·89% MgO, 1·3% F, H2Ocalc 1·50%, and total 100·44%. Optical data, density, and unit cell dimensions are also presented. Of magmatic occurrences, titaniferous clinohumite has otherwise only been reported in certain kimberlites and carbonatites.

Hydrothermal ruffles from a suite of rocks at Mount Perry, Queensland, have been studied in thin section, by electron microprobe analysis, and by transmission electron microscopy. The iron-bearing rutiles, while originally singte-phase, are found to exsolve a sequence of iron-rich precipitates on experimental annealing, with hematite being formed as the stable equilibrium precipitate. Experiments at different temperatures and annealing times enable a time-temperature-transformation plot to be drawn for the exsolution process. The kinetics of this process are used to conclude that the rutiles formed below about 450 °C.

Ellipsometric measurements in the spectral range 250–850 nm have been made on polished single crystals of natural cuprite from Namibia and of artificial cuprite grown by a total-oxidation method from pure copper. Derived values of the refractive indices, absorption coefficients, normal reflectances, and the complex dielectric constants for the two materials are all closely similar, suggesting that the stoichiometry and purity are essentially the same. Values of the absorption coefficient at the red end of the spectrum are inconsistent with the observed transparency of the crystals, and are compatible with a 10 nm surface oxidation film of cupric oxide. This study is part of a wider survey of the effects of doping and stoichiometry on the optical parameters of cuprite.

The Kondapalli region (16° 37′ N. 80° 32′ E.) in the Eastern Ghats, Andhra Pradesh, consists of high-grade granulite facies rocks: charnockites, hypersthene granites, and enderbites are plutonic intrusives into khondalites—garnetiferous sillimanite granites, garnetiferous granites, siltimanite-garnet quartzites, and quartzites. Pyroxene granulites of gabbroic and noritic compositions are distinct basic intrusive bodies, occurring as sills and dykes.

Chromite orthopyroxene nodules are enclosed in serpentinite and carbonate rock, formed from altered peridotite; they are younger than the charnockites and pyroxene granulites and are confined to the cores of south-eastern-plunging overturned isoclinal anticlines. The chromites are massive in coarse-layered pyroxenites and granular in fine-layered rocks; those found at Gangineni are magnetic and are associated with bronzite (En77–85), those from the Binny and Loya mines are non-magnetic and associated with enstatite (En88–95).

Chemical analyses and X-ray powder data are given for five specimens, including both types. The magnetic susceptibility appears to increase with increasing Fe3+. The unit-cell size is negatively correlated with Cr3+, A13+, and Mg2+ and positively with Fe2+ and Fe3+.

A study of the post-metamorphic hydrothermal mineralization in the gabbros of the Lizard has already been published (Seager, 1971). The present paper extends the investigation of mineralization in the peninsula to an adjacent area, on the NE. coast around Porthkerris Point. Table 1 gives the more important events of the paragenesis. Calcite and adularia are the only common minerals; all others are scarce or rare.

The calcite that precedes and succeeds adularia is called early calcite and late calcite, respectively. Both early and late calcite occur in several generations differing in habit, fluorescence, and phosphorescence.

Spectral reflectances and chemical compositions of twenty-eight different grains of exsolved titanomagnetite were measured. Relations between reflectance and composition were established by calculating best-fit planes (Kummell, 1879) for the reflectance at 499 and at 617 nm. These were then transformed to expressions from which the contents of Ti and Mg can be estimated. Even though these estimates are not as accurate as microprobe values, the method is still a useful tool in the study of chemical variation in exsolved titanomagnetites.

A quantitative X-ray diffraction method has been successfully applied to the determination of analcime in pumice rock samples. A calibration line was constructed from spiked pumice standards (range: 0 to 42%) and the mean relative error of the standards on the calibration line was < 0·6%. The major-element compositions of the samples and standards were available, and this allowed the total mass absorption coefficients to be calculated. The latter were then used to correct the sample and standard intensities for absorption effects resulting from compositional variations. When compositional data already exist, the calculation of the total absorption coefficient provides a rapid and accurate alternative to direct measurement, or to the use of an internal standard.