Taneyamalite, (Na,Ca)(Mn2+,Mg,Fe3+,Al)12 Si12(O,OH)44, is a Mn2+-dominant analogue of howieite, and has been found in the metamorphosed bedded manganese ore deposit of the lwaizawa mine, Saitama Prefecture, Japan. It is triclinic, P1 or P, a 10.198(1), b 9.820(1), c 9.485(1) Å, α 90° 30(1)′, β 70° 32(1)′, γ 108° 34(1)′, Z = 1. The strongest X-ray powder diffractions are: 9.29(80)010, 7.99(35)10, 4.62(50)020, 3.65(40)120, 3.273(100)30, 3.081(50)11, 2.790(35)31, 2.630(28)023, 2.216(35)014, 43. Taneyamalite occurs in association with minor bannisterite as small seams in a caryopilite mass or as a fissure mineral cutting a hematite-quartz mass. It is greenish grey-yellow, lustre vitreous. Streak light yellow. Cleavage {010}, perfect. H. (Mohs) about 5. Calculated sp. gr. 3.30 (on unit cell data and normalized empirical formula), 3.25 (after the Gladstone-Dale Law using the revised data of Mandarino, 1976). It is optically biaxial negative, 2Vα about 70°. The refractive indices: α = 1.646(2), β = 1.664(2), γ = 1.676(2). Extinction is nearly parallel, sign of elongation positive. Pleochroism distinct: α = β nearly colourless, γ pale yellow. Absorption: α ≈ β < γ.

Least-squares analyses of powder X-ray diffraction data have been undertaken for minerals and synthetics of composition (Mg,Mn,Fe,Co,Ni)3−xSi2O5 (OH)4. New polytypes of nepouite and greenalite have been established, and eleven new or altered unit cells have been calculated. Baumite is an unnecessary varietal name for a manganoan ferroan lizardite-1T; tosalite is an unnecessary varietal name for a manganoan greenalite; clinochrysotile is an unnecessary polytype name for chrysotile-2Mc1; orthochrysotile is an unnecessary polytype name for chrysotile-2Orc1; ortho-antigorite and ortho-hexagonal serpentine are unnecessary names for lizardite-6T1; and septechlorite should not be used. The powder data of the serpentine group are in general, poor.

The concentrations of U, Th, and K in a charnockite-alkali granite intrusive complex from SW Sweden and associated, partly charnockitized country rocks are presented. The charnockitic components have constant low U and Th levels throughout the compositional range with a mean Th/U ratio of 1.2 to 1.5. The transition from charnockite to granite is marked by a sharp increase in Th and U concentrations with mean Th/U ratios increasing to 3.4 4.4. However, the K concentration increases relatively smoothly with increasing acidity through the compositional range studied. Late shearing of the alkali granite led to significant Th depletion with little change in the U and K concentrations. Charnockitization of the country rock granite gneisses is marked by depletion in Th and K while the U content is almost unchanged.

It is suggested that the behaviour of U and Th reflects the tendency for Th to associate with magma-dissolved water whilst U shows a greater affinity for coexisting free volatiles. In the absence of a significant free volatile phase during crystallization of this charnockite-granite suite, U was incorporated into primary mineral lattice sites whereas Th entered sites from which it could be liberated more easily.

Gahnite and columbite with compositions (Zn5.96Fe1.55Mg0.21Mn0.13)Σ7.85Al16.09O32 and (Nb7.36Ta0.60Mn2.95Fe0.98Ti0.09)Σ11.98O24 occur as accessory phases in a highly evolved garnetiferous muscovite alkalifeldspar granite. Both phases have developed as a result of a concentration of Zn, Nb, and Ta during the fmal stages of the fractional crystallization which led to the formation of the pluton, and the lack of a major mafic mineral such as biotite, in which these elements are normally camouflaged in granitoid rocks.

The Kenyan trachyte volcanoes Kilombe and Londiani show some unusual chemical features. Analyses of elements normally regarded as residual in salic peralkaline rocks do not show the linear covariance characteristic of these elements in other East African volcanoes. The scatter from expected trends is greatest for Y and the lanthanides, less for Nb and Rb, and not apparent for Zr. The lavas also show variable loss of Na, P, and Fe. It is suggested that this chemical deviation is the result of a deuteric event during the later stages of crystallization of the lavas. The flows showing the chemical deviations, in particular negative Ce anomalies, also tend to have their ferroaugite phenocrysts deuterically altered to a mineraloid closely resembling iddingsite.

During the crystallization of these trachyte lavas an H2O-, Cl-, and F-rich vapour separates from the liquid. This absorbs some elements, particularly Na, P, Fe, Y, and the lanthanides from the silicate liquid as water-soluble or volatile halides. Some of the absorbed material is redeposited in other parts of the flow and the rest is lost altogether as the vapour escapes from the surface.

Probably first found in Arabia, then Moctezuma, Sonora (the type locality), finally at Tombstone, Arizona. Crystals are cubic, invariably octahedral in habit, up to 2 mm in size. Colour forest green (RHS 136A), H = 3, D = 6.4.

Wet chemical analysis gave CuO 11.0%, PbO 33.0, TeO2 50.7, H2O 3.4; soluble in cold dilute acids. The strongest lines are 7.223(5), 4.170(2), 3.614(3), 3.472(4), 3.343(6), 3.036(10), 7.952(3), 2.454(5) Å. The cell indexes as cubic, a = 12.519 Å; for Z = 12, ρcalc = 6.41 g/cm3. May be anisotropic in thin section with birefringence up to 0.011; n = 2.04.

Hydrothermal uranium veins, associated with the Hercynian leucogranites show important variations in their mineralogical, chemical and structural features in relation to the host rock lithology. These are described with particular reference to the Chardon deposit, Vendée where the veins cut granite, basic lithologies, and shales. The following features are described:

1. 1 Changes in the thickness of veins near to contact zones, particularly those between granites and basic lithologies, lamprophyres, and shales.

2. 2 Changes in the gangue mineral assemblage with the preferential development of carbonate in veins cutting basic lithologies, and of silica in veins which cut granite.

3. 3 Paragenetic zoning in the veins in passing from granites to their metamorphic aureoles.

Comparisons between deposits of Vendée, Limousin, and Erzgebirge allow the following generalizations to be made:

1. 1 Open faults and subsequent mineralization are concentrated at boundaries between competent and more plastic lithologies.

2. 2 Mineralizing fluids cause wall-rock alteration characterized by the removal of Si from granite and of Ca, Mg, Fe from metamorphic and basic rocks.

3. 3 The chemical and structural characteristics of wallrocks are important controls on the mineralization but in acid lithologies the main controls on the pitchblende vein formation are the structural characteristics of the wallrock.

Allanite phenocrysts and co-existing glass from the perlitic obsidian of Sandy Braes have been analysed for nine rare earths (RE), uranium, and thorium by instrumental neutron activation analysis and for the major elements by electron microprobe. The chondritenormalized RE plot for the allanite shows a steep slope with a negative Eu anomaly. Allanite/glass partition coefficients show a smooth variation with ionic radius (except for Eu), the variation spanning two orders of magnitude. The partitioning behaviour, which is distinct from that shown by the RE in sphene, apatite, and zircon, can be explained by the allanite structure. The pronounced affinity of the light RE for allanite makes this an important mineral in considerations of RE concentrations during the evolution of granitic liquids.

Thermal aspects of the conflicting hypotheses that the acid magmas of the British Tertiary Igneous Province were generated by either fractional crystallization of basic magmas or partial fusion of country rocks around basic intrusions are investigated by combining petrological and experimental data. Sparse large xenoliths (up to 12 m2 outcrops) of Lewisian gneiss occur in the ferrodiorite member of the Marscoite Suite in the Western Redhills Eocene intrusive complex of Skye. Most of the blocks are of granodioritic-tonalitic gneiss which is very similar to the grey gneisses of the northern and southern regions of the mainland Lewisian. One is a two-pyroxene basic granulite, closely resembling in petrography and composition the granulite-facies basic gneisses of the central region of the Scottish mainland Lewisian. During Tertiary thermal metamorphism the xenoliths recrystallized patchily to pyroxene hornfelses and up to 50% of melting occurred in any parts of blocks that were rich in alkali feldspar and quartz. Microprobe analyses of intergrown Ca-rich and Ca-poor pyroxenes in a hornfelsed ultramafic mica pyroxenite lens within a leucogneiss block give a calculated temperature of 950 °C for the Tertiary metamorphism. Melting experiments at 1 kb PH2O were carried out on leucocratic and mesocratic Lewisian gneisses (from the xenoliths), Torridonian arkose and shale. Extensive melting of the leucogneiss and arkose, to peraluminous liquids, occurs within a few degrees above their solidus (715 °C). The silicate liquidus of the leucogneiss is at 930 °C. Microprobe analyses of the glass products of melting experiments (mostly of leucogneiss) show that liquid composition trends during progressive melting are consistent with theoretical equilibria in the synthetic system Ab-Or-An-Qz-H2O. Partial fusion in the Skye Lewisian gneiss xenoliths took place at a water vapour pressure of a few hundred bars, probably under water-undersaturated conditions.

The availability of reconnaissance scale geochemical maps for large areas of Canada enables spatial associations between major crustal structures and surface uranium content to be identified. Maps of the distribution of uranium for an area greater than 2 million km2 compiled from airborne gamma-ray spectrometry data are supplemented by maps for uranium, based on stream and lake sediment and some bore hole sampling. These are examined in relation to gravity, aeromagnetic and geological maps.

The radioelement distribution can be related in detail to exposed bedrock and surface geology, but in addition there is evidence of the control of uranium distribution by major structural features which are marked by granitoids containing elevated levels of radioelements; several of these granitoids are associated with large negative Bouguer gravity anomalies. The distribution of such granitoids appears to be related to ‘megashears’, as in the case of the South Mountain batholith in Nova Scotia, or zones of tension. A belt of uranium enrichment, the Athabasca axis which is characterized by uraniferous granitoids with negative Bouguer gravity anomalies and associated tension faulting extends 2500 km northeast-ward from Edmonton, Alberta to the Melville Peninsula. This structure passes under the Athabasca basin which contains many large uranium deposits. Recent evidence that granitoids enriched in radioelements can provide low-grade heat sources over periods of hundreds of millions of years, capable, in favourable situations of maintaining low-temperature hydrothermal circulation is considered to account for uranium and other mineralization in the basin. It is suggested that the transfer of radioelements into the crust at the end of the Lower Proterozoic, was a factor in the stabilization of North American craton.

Sections perpendicular to [001] of ion-thinned specimens of fibrous grunerite (amosite) have been examined by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. In this orientation, two kinds of dislocation have been observed with about equal frequency. One lies on [001] and has a Burgers vector a. The other is on [001] and has a Burgers vector ½a+½b Interpretation of features associated with these dislocations has been assisted by the use of two-dimensional models of I-beam cross-sections which can be interlocked to simulate the possible modes of stacking.

A new magnesium aluminium phosphate mineral with the ideal formula Mg5Al12(PO4)4(OH)22·nH2O (n ⋍ 32) has been named aldermanite. It occurs as minute talc-like flakes, partly as an alteration product of fluellite, thinly coating cracks and cavities in a brecciated metamorphosed rock phosphate at Moculta, South Australia. Strongest X-ray diffraction lines are 13.40 Å (100) 002, 7.98 Å (80) 011, 5.55 Å (60) 210; unit cell parameters a= 15.00±0.007, b=8.330±0.006, c= 26.60±0.01 Å, Z = 2.

This paper presents new data on the metasomatic development of zoned ultramafic balls from Fiskenaesset, West Greenland. Field and petrographic evidence indicate retrogression of original ultrabasic inclusions in acid country rock gneisses to serpentinemagnesite assemblages, followed by regional metamorphism and consequent development of the zonal structure upon metasomatic re-equilibration via a supercritical aqueous fluid phase confined to grain boundaries. The balls show varying degrees of deviation from an ideal sequence (antigorite-talc-tremolite-hornblende-chlorite-country rock) intimated by non-equilibrium thermo-dynamics, the currently accepted conceptual framework for the discussion of diffusion metasomatism.

Major and trace-element variations behave in a similar manner to those reported from other zoned ultramafic balls but fail to define the original country rock ultrabasic discontinuity unambiguously. It is tentatively suggested that application of the apparently systematic deviations from ideality may provide additional evidence.

The presence of a hornblende zone and absence of a continuous biotite zone are two significant differences from other zoned ultramafic bodies. The former may suggest increased mobility of the aluminium species at Fiskenaesset, the latter a lower temperature of formation or smaller K2O content of the gneissic hosts.

In Moinian metasediments regionally metamorphosed to sillimanite grade, garnet has subsequently been re-equilibrated in the inner (cordierite-potash feldspar) zone of the aureole of the Strontian Granodiorite. Zoning profiles of garnet from the aureole, and from surrounding regional assemblages, show retrograde Mnrich rims. Some regional garnets are also internally zoned. In the aureole as a whole, the partition measure for Fe and Mg between garnet and biotite shows a correlation with that for Ca between garnet and plagioclase. If interpreted in terms of a simple equilibrium model, this might suggest that pressure decreased with increasing temperature towards the granodiorite, but the trend can more plausibly be attributed to deviation from ideal solid-solution behaviour of Ca in garnet and plagioclase, with incomplete homogenization of garnet as a complicating factor in the outer parts of the aureole. From the difference in the temperature thresholds for garnet core equilibration, the timescale t2 of the thermal event relative to the regional t1 is estimated as t2/t1 ≅ 10−1.1±0.7, consistent with emplacement of the intrusion at an early stage of regional cooling.

The lead isotope systematics, zircon uranium concentrations and whole-rock rubidium concentrations of 11 Scottish Caledonian granites are examined for clues to the origin of their uranium. A positive correlation between U in zircon and initial lead isotope ratios suggests that U and Pb were derived from the same source which, as some of these granites contain their U in inherited zircons, is likely to have been within the crust. It is argued, therefore, that most of the uranium in these granites had a crustal derivation but lead isotope ratios indicate that any Lewisian contribution was minor in comparison with those from postulated Grenville, Morarian or Caledonian metamorphic reservoirs. However, additional data are required before this conclusion can be extended to include uraniferous Caledonian granites such as Cairngorm.

The origin of hydrous cordierite from a granulite-facies terrain in the Strangways Range, Central Australia, reported by Wilson (1978) is reviewed. In the light of geochemical and microstructural evidence for a metasomatic episode which affected the terrain subsequent to the growth of the cordierites, it is contended that the hydrous character of the cordierites results from hydration of the cordierite at this time. Extraneous argon also recorded in these cordierites may either have been incorporated into the cordierites at this time or at a later stage in the history of the terrain due to partial loss of radiogenic argon from micas which grew during the metasomatic episode. Furthermore, in view of the history of these cordierites, oxygen isotope values for the cordierites reported by Wilson are likely to be anomalous, and the isotopically light oxygen in the host granulites recorded by Wilson and Baksi (1978) probably reflects exchange with the metasomatic fluids which permeated the terrain.

Zoning in garnets in Barrovian garnet zone rocks of central Perthshire is shown to be dependent on the continuous prograde reaction histories in which the garnet was involved. In highly aluminous rocks, garnet grows at the expense of chloritoid and staurolite whereas in less aluminous rocks garnet grows at the expense of chlorite. Minerals included in garnet such as ilmenite, plagioclase, chlorite, and chloritoid show compositional changes which with the garnet zoning elucidate the garnet-forming reactions. Where garnet is resorbed to produce staurolite the former loses Fe at its rim to staurolite so that ‘reverse’ zoning of decreasing Fe and increasing Mn and Ca towards garnet rim develops.

Swing mill grinding causes appreciable oxidation of chlorite and biotite, and calcite becomes decarbonated. Magnetite is not affected. Relatively large grains can survive up to six minutes continuous grinding.

The distribution of uranium in a suite of variably deformed and metamorphosed rocks from the leucocratic member of the Glendessarry syenite has been determined using the fission track method. The uranium content of the magma increased during crystallization and uranium was concentrated in accessory minerals such as monazite, zircon, sphene, allanite, apatite, and microinclusions of a Zr- and Ti-rich phase. Contamination of the magma by pelitic metasediment enhanced the uranium content and monazite and zircon formed instead of sphene, allanite, and apatite.

Evidence of subsolidus uranium mobility in late stage magmatic or metamorphic fluids is presented here and shows: (a) Intracrystalline redistribution of uranium, especially in grains of sphene. (b) Intergranular mobility in a fluid phase, which affected the uraniferous accessory minerals in several ways.