A method of epithermal neutron activation analysis for uranium and thorium is discussed in relation to other rapid analytical methods for these elements. Caledonian granites are divided into four main groups on the basis of U and Th contents: (a) a group of evolved late granites with high U and Th contents and high Th/U ratios, (b) a group of uranium-enriched mineralized granites, (c) granites containing approximately average levels of U and Th, and (d) a group of granites with low thorium content.

Liquids in the system CaO-Na2O-MgO-Al2O3-SiO2 which crystallize plagioclase and forsterite, often with diopside and sometimes with spinel, were studied. The movement of the plagioclase-forsterite saturation surface to higher plagioclase contents as albite replaces anorthite, and the concurrent expansion of the forsterite and diopside primary fields, are documented. The maximum temperature of the liquid in equilibrium with plagioclase, diopside, and forsterite decreases as the anorthite to albite ratio decreases and as enstatite is added, and was experimentally determined over part of its range from 1278 to 113°C The decrease was not linear, being generally small even when 67 mole% albite was present, and thereafter, it must decrease rapidly to reach the values reported for the system albite-diopside-forsterite.

The thermal expansion of iron end-member staurolite has been studied by high-temperature powder X-ray diffraction methods and by modelling with the Distance Least Squares (DLS) computer program. The X-ray approach was complicated by dehydroxylation of the staurolite. Mean linear expansion coefficients for the a, b, and c cell edges of dehydroxylated staurolite determined by the X-ray method are (× 10−6 °C−1); 20–500 °C, 8.93, 8.23, and 7.95, respectively, and 20–800 °C, 7.85, 9.43, and 9.13, respectively. Expansion coefficients of a, b, and c calculated for hydroxylated staurolite using the DLS program over the same temperature ranges are (7.86, 7.18, and 7.55 × 10−6 °C−1) and (7.87, 7.17, and 7.57 × 10−6 °C−1). The good agreement between the results from the two methods supports the use of computer modelling in estimating the thermal expansion behaviour of complex structures. The latter approach could be preferable for studying hydrated minerals.

A number of geothermometers and geobarometers involving coexisting garnet, biotite, and cordierite have been used to calculate the pressures and temperatures of metamorphism of the Cashel thermal aureole in Connemara. Temperatures from the garnetbiotite thermometer show a wide variation between calibrations, and are markedly different from those obtained from the garnet-ordierite thermometer. These variations, together with the possibility of extensive reequilibration between garnet and cordierite rims and biotite, indicate that the use of exchange reaction thermometry, for these rocks at least, may be invalid. The various calibrations of the garnet-cordierite-sillimanitequartz geobarometer give reasonably consistent pressure estimates which, after allowance for partial pressures of water, indicate pressures of metamorphism of about 5±1 kb.

A rich vein of silver and silver-lead sulphosalt minerals was discovered in 1906 in the Meerschaum Mine, on the Sunnyside goldfield at Mt. Wills, in northeastern Victoria. Andorite, miargyrite, tetrahedrite (freibergite), owyheeite, and argentian gold are the main silver-bearing minerals present, and sphalerite, pyrite, arsenopyrite, and covelline also occur in the vein.

The vein was probably emplaced under epithermal conditions from ore fluids accompanying the intrusion of the Mt. Wills granite. The main silver-bearing minerals were probably deposited at temperatures ranging from about 350 ° to below 300 °C.

Two types of zoning are found in garnets from Lewisian rocks. One is due to retrogression of an earlier homogeneous garnet while the other results from growth (or equilibration) during falling temperatures. Both zoning patterns result from metamorphism during or after the Dionard tectonic phase of the Laxfordian event.

Clinopyroxenes are dominant in highly potassic, silica undersaturated mafic volcanics occurring on the western rim of the uplifted, rifted East African craton. A kimbcrlite style of eruption provides nodules of alkali clinopyroxenite (clinopyroxene + titaniferous phlogopite+titanomagnetite, apatite, sphene, and rare corroded olivine) which have similar bulk chemistry to the feldspathoid-bearing lavas. Many nodules display metasomatic textures supporting a formation from the alteration of pre-existing material; clinopyroxene growth is characterized by complex, non-oscillatory colour zoning. Comparison of natural clinopyroxene chemistry with published data for elinopyroxenes crystallized from synthetic potassium-rich mafic material, suggests that a significant proportion of the nodules crystallized at upper-mantle pressures. Neither garnet- nor orthopyroxene-bearing nodules have ever been recorded from south-west Uganda, suggesting that metasomatism of the local mantle has proceeded far enough to obliterate all recognizable remnants of four-phase lherzolite.

Trace element variations in stream sediments from an area of 76 000 km2 in central Colorado are used to identify uraniferous granitoids on the basis of whole rock geochemical criteria developed to distinguish barren from metalliferous granitoids in Britain. These criteria (which include enhanced Ba, Be, Cs, Cs/Ba, K, La/Eu, Li, Lu/Eu, Nb, Rb, Rb/K, low Sr and Mg, and RE patterns with marked negative Eu anomalies) are used to formulate an index based on the Pikes Peak batholith of the Front Range as a type uranium source rock.

Uraniferous granitoids in Colorado, which are associated with sedimentary basins containing major uranium mineralization, are identified using this index which may be applicable to the interpretation of stream sediments from elsewhere. The use of stream sediment geochemistry as an exploration method for similar uranium source rocks, which may indicate potential uranium provinces, is thus possible.

New mineral data for kyanite-bearing eclogites supplement existing data for eclogite nodule suites from the Roberts Victor and Bellsbank kimberlite intrusions, South Africa. Calculation of equilibration temperatures using the refined KD calibration of Ellis and Green (1979) indicates that the majority of these eclogites equilibrated over a considerably narrower range (940–1185 °C) than implied by earlier estimates which did not take account of the influence of the Ca-component of garnet on KD. Most of the Roberts Victor diamondiferous eclogites appear to have equilibrated in the lower part of this range, whilst the equilibration temperatures for the Roberts Victor diamond-free eclogites extend to higher values than those from Bellsbank. The petrogenetic implications of the (calculated) temperature and pressure equilibration conditions for these eclogite suites are discussed with particular reference to possible uppermantle geotherms and available data on the graphitediamond transition boundary.

In order to be able to use the nature and scale of the exsolution microstructures developed in titanomagnetites as quantitative indicators of thermal history, it is necessary to have available accurate diffusion data for the system. Diffusion data for pure magnetite and Ti-poor titanomagnetites are available, but no data for diffusion in the centre of the solid-solution series exist. In order to obtain values for the activation energy (ΔE) and the pre-exponential factor (D0) for the interdiffusion of Fe and Ti in ulvöspinel-rich titanomagnetites, the natural microstructures developed in titanomagnetites from the Taberg intrusion, Sweden, were homogenized over a range of temperatures from 490 to 730 °C. From the model describing homogenization, values of 49.8 kcal mole−1 and 2.38 × 10−3 cm2 s−1 were calculated for ΔE and D0 respectively. Although the results obtained from these homogenization experiments are slightly less accurate than those which could be obtained by more conventional methods, the homogenization technique has several advantages which outweigh this drawback, namely the ease with which the experiment can be performed and the fact that the diffusion data can be obtained at significantly lower temperatures than is usually possible with more conventional methods.

Sediments from DSDP 424, a core taken in a hydrothermal mound in the Galapagos Mounds Field, comprise biogenic oozes, siliceous ash-rich layers and two varieties of hydrothermal precipitates, an Fe-rich clay (nontronite), and Mn oxides. Compositionally, these sediments differ considerably from one another and vary in proportion down the core to basement. Geochemical partition studies on the sediments have indicated a variable fractionation of the elements that they contain between clays, carbonate, and Mn oxides with the hydrothermal phases being strongly depleted in trace elements. The hydrothermal sediments are thought to have been formed as a result of the fractional precipitation of Fe silicates and Mn oxides from ascending hydrothermal solutions which are depleted in trace elements due to subsurface precipitation of sulphides, and have had insufficient time to scavenge trace metals from sea water due to their rapid precipitation.

The uraninite-albite veins of the Mistamisk area occur in the argillite member of the Dunphy Formation, which is near the base of the slightly meta-morphosed Lower Proterozoic sequence of the central Labrador Trough. The vein minerals are albite, uraninite, dolomite, and chlorite, and minor quantities of quartz, tellurides, sulphides, gold, and organic material. Pitchblende and calcite are related to late remobilization.

The veins were deposited in fractures by hydrothermal solutions, and metasomatism caused albitization of wall rocks. Fluid inclusions have an unusual composition, described here for the first time in connection with soda-metasomatism; the aqueous solution of the inclusions is oversaturated in NaCl and contains Ca2+ and Mg2+, and the gas phase mostly consists of N2, CO and CO2. The presence of hematite and absence of hydrocarbons indicates that the vein-forming solution was oxidizing.

The temperature and pressure of vein formation, estimated from fluid inclusion data, was 300°–350° and 2.5 kbar respectively consistent with the composition of the phengite which is a common metamorphic mineral of the host rock. Vein emplacement occurred in the waning stages of the Hudsonian Orogeny, the hydrothermal solution possibly originating by metamorphism of sodic schists of the Mistamisk area, which are possibly of evaporitic origin.

Apatite concentrates obtained from a carbonatite of the Tororo complex contain cogenetic fluid and solid primary inclusions. The solid inclusions are commonly composed of calcite and shortite and these minerals, together with the host apatite, were deposited from aqueous fluids at approximately 400°C.

Hydrohonessite has a composition that can be expressed by the formula [Ni8-x2+Fex+(OH)16] [x/2SO2-4.yH2O.zNiSO4], where x is approximately 2.6, y is 7, and z is 1. The X-ray powder diffraction pattern has strongest lines at 11.0 (10), 5.56 (5), 3.68 (4), and 2.709 Å (3), and can be indexed on a hexagonal unit cell with a = 3.09 Å and c = 10.80 Å. It is optically uniaxial negative with ɛ = 1.59 and ω = 1.63; bright yellow in hand specimen and transmitted light. Hydrohonessite is the hydrated equivalent of honessite, and is related to carrboydite, motukoreaite, and mountkeithite. These minerals are related to brucite and pyroaurite-type minerals in that they have a layered structure consisting of brucite-like layers separated by about 7 Å of interlayer material consisting predominantly of water, but also containing anions that balance the charge of the brucite-like layer. Hydrohonessite is a secondary mineral resulting from the weathering of Ni-Fe sulphides, and appears to be stable between pH 6 and 7.

Data for U, Th, and K, determined by neutron activation analysis, in 128 rock samples from 14 Irish Caledonian and Tertiary granite plutons are sum-marized. Irish Newer Caledonian granites (ninety-four samples) have values of radioelements (average 3.6 ppm U, 12.1 ppm Th, and 3.4% K) consistent with derivation from a source of broadly uniform composition. U mineralization occurs in the voluminous and forcefully emplaced Main Donegal and Leinster plutons whereas smaller passively emplaced granites (Galway, Barnesmore, Rosses) lack mineralization. Irish Tertiary granites (thirty-four samples), which represent small batches of highly fractionated acid magmas, show moderate or high radioelement contents (11.5 ppm U, 39.9 ppm Th, 4.5% K) but are not mineralized. It is concluded that the use of elevated radioelement contents as a criterion of granite ‘fertility’ may be misleading in the British Isles Caledonian Province. The radioelement chemistry of granites may reflect their source composition more closely than expected for differentiated and/or contaminated acid melts.

Högbomite from Reedy Creek, South Australia, is of a composition outside the previously reported range. It contains less Ti and Mg and more Al and total Fe, with a total Fe/(total Fe + Mg) value between 0.69 and 0.72. The högbomite occurs in unusual cordieritesillimanite aggregates containing minor magnetite, ilmenite, hematite, corundum, and hercynite.

Honessite and hydrohonessite from Unst, Shetland, and Linden, Wisconsin, are sulphate-containing members of the pyroaurite group and are analogous to reevesite. The structural formula can be written (Ni5.55Mg0.10Fe2.353+)(OH)16(SO4)1.18.xH2O for the Unst material, with sulphate groups replacing the interlayer carbonate groups in reevesite. Microprobe analyses of the Unst material show amounts of SO3 in excess of that required to balance all trivalent cations and this may be due to the presence of an amorphous nickel sulphate material. We find no evidence for the presence of trivalent nickel in honessite.

The Unst material occurs in both 8.8 (honessite) and 11.1 Å (hydrohonessite) forms, depending on composition, humidity, and temperature, similar to carrboydite, motukoreaite, and SO4-exchanged takovite. The Wisconsin material occurs only with an 8.8 A basal spacing. The increase from the 7.7 Å basal spacing of reevesite is due to the difference in molecular geometry of carbonate and sulphate groups. The presence of the sulphate molecule is unambiguously shown by the infra-red spectra, and the observed bands are consistent with the sulphate groups lying in the interlayer with their trigonal axes parallel to c. The Unst material is found intimately mixed in variable proportions with reevesite, distributed in patches on chromite, and the mixed nature is revealed by X-ray powder diffraction, by variations in total SO3 content, and by the presence of absorptions due to both SO2-4 and CO2-3 in the infra-red spectra.

A set of pyribole structures can be derived from a model I-beam containing two distinct silicate chains in which the tetrahedra are rotated by different amounts. The model allows some tetrahedral distortion and is not bound by the parity rule (Thompson, 1970). A subset of pyribole structures which includes all the commonly occurring types can be defined using a new rule: that the structure may contain two types of tetrahedral layer, but no tetrahedral layer may contain two types of tetrahedral chain. This rule is more fundamental than the parity rule and has its origin in the optimization of the edge-to-edge packing of the tetrahedral chains into layers. Pnm21 (amphibole) and Pbc21 (pyroxene) emerge as space groups for ‘low protopyriboles’. The approach used here leads naturally to the − and × -chains notation of Thompson used by Veblen and Burnham (1978).

Wollastonite is reported, for the first time in Iceland, in hydrothermally altered basaltic rocks in the Krafla high-temperature geothermal area, northern Iceland. Two possible modes of origin are suggested: (1) A contact metamorphic origin at the expense of hydrothermal quartz and calcite near the margins of dykes. (2) A hydrothermal origin at depths below 1000 m where fluid temperatures exceed 300°C.