We present new stable (C, O) isotopic, biostratigraphic and organic geochemical data for the Vigla Shale Member of the Ionian Zone in NW Greece, in order to characterize organic carbon-rich strata that potentially record the impact of Cretaceous Oceanic Anoxic Events (OAEs). In a section exposed near Gotzikas (NW Epirus), we sampled a number of decimetre-thick, organic carbon-rich units enclosed within marly, locally silicified, Vigla Limestone (Berriasian–Turonian). All these units are characterized by largely comparable bulk geochemical characteristics, indicating a common marine origin and low thermal maturity. However, the stratigraphically highest of these black shales is further distinguished by its much higher total organic-carbon (TOC) content (28.9 wt%) and Hydrogen Index (HI) (529), and much enriched δ13Corg value (−22.1%‰). Planktonic foraminiferal and calcareous nannofossil biostratigraphy indicate a lower to middle Albian age for the strata immediately above, and a lower Aptian age for the strata below, the uppermost black shale. In terms of molecular organic geochemistry, the latter black shale is also relatively enriched in specific isoprenoidal compounds (especially monocyclic isoprenoids), whose isotopic values are as high as −15‰, indicating a substantial archaeal contribution to the organic matter. The striking similarities between the molecular signatures of the uppermost Vigla black shale and coeval organic-rich strata from SE France and the North Atlantic (ODP Site 1049C) indicate that this level constitutes a record of the Paquier Event (OAE 1b).

The thermal and compositional conditions of magma chambers constrain the type and complexity of their metasomatic aureoles. Fragments of these aureoles, disrupted during explosive eruptions of Vesuvius, provide quenched snapshots of interactions between potassic magmas and carbonate country rocks. Near the highly crystallized peripheral portions of the chambers, represented by magmatic xenoliths (fergusites, syenites and pyroxenites), skarn aureoles form. Open conduit reservoirs and the lower portions of plinian and subplinian eruption magma chambers develop aureoles controlled by diffusive metasomatism by high-T-modified silicate melts, generating magmatic skarn. In contrast, infiltrative metasomatism by magmatic fluids exsolved from crystallizing margins is responsible for endoskarn (magmatic protolith) and exoskarn (carbonate protolith) formation in the upper portions of plinian and subplinian eruption magma chambers.

Palaeogene trace fossils penetrate the uppermost Cretaceous sediments in the Agost section, Betic Cordillera, SE Spain. Chondrites ?targionii, Zoophycos isp., Planolites isp. A, Planolites isp. B, ?Thalassinoides isp. A, Thalassinoides isp. B, Thalassinoides isp. C, Alcyonidiopsis longobardiae, and Diplocraterion ?parallelum have been identified. A well-developed endobenthic tiering pattern is interpreted. The uppermost tier (A) represents major benthic activity in the shallowest sediments at or just below the seafloor, recorded as bioturbated background (only discrete rare Planolites). The next upper tier (B) displays the highest trace-fossil diversity, with Planolites in the shallow levels, and Thalassinoides and Alcyonidiopsis at slightly deeper ones. The intermediate tier (C) contains randomly distributed Thalassinoides and Alcyonidiopsis, cross-cut by Zoophycos and large and medium-sized Chondrites. The deepest tier (D) contains Zoophycos, cross-cut by medium- and mainly small-sized Chondrites. Two interpretations are proposed: (1) vertical partitioning of a singled multi-tiered community under steady-stable conditions in well-oxygenated water bottom, reflecting gradual changes deep into the sediment, with decreasing oxygen pore water and benthic food, and increasing substrate consistency, and (2) sequential colonization and community replacement, reflecting the work of two successive communities. The first community, mainly represented by Planolites, Alcyonidiopsis and Thalassinoides, was produced in a shallow, oxygenated soft substrate. Probably related to decreasing oxygen content and benthic food availability, this community was replaced by deeply burrowing organisms that produced Zoophycos and Chondrites. This sequential colonization can be determined by changes in environmental parameters related to the Cretaceous–Palaeogene (K–T) event, or may have resulted from normal ecological and early diagenetic processes.

A study of the décollement zones in the Moffat Shale Group in the Ordovician Northern Belt of the Southern Uplands of Scotland reveals a progressive sequence of deformation and increased channelization of fluid flow. The study concentrates on exposures of imbricated Moffat Shale on the western coast of the Rhins of Galloway. Initial deformation occurred in partially lithified sediments and involved stratal disruption and shearing of the shales. Deformation then became more localized in narrower fault zones characterized by polyphase hydrothermal fluid flow/veining events. Deformation continued after vein formation, resulting in the development of low-temperature crystal plastic microstructures and further veining. Late-stage deformation is recorded as a pressure solution event possibly reflecting the cessation of slip on these faults as the slice became accreted. Most deformation can be ascribed to SE-directed thrusting and incorporation of the individual sheets into the Southern Uplands thrust stack. Later sinistral shear deformation, not observed in overlying turbidites, is also localized in these fault zones. The study reveals the likely structures formed at levels of an accretionary prism deforming under diagenetic to low-grade metamorphic conditions.

Whole-rock geochemical and Sm/Nd isotope data are presented for a representative suite of crustal rocks from the Pindos Ophiolite in order to resolve the origin of the geochemical signature of the boninites. Comparison is made with Triassic MORB from the Avdella mélange and with other ophiolitic rocks of northwestern Greece. Hydrothermal alteration results in large scatter in Sr and K and some variability in Ba, Th and U. The Pindos boninites contain high Zr and Hf with respect to REE, characteristic of many boninites. Pb, La/Sm and Nb decrease with decreasing TiO2 from MORB to IAT, but then increase in the boninites. Nd isotopic values expressed as εNd decrease systematically with decreasing TiO2, from 7–8 in IAT to 0.6–3.0 in boninites. As mantle wedge harzburgite became increasingly depleted, another magma source contributed significant amounts of Pb, REE and probably Nb. The Pb and other large-ion lithophile elements may have been transported in aqueous solutions from the subducting slab, but the REE and Nb imply an ocean-island basalt (OIB)-type source within the mantle wedge. This OIB source is a consequence of mantle plume activity during late Triassic rifting.

In the eastern Mendip Hills, on the northern margin of the Wessex Basin, SW England, the Carboniferous Limestone is cut by numerous fissures that are filled with Mesozoic sediments (sedimentary dykes, neptunian dykes). The fissures contain a record of Triassic–Lower Jurassic sediments that are only sparingly preserved in their normal stratigraphical position between the Carboniferous Limestone and the unconformably overlying Upper Inferior Oolite of Bajocian age. Detailed analysis of cross-cutting relationships, facies analysis, biostratigraphy, lithostratigraphy and strontium-isotope ages of relevant Mesozoic sediments has allowed the construction of an Upper Triassic–Lower Jurassic fissure-fill stratigraphy for the eastern Mendip area. Most fissures were clearly formed by rapid influx of unlithified sediment from the land surface or sea floor. Some smaller cavities, or larger cavities with restricted access to the unconformity, were apparently filled by sediment that trickled down into the fissure system. The vast majority of the Mendip fissures are interpreted as having formed as a response of the Carboniferous Limestone, north of major basin-bounding faults, to pulses of tectonic extension during Ladinian–Norian/Rhaetian, late Hettangian–early Sinemurian, late Sinemurian–early Pliensbachian, mid-Pliensbachian, late Pliensbachian and Bajocian times. Triassic–earliest Jurassic fissures have a broad spread of strike from E–W to NW–SE to N–S, accommodating extension in a roughly NE–SW direction. Younger Jurassic fissures show well-defined E–W and N–S trends with the former becoming dominant through time. Total extension of ∼4.7% N–S and ∼0.6% E–W was produced by the formation of Triassic–Jurassic fissures within the Carboniferous Limestone. Such patterns of extension are thought likely to be characteristic of the subsurface geology in much of southern England and Wales. Major implications of this study are that: (1) the presence of seismically unresolvable sediment-filled fissures in supposedly rigid fault blocks can lead to a significant underestimate of regional extension based on the restoration of motion on normal faults on seismic-reflection profiles, and (2) the isolation of pulses of tectonic activity with a temporal resolution of 105–106 years may provide a means of identifying a tectonic signal in relative sea-level curves derived from the Jurassic sedimentary record.

Conodont faunas from the Eoplacognathus pseudoplanus Zone in five main areas of Middle Ordovician rocks in Sweden are described and discussed and compared with faunas of comparable age from neighbouring areas. The investigation is based on 118 samples which together yielded 175 114 conodont elements. The Swedish conodont faunas are intermediate between shallower-water faunas from the eastern part of Baltica and deeper-water faunas towards the west. Correlation with the Yangtze platform of south-central China is fairly easy, and the occurrence of key taxa, such as Histiodella, makes it also possible to correlate some levels with Laurentia. Although faunal lists for the Swedish localities are almost identical, the conodont taxa have their relative abundance maxima in separate areas: species of Protopanderodus and Periodon are most common in deeper-water settings, Eoplacognathus, Baltoniodus and Microzarkodina characterize intermediate areas, and Semiacontiodus is typical of shallow subtidal environments

Quartz-rich xenoliths hosted in the basaltic–andesitic and andesitic lavas of Monte dei Porri, in the island of Salina, contain fluid and melt inclusions whose study makes it possible to trace back the magma ascent path of this volcano; moreover, they are a source of information about the anatectic processes that occurred under this island. The texture, mineralogy and whole-rock chemistry of these rocks exhibit the typical characteristics of a residual rock which went through several melt extraction events. The chemistry of melt inclusions hosted inside quartz grains (SiO2>72.7%, Al2O3=9.0–13.5%, CaO=0.2–4.3%, K2O>3.1%, MgO, FeOt≤1.5%) supports the hypothesis that a progressive and continuous anatectic processes affected a peraluminous high-grade metamorphic rock (gneiss or micaschist), that constituted the Calabro–Peloritani basement and generated a quartz-bearing residue. The fluids trapped inside these inclusions are rarely composed of high-density CO2, with a homogenization temperature to liquid phase (ThL) within the range 26.2–31.0°C, corresponding to densities of 520 to 690 kg/m3. More commonly, they are made up of low-density CO2, with a homogenization temperature to vapour phase (ThV) within the range 13.2–31.0°C, corresponding to density values of 150 to 460 kg/m3. It is proposed that, during ascent, batches of magma rising from the mantle sampled various fragments of a residual rock from a depleted metamorphic basal layer and carried them to the surface. Magmas probably stopped inside at least two distinct reservoirs located at different depths (≤12.7 km and between 1.7 and 4.7 km), in which they underwent fractional crystallization. The ascent speed of the xenolith-bearing magmas from the deeper storage area to the shallower reservoir was fairly high, as confirmed by the low number of high-density fluid inclusions preserved that show re-equilibration features, and by the contemporaneous presence of denser cumulitic Ol+Cpx±Opx xenoliths in the host lava.