terrane (ter-rane’) A fault-bounded body of rock of regional extent, characterized by a geological history different from that of contiguous terranes. A terrane is generally considered to be a discrete allochthonous fragment of oceanic or continental material added to a craton at an active margin by accretion. A. G. I. Glossary of Geology. 3rd edition, 1987.

Middle and Late Cambrian reefs were built mainly by cyanobacterial communities. A few reefs with a metazoan as well as an algal component, however, are known from this interval. A Middle Cambrian reef formed primarily by spicular demosponges is described here from the Mila Formation in the Elburz Mountains, northern Iran. The reef is enclosed within calcareous grainstones which contain terminal Middle Cambrian (late Mayan) trilobites. The Mila Formation reef was constructed by sponges of the family Anthaspidellidae and bacterial (algal?) sheaths, and is the earliest metazoan reef to be documented from the interval after the demise of archaeocyath sponges. The reefal community is typical of subsequent reefal communities of Early–Middle Ordovician age. The Ordovician examples differ only by the incorporation of additional metazoan elements.

Illite crystallinity data from the Lesser Himalaya of Garhwal show that the upper Paleocene-lower Eocene Subathu Formation, deposited immediately prior to or early in the Himalayan collision, has not suffered significant regional metamorphism. The regional metamorphism in the upper Precambrian–lower Palaeozoic Lesser Himalaya must therefore be precollisional. Illite crystallinity results from Lesser Himalayan fossiliferous Permian strata show grades of metamorphism intermediate between upper Paleocene–lower Eocene and Proterozoic–lower Palaeozoic strata indicating a pre-Permian regional metamorphism for the latter.

K–Ar whole rock cooling ages provide supporting evidence for pre-collisional regional metamorphism in the Lesser Himalaya. Slates and phyllites below the Main Central Thrust (MCT) show pre-Cenozoic whole rock ages, as old as Ordovician (486 Ma). Whilst resetting of K–Ar whole rock ages has occurred locally in pervasively cleaved Palaeozoic strata (near thrusts?), fracture cleaved Permian and upper Paleocene–lower Eocene sediments give whole rock ages compatible with diagenesis. The illite crystallinity results confirm that these sediments have not been heated above mica blocking temperatures.

Muscovite 40Ar–39Ar and K–Ar mineral ages within the 5 km thick MCT zone are as young as 8 Ma indicating that temperatures of above ~ 350°C were maintained in the MCT zone for over 10 Ma after high temperature (~ 550°C) shearing on the MCT. This heating did not affect the MCT footwall Lesser Himalaya to any regional extent, where pre-Permian low grade regional metamorphism has not been overprinted.

The time of the onset and the nature of the extension in the Aegean area have been problematic owing to the confusion of neotectonic replacement structures with neotectonic revolutionary structures. This paper concerns two rift systems of different ages and orientations in the Gökova region of southwestern Anatolia. The first system has a northwest—southeast trend with a Middle to Upper Miocene infill, whereas the second system is orientated in an east—west direction and filled with Plio-Quaternary rocks. Structural and palaeomagnetic data indicate that the first system originally had a north—south trend, and then bodily rotated anticlockwise to its present orientation before the end of the Miocene. Both the orientations and the structural patterns of these cross-cutting rift systems suggest that they resulted from two different and successive tectonic régimes. Regional geology suggests that the generative régime of the older system was characterized by north—south compression and related to the palaeotectonic evolution of southwestern Anatolia, whereas that of the younger system is characterized by north-south extension and relates to the neotectonic evolution of this region. This inference contradicts, at least in southwestern Anatolia, some recent claims that the extensional tectonics and the related rift formation in the Aegean region began in the early Miocene, with the alleged demise of the compressional palaeotectonics during the late Oligocene, but is consistent with older views that placed the onset of north—south extension into the later middle Miocene. The formation of the Aegean Sea seems to be the result of these two complicated and contrasting, succesive tectonic regimes that have affected this region since middle Miocene times.

The relationship between the supersaturation at the point of crystallization and the rate at which supersaturation increases has been studied from nucleation experiments on barite BaSO4, strontianite SrCO3, witherite BaCO3 and gypsum CaSO4.2H2O. The crystallization experiments have been carried out by the counter-diifusion of cations and anions through a column of porous silica gel transport medium. Nucleation is suppressed in a finely-porous medium resulting in very high values of supersaturation before crystallization from the solution begins. This threshold supersaturation for nucleation depends on the solubility of the salt, the porosity of the medium and the supersaturation rate. Nucleation inhibitors were used to extend the range of supersaturation attainable. In all cases the experimental data fits the general expression: rate of change of supersaturation ∝ (threshold supersaturation)m. These results are compared to previous work from the field of chemical engineering on the relationship between supersaturation, volume and cooling rate in aqueous salt solutions. These experiments have important implications to supersaturation in natural fluids and subsequent crystallization in relation to geological problems including crystallization in low temperature sedimentary environments and fluid-rock ratios in hydrothermal mineral deposits.

Mineral and whole-rock isotope data for a massive charnockite from Kottaram in the Nagercoil Block at the southern tip of Peninsular India yield Sm—Nd and Rb—Sr ages of 517 ± 26 Ma and 484 ± 15 Ma respectively. The Nd model age calculated for the charnockite is c. 2100 Ma. Our study reports the first Pan-African mineral isochron ages from regional charnockites of Peninsular India, which are in good agreement with the recently obtained ages of incipient charnockites in the adjacent blocks, as well as alkaline plutons within the same block. Our results indicate that the Pan-African tectonothermal event in the granulite blocks south of the Palghat—Cauvery shear zone was regional, with terrain-wide rejuvenation. These results correlate with similar Pan-African tectono-thermal events reported from Sri Lanka and East Antarctica, and have an important bearing on Gondwana reconstructions.

A global Chitinozoan biozonation for the Silurian Period is proposed. Each biozone is an interval range defined by the first occurrence of an index species, selected from well-defined species with a relatively short biostratigraphic range. To be included in the scheme, index species must have been recorded from at least two major Silurian palaeocontinents where usable Chitinozoa assemblages have been studied, that is, Avalonia—Baltica (which had already undergone collision by the Silurian), Laurentia, Gondwana and Southern China. Seventeen biozones are identified with seven in the Llandovery: the fragilis, postrobusta, electa, maennili, alargada, dolioliformis and longicollis biozones; four in the Wenlock: the margaritana, cingulata, pachycephala and lycoperdoides biozones; three in the Ludlow: the elongata, philipi and barrandei biozones; and three in the Přídolí: the kosovensis, elegans and superba biozones. Chronostratigraphic calibration is partly provided by reference to the range of the appropriate Chitinozoa index species in the global stratotype sections and points (GSSP) of the Silurian series, e.g. in Bohemia (Czech Republic) for the Přídolí and the Welsh Borderland in England for the Ludlow and part of the Wenlock. When this information was not available, independent biostratigraphic control was provided by calibration with graptolite biozones or in a few cases, conodont or trilobite biozonal schemes. The index and most characteristic species of each biozone are illustrated and their total stratigraphie range provided.

This paper is a revision of the standard chronostratigraphy of the Ordovician of the historical type area in England and Wales. The revision is a response to the need for more precise definitions of series and stages, especially for practical international correlation. In some cases this has entailed moving horizons for Series bases away from those in the classical sections. The scheme will be used as the standard for a forthcoming revision of the Correlation Chart of the British Ordovician System. The Ordovician is divided into five series: Tremadoc, Arenig, Llanvirn, Caradoc and Ashgill. The Llanvirn is extended to include part of the classical Llandeilo Series, which is included within it as a stage. Where stage subdivisions of standard series have not yet been defined, as in the Tremadoc, they are proposed in this paper. However, Bancroft’s fine stadial divisions of the Caradoc, which have been criticized for their brevity and local utility, are combined into four new stages, which will have wider application. The former Caradoc subdivisions are retained as substages for the purposes of regional correlation.

Offshore seismic reflection profiles crossing the Caledonian orogenic front (locally, ?Moine thrust) between Shetland and the Scottish Highlands show a singular coherent east-dipping reflection underlain by a highly reflective dipping zone in the middle crust extending down to the Moho discontinuity. This reflector pattern varies spatially with respect to the eastern edge of the Precambrian Lewisian foreland as well as to previously mapped locations of the Moine thrust. Southwest of Shetland, the reflector pattern coincides with the offshore projection of the Moine thrust, but further south, toward the Highlands, the reflector diverges to the west of the thrust and actually underlies autochthonous Lewisian foreland basement. Where this reflector pattern diverges from the Moine thrust, two interpretations are possible: the prominent reflector is part of a basement imbricate thrust duplex within the footwall (or ‘lower plate’) of the Moine thrust that merges with the thrust zone further north and/or it was originally a Proterozoic normal fault which, further north around Shetland, was reactivated or over-printed by the Moine thrust. The latter interpretation supports the importance of pre-existing crustal structure in controlling Caledonian compressional deformation.

The ˜ 7 km thick Freetown layered complex of Sierra Leone consists of four zones each composed of a cyclically layered sequence of troctolite, gabbro, olivine gabbro, gabbronorite, and anorthosite. The complex is thought by previous workers to have solidified in situ from a single parental magma without stratigraphic changes in mineral compositions. Evidence for cryptic variation is presented based on electron microprobe analyses of mega-unit Zone 3. Two reversals in olivine forsterite content, plagioclase anorthite content, and 100 Mg/(Mg Fe2) in clinopyroxene match the variations of Ni in olivine and Cr in clinopyroxene. These changes are consistent with a magma chamber that was open to periodic influxes of new magmas, and the mixing of new and fractionated resident magmas. Expansion of the magma chamber is thought to have occurred at 2000 m, corresponding to the level of a major influx.

The Cambrian sedimentary sequence in Israel and adjacent countries marks the beginning of the Phanerozoic sedimentation on the Arabian–Nubian craton. The maximal burial of this sequence, in the southernmost part of Israel, was approximaly 2.5 km. Manganese nodules hosted by shales of the marine Cambrian Timna Formation, Timna Valley, were subjected to K–Ar analysis in order to date their Mn-mineral formation. In addition, the <2 μm clay fraction in the host rock was dated by K–Ar and Rb–Sr methods. The K–Ar ages (average 365 ± 4 Ma) and Rb–Sr isochron (381 ± 10 Ma) of the illitic clay fraction yielded a Middle/Late Devonian age. The results imply that K–Ar and Rb–Sr systems of <2μm illites in the Cambrian host rocks, as well as those enclosed in the Mn nodule insoluble residues, were completely resetin a Middle/Late Devonian thermo-tectonic event, coeval with the beginning of a stratigraphically recorded epeirogenic uplift. The Mn-nodules which were studied fall into two types: (1) nodules constituted by massive, well-crystallized hollandite and pyrolusite; and (2) younger nodules of poorly crystallized massive hollandite and coronadite solid-solutions. Type-1 nodules yielded a calculated Early Cretaceous age of 112 ± 11 Ma, whereas type-2 nodules yielded calculated apparent dates of 20 and 49 Ma. The first age suggests a first stage of manganese nodule formation within the Timna Formation, in Early Cretaceous time, possibly genetically connected with the shallow basic intrusions and volcanic explosive activity in the area. The much younger K–Ar dates of type-2 Mn nodules may be due to late manganese remobilization and mineralization processes. This activity is interpreted as being related to the nearby Tertiary Dead Sea rifting, which was accompanied by low temperature hydrothermal processes.

Meta-sediments in the Larsemann Hills that preserve a coherent stratigraphy, form a cover sequence deposited upon basement of mafic–felsic granulite. Their outcrop pattern defines a 10 kilometre wide east–west trending synclinal trough structure in which basement–cover contacts differ in the north and the south, suggesting tectonic interleaving during a prograde, D1 thickening event. Subsequent conditions reached low-medium pressure granulite grade, and structures can be divided into two groups, D2 and D3, each defined by a unique lineation direction and shear sense. D2 structures which are associated with the dominant gneissic foliation in much of the Larsemann Hills, contain a moderately east-plunging lineation indicative of west-directed thrusting. D2 comprises a colinear fold sequence that evolved from early intrafolial folds to late upright folds. D3 structures are associated with a high-strain zone, to the south of the Larsemann Hills, where S3 is the dominant gneissic layering and folds sequences resemble D2 folding. Outside the D3 high-strain zone occurs a low-strain D3 window, preserving low-strain D3 structures (minor shear bands and upright folds) that partly re-orient D2 structures. All structures are truncated by a series of planar pegmatites and parallel D4 mylonite zones, recording extensional dextral displacements.

D2 assemblages include coexisting garnet–orthopyroxene pairs recording peak conditions of ∼ 7 kbar and ∼ 780°C. Subsequent retrograde decompression textures partly evolved during both D2 and D3 when conditions of ∼ 4–5 kbar and ∼ 750°C were attained. This is followed by D4 shear zones which formed around 3 kbar and ∼ 550°C.

It is tempting to combine D2–4 structures in one tectonic cycle involving prograde thrusting and thickening followed by retrograde extension and uplift. The available geochronological data, however, present a number of interpretations. For example, D2 was possibly associated with a clockwise P–T path at medium pressures around ∼ 1000 Ma, by correlation with similar structures developed in the Rauer Group, whilst D3 and D4 events occurred in response to extension and heating at low pressures at ∼ 550 Ma, associated with the emplacement of numerous granitoid bodies. Thus, decompression textures typical for the Larsemann Hills granulites maybe the combined effect of two separate events.

The westward continuation of the Highland Border fault of Scotland (HBFZ) into Ireland is problematic. It is widely thought to follow a pronounced magnetic and gravity lineament, the Fair Head-Clew Bay Line (FCL). The advantage of this interpretation is that it places all the Ordovician ophiolitic complexes and associated sedimentary basins to the south of the FCL, which would represent the contact between Laurentia and the outboard terranes. Its main shortcomings are that both the deep structure and timing of strike-slip are different on the HBFZ and FCL. In Ireland the FCL is a north-dipping feature that can be traced to the Moho on BIRPS profiles, while the HBFZ has no such signature. Terrane amalgamation in western Ireland was completed by the late Ordovician, while in Scotland the Midland Valley terrane did not finally dock until the early Devonian. These considerations suggest that in western Ireland a branch of the HBFZ exists, which was active in post-Ordovician time and must lie south of Connemara. An examination of Irish geological, geophysical and image-processed magnetic data shows that a profound lineament can be traced from Antrim to Galway Bay (the Antrim–Galway Line). Stitching plutons date movement on it as pre-405 Ma. We propose that the Antrim–Galway Line represents the continuation of the Scottish HBFZ, while the FCL is a preserved Ordovician splay of the HBFZ system whose northdipping geometry is a product of Ordovician collapse of the orogen in western Ireland.

Mafic dykes from the Øksfjord-Langfjord area were intruded at different stages during the prolonged tectonomagmatic evolution of the Seiland Igneous Province. Field relations, petrography and geochemistry indicate the presence of four dyke generations with alkali basalt composition and one generation of alkaline lamprophyres. The entire dyke suite has geochemical signatures consistent with formation in a within-plate geotectonic environment. Trace elements indicate that the alkali basalt dykes have OIB (ocean island basalt) affinities and we suggest a sublithospheric mantle source. The data support a rift-related origin for the Seiland Igneous Province. Longevity of magmatism in the Seiland Igneous Province (300 m.y.) is difficult to explain within a conventional mantle plume framework. Instead, it is proposed that the intermittent magmatism in the province was predominantly permissive and controlled by lithosphere structure.

In the Welsh Basin, turbidites of Llandovery age at Cwmerfyn, near Goginan (Devil’s Bridge Formation) and Neuadd Fawr, near Lampeter, contain similar, diverse, ichnofaunal assemblages, despite strong sedimentological differences between the two localities. The sediments at Cwmerfyn are a series of very thin- to thin-bedded silt/mud couplets. The silt-grade lower half of each couplet is ripple-cross- and/or planar-laminated; the mud-grade upper part is massive. At Neuadd Fawr, the strata are thin- to medium-bedded, and composed of fine- to medium-grained sand; individual beds are parallel-laminated or display pronounced convolute lamination. At both localities, the ichnofaunal assemblage is dominated by endostratal pascichnia observed on intrastratal, bedding-parallel, planes of splitting. All the ichnofauna is post-depositional. Both assemblages are dominated by examples of Nereites cambrensis and macleayii; examples of Neonereites uniserialis and biserialis, Protovirgularia dichotoma, Chondrites, Dictyodora scotica, Helminthoida crassa, two other ichnospecies of Nereites and examples of Nereites isp., Palaeophycus tubularis, Macaronichnus segregatus, Planolites beverleyensis and montanus and a ‘braided trace’ are also present. In contrast, the diverse ichnofaunal assemblage recorded from the Aberystwyth Grits Group by others is both pre-depositional and post-depositional in origin. The former include agrichnia (Paleodictyon and Squamodictyon) and cubichnia (Asteracites and Bergaueria), observed as secondary casts on the soles of turbidites. The differences in composition between this ichnofaunal assemblage and those at Cwmerfyn and Neuadd Fawr are interpreted to be a result of the degree of oxygenation of the sediment profile. In the Aberystwyth Grits, the producers of the agrichnia and cubichnia would have been able to tolerate reduced oxygen levels in the sediment profile, because they maintained a connection with an oxygenated water column. The post-depositional component of the Aberystwyth Grits assemblage is interpreted to represent opportunistic colonization of the sediment profile during short intervals of elevated oxygen conditions produced by episodic turbidite deposition. The producers of the endostratal pascichnia at Cwmerfyn and Neuadd Fawr did not maintain connections with the water column, implying the presence of oxygenated interstitial porewaters during their emplacement.

The Lower Cambrian Leny Limestone at Callander in Scotland lies within a sequence of palecoloured grits and dark slates (here named the Keltie Water Grit Formation (KWGF)) which has lithological similarities with members of the Highland Border Complex (HBC) (Ordovician) seen elsewhere along the Highland Border. The Keltie Water Grit Formation has a transitional boundary with a grit-slate sequence of undoubted Dalradian parentage; as the ‘Leny Grits’ of previous workers include both the KWGF and part of the Dalradian sequence, this term is now rendered invalid. The entire sequence youngs upwards from the Dalradian to the top of the overlying Keltie Water Grit Formation, shares the same structural sequence and geometry, and has the same facing and vergence direction on the main cleavage. All field and petrographic data are consistent with a minimum age of post-early Cambrian for the Grampian event, the main orogenic event to affect the Dalradian. Examination of critical sections elsewhere across the Highland Border shows that there is an apparently consistent stratigraphical and structural relationship between the Highland Border Complex and the Dalradian which, as suggested by some previous workers, would require the Grampian event to be post-Arenig in age. However, we are faced with a so-far unresolved paradox that there are certain palaeontological and radiometric data which are in conflict with this conclusion, and support the alternative hypothesis that the Highland Border Complex docked with the Dalradian in post-Ordovician times.

A 2-m-thick bed of sandstone and conglomerate in early Cretaceous desert sediments in the Andes of northern Chile contains thousands of scattered pterosaur bones. The bed displays sedimentary features which suggest that it was the product of a single major flood event. It seems possible that a large pterosaur colony was overwhelmed by the waters of an exceptional flood sweeping across a flat alluvial plain.

The Llanrwst Pb–Zn and Llanfair–Talhaiarn Cu–Pb–Zn orefields contain vein mineralization similar to Lower Palaeozoic-hosted base metal deposits elsewhere in the British Isles, which are believed to have formed in the late Palaeozoic. K–Ar and Rb–Sr data on intensely sericitized wallrock material indicate that the main phase of mineralization at both orefields occurred between the mid-Devonian and theTournasian (386–350 Ma). The latest veins at Llanrwst formed in Visean–Westphalian times. Gangue mineral Sr isotope compositions indicate a mixture of radiogenic wallrock-derived Sr with less radiogenic Sr, with a poorly-defined trend to more radiogenic compositions with time.

The age of the main mineralization precludes dewatering of Carboniferous basins as a source of ore fluid. More generally Sr isotopes rule out unmodified basinal brines or metamorphic fluids as mineralizing agents, since their Sr content would be too radiogenic. Local sources of unradiogenic Sr are available at Llanrwst in metadolerites and calcareous sandstones and at Llanfair–Talhaiarn in thin Ludlow Limestone beds.

The plutonic rocks of the Antarctic Peninsula magmatic arc form one of the major batholiths of the circum-Pacific rim. The Antarctic Peninsula batholith is a 1350 km long by < 210 km wide structure which was emplaced over the period ˜240 to 10 Ma, with a Cretaceous peak of activity that started at 142 Ma and waned during the Late Cretaceous. Early Jurassic and Late Jurassic–Early Cretaceous gaps in intrusive activity probably correspond to episodes of arc compression. In a northern zone of the Antarctic Peninsula, the batholith intrudes Palaeozoic–Mesozoic low-grade meta-sedimentary rocks, and in a central zone it intrudes schists and ortho- and paragneisses which have Late Proterozoic Nd model ages and were deformed during Triassic to Early Jurassic compression. In a southern zone the oldest exposed rocks are Permian sedimentary rocks and deformed Jurassic volcanic and sedimentary rocks. All these pre-batholith rocks formed a belt of relatively immature crust along the Gondwana margin. With few exceptions, Jurassic plutons crop out only within the central zone: many are peraluminous, having ‘S-like’ mineralogies and relatively high 87sr/86sri. They are considered to consist largely of partial melts of upper crust schists and gneisses and components of mafic magmas that caused the partial fusion. By contrast, Early Cretaceous plutons crop out along the length of the batholith. Few magma compositions appear to have been affected by upper crust, the bulk being compositionally independent of the type of country rock they intrude. They are dominated by metaluminous, calcic, Si-oversaturated, 1-type granitoid rocks with relatively low 87sr/86sri intermediate-silicic compositions (< 5% MgO). We interpret these to represent partial melts of basic to intermediate, igneous, locally garnet-bearing, lower crust. Contemporaneous mafic magmas (e.g. syn-plutonic dykes) form a more alkaline, Si-saturated series having higher 143Nd/144Nd at the same87sr/86sr than the intermediate-silicic series, to which they are not petrogenetically related. The change from limited partial fusion of upper crust in Jurassic times to widespread partial fusion of lower crust in Early Cretaceous times is considered to be a result of an increasing volume of basaltic intrusion into the crust with time.

A new lithostratigraphy is presented for the Skiddaw Group (lower Ordovician) of the English Lake District. Two stratigraphical belts are described. Five formations are defined in the Northern Fells Belt, ranging in age from Tremadoc to early Llanvirn. They are all mudstone or sandstone dominated, of turbidite origin; in ascending order they are named the Bitter Beck, Watch Hill, Hope Beck, Loweswater and Kirk Stile formations. Two formations are defined in the Central Fells Belt, ranging in age from late Arenig to Llanvirn. These are the Buttermere Formation – a major olistostrome deposit – overlain by the Tarn Moor Formation, consisting of turbidite mudstones with volcaniclastic turbidite sandstone beds. A revised graptolite and new acritarch biostratigraphy for the Skiddaw Group is presented with eight graptolite biozones and thirteen acritarch assemblages and sub-assemblages. The provenance of the group is assessed from detailed petrographical and geochemical work. This suggests derivation, in the early Ordovician, largely from an old inactive continental arc terrane lying to the southeast, with the appearance of juvenile volcanic material in the Llanvirn. Comparisons and correlations of the Skiddaw Group are made with the Isle of Man and eastern Ireland.