The pyroxene assemblages of four samples of ferrodolerite from the Mesozoic Mount Wellington sill of southern Tasmania are described. The pyroxenes of each sample define an Fe-enrichment trend equivalent to almost half of a Skaergaard-type pyroxene evolution trend. The calcic pyroxenes range from augite to ferroaugite (Ca30–40Mg40–17Fe15–45) and late-stage hedenbergite (Ca45 Mg5Fe50), and the pigeonites from intermediate to ferriferous types (Ca13Mg55–15Fe32–70). XMg numbers (Mg/(Mg + Fe)) of the calcic pyroxenes vary from 0.8 to 0.1, and of the calcium-poor pyroxenes (pigeonites) from 0.62 to 0.17. The chemical variation in the pyroxenes within individual samples is far greater than between the different samples. One sample contains an extremely wide range of pyroxenes which include some of the most ferriferous pigeonites ever recorded (Ca14Mg15 Fe71). Ti and Al contents are also highly varied, Ti:Al ionic ratios ranging from 1:15 to 1:2 with decreasing XMg. The augites have higher Ti and Al contents than pigeonites with corresponding XMg. The hedenbergites have erratic but generally low Ti contents, due to their late precipitation together with ulvospinel. The presence of such highly variable pyroxenes within individual samples and in some cases as single, complex grains makes the recognition of coexisting pyroxene pairs in such dolerites very difficult, but graphical pyroxene thermometers suggest a crystallization temperature range of 1100 to 850 °C.

The range of pyroxene compositions in such dolerites is strongly influenced by the oxygen fugacity (fO2) of the liquid from which they derive. The primary Fe-Ti oxide phase in these Tasmanian dolerites is ulvospinel (now oxidized to ilmenite ‘oxidation-exsolution’ lamellae in titanomagnetite hosts) clearly demonstrating the originally low fO2 of the parental tholeiitic magma of the Mount Wellington sill.

A detailed vitrinite reflectivity study has been made through the Cretaceous sedimentary rocks of northwest James Ross Island, Antarctica. The results show that a progressive increase in reflectivity does not occur with depth and that values (0.45 %) from the base of the succession are lower than expected for the sequence as described by previous authors. Using a synthesis of sedimentological and stratigraphic information, the sequence is reinterpreted as an apparent monoclinal syncline, strongly influenced by syndepositional tectonics, with a thickness appreciably less than previously described.

Turonian ammonite assemblages are described from six localities in the Ojinaga and Boquillas formations of Chihuahua in northern Mexico. These assemblages reveal the presence of the middle Turonian zones of Collignoniceras woollgari and Prionocyclus hyatti far to the south of previously documented occurrences. The Mexican collections include co-occurring collignoniceratids, known from as far north as Montana, and Tethyan euomphaloceratines and coilopoceratids. One species, Puzosia (Puzosia) serratocarinata, is new.

The Vagastie Bridge granite, central Sutherland, belongs to a regional suite of igneous intrusions within Moine psammites adjacent to the base of the east Sutherland migmatite complex. An isotopic date of 405 ± 11 Ma, obtained using U–Pb determinations on zircon and sphene taken from the granite, has previously been interpreted as an intrusion age. However, a reassessment of the field relationships demonstrates that intrusion was syn-tectonic with respect to the later stages of ductile Caledonian deformation affecting the Moine rocks. It is suggested that the granite suite magmas originated at depth and that they were channelled into the still active Caledonian ductile thrust zone (the Naver Thrust) which forms the tectonic base of the Naver Nappe. On regional grounds, the interpretation of the c. 405 Ma date as an intrusion age is untenable, which implies that the isotope systematics of the Vagastie Bridge granite require re-investigation.

The mesotidal coast of Georgia encompasses diverse sedimentary features and depositional environments, most of which typify major facies of the entire Georgia Bight – a broad embayment on the southeastern U.S. shelf. Barrier island strandline environments especially include tidal inlets and shoals, the beach shoreface, foreshore, and backshore, and dunes and washover fans. Low energy beach segments may grade directly into small seaside tidal flats. Relict salt marsh deposits crop out on erosional beaches. All deposits are in dynamic equilibrium with fluctuating coastal conditions and a gradual rise in sea level.

Most of these facies are important in interpreting ancient epeiric transgressive/regressive coastal sequences. Pronounced local variations in the overall sequence result from complex latero-vertical relationships between (1) the shoreface, foreshore, and shoals, and (2) the shoals, low energy beaches, and beach-related tidal flats. Washover fans and relict deposits on erosional beaches cause perturbations within present day lateral relationships but are normal in transgressive facies tracts along such coasts. Close stratigraphic control of outcrops or cores would be necessary for detailed reconstructions of, or correlations among, ancient analogs.

Kink bands formed due to the rotation of cleavage are very common within the Irish Variscides. A detailed examination of those within the Dungarvan Syncline has enabled the recognition of three categories based on kink fold axis orientation; the subvertical, those parallel to first or second order fold axes and those with subhorizontal randomly trending axes. The subvertical variety were formed by strike-parallel compression within a hinge depression in the Dungarvan Syncline and modified by later north–south dextral shear stresses to produce cataclasis of the kink-band boundaries, tension-gashes within the kinked segment and over-rotation. Those, whose axes are parallel to major or minor fold axes, formed as accommodation structures during folding due to extension in the be plane. Those, with subhorizontal randomly trending axes formed due to a relaxation in the northward compression which allowed a reorientation of the principal stress directions, σ1 became vertical and kink bands were generated as a consequence of the increased overburden due to fold tightening and thrusting. It is considered that kink bands throughout the Irish Variscides may be divisible into similar categories.