Well-preserved Radiolaria have been discovered in calcareous silt turbidites and mudstones intercalated with basic extrusives of the Guevgueli Ophiolite, northern Greece. The mudstones contain terrigenous silt, probably derived from adjacent continental basement of the Serbo-Macedonian and/or Paikon units. Volcanic quartz and rare volcanic glass were probably derived from an active continental margin arc (Paikon volcanic arc) to the west. The radiolarian sediments were deposited within fault-controlled hollows in the ophiolitic extrusives, and then covered by massive and pillowed extrusives. The radiolarian assemblage is indicative of an early Late Jurassic (Oxfordian) age, which therefore dates the genesis of the Guevgueli Ophiolite. Our data are consistent with the age of the intrusive Late Jurassic Fanos Granite, believed to be contemporaneous with the Guevgueli Ophiolite. In general, the Guevgueli and related ophiolites of northern Greece are thought to have formed within a transtensional intra-continental marginal basin, generated in response to oblique eastward subduction of older Tethyan oceanic crust (Almopias ocean).

Bigganjargga is the classic locality for the Varangian ice age in northern Scandinavia. The presence of two sets of striations on the underlying quartzite basement has been taken as evidence for a glacial origin of the Bigganjargga diamictite. However, soft-sediment surface structures on the underlying sandstone indicate that it was not consolidated when the diamictite was emplaced. Together with structures in the diamictite this shows that the deposit formed as a debris flow moving northwestwards over an unconsolidated substrate. There is no evidence for glacial origin or contribution for the diamictite material.

Radiolichas has been a poorly known and exclusively Devonian genus of very limited diversity. Radiolichas raydaviesi sp. nov. and R. davedaviesi sp. nov. are the best-known members of the genus, and extend its stratigraphic and geographic range to the Wenlock of the central Canadian Arctic. A further Silurian occurrence is an unnamed species from the Wenlock Slite Beds of Gotland, Sweden. Radiolichas is most similar to Dicranogmus. Together, the genera lack any of the robust trochurine apomorphies (linear pygidial postaxial ridge, prominent pygidial border, prominent cranidial fossula) and appear to fall outside the phylogenetic structure of that subfamily. They are similar to members of the Tetralichinae, particularly in pygidial features, but lack the composite cranidial lobe characteristic of that subfamily. Their systematic position is presently unresolved.

Upper Devonian strata are distributed widely throughout Iran. A review of all available literature on the Devonian, together with information from recent studies in the Kerman region, provides a basis for correlation and description of facies successions for the whole country. In most sections the local base of the Upper Devonian sits disconformably on older rocks, whilst the upper contact with the Carboniferous is almost everywhere transitional. There is everywhere an apparent hiatus spanning a probable early and mid Devonian interval. Lower and Middle Devonian fossils have not yet been discovered, but for the Upper Devonian there are abundant fossil data indicating the widespread occurrence of Frasnian and Famennian shallow marine deposits. A palaeogeographical map for the Upper Devonian of Iran is constructed.

There has been a long-standing controversy concerning the form of the Beinn an Dubhaich Granite, which intrudes Cambro-Ordovician limestones and contains enclosures of limestone at outcrop. We have undertaken a three-part geophysical investigation with the aim of resolving some issues raised by previous workers. Our most significant finding results from the measurement of a gravity profile across Beinn an Dubhaich. It reveals a negative anomaly of more than 2 mGal over the granite outcrop. Our preferred model to fit this anomaly is a steep-sided granite stock extending down to about 1 km depth, which implies that the limestone enclosures are roof pendants. In a supplementary study, we measured magnetic profiles across dykes in some of the limestone enclosures in order to determine the depth to the contact with the underlying granite. However, in the most clear-cut cases we could only determine a minimum depth of 20 m, and were unable to constrain the maximum depth. In hindsight, we suggest that microgravity surveying would be a better method for determining the thicknesses of the limestone roof pendants. In the third part of the investigation, we measured a tight grid of magnetic profiles to the northeast of the granite outcrop to test a previous suggestion that dyke-like lobes of granite intrude pre-existing fractures in the overlying limestones. We located several large magnetic anomalies associated with outcropping doleritic dykes and concluded that these had not been correctly identified in the earlier work. Consequently, the ground magnetic profiles acquired to date provide no valid evidence to support the idea of an interfingering contact between the limestones and the underlying granite.

The Channel Islands of Guernsey and Sark are amongst the few localities within the Neoproterozoic, Cadomian orogenic belt where Palaeoproterozoic basement is exposed. Basement units collectively referred to as ‘Icartian’ comprise orthogneisses (e.g. the c. 2000 Ma Icart granite gneiss), metasediments and amphibolites. On Guernsey, the protolith to the Icart granite gneiss was intruded into metasediments already deformed during a D1 deformation event. Both were variably deformed during a D2 event within an approximately north—south trending, steeply dipping, oblique dextral shear zone. On Sark, metasediments and amphibolites carry a D1 fabric (not necessarily correlatable with that on Guernsey) which was deformed during D2 to form recumbent—gently inclined folds and tectonic fabrics which locally carry top-to-the-south kinematic indicators. Early Cadomian quartz diorites which intruded the Icartian basement carry variably developed magmatic and moderate temperature (400–550 °C) LS solid-state fabrics which are similarly oriented to D2 basement structures. This indicates that the quartz diorites were emplaced and deformed during a protracted D2 event. Published 40Ar/39Ar amphibole cooling ages of c. 600 Ma from Guernsey and Sark quartz diorites and a host Icartian amphibolite are consistent with reworking of basement units during the Cadomian Orogeny. The contrasting kinematic pattern during Cadomian deformation implies that a flat-lying shear zone on Sark may have accommodated oblique dextral strike-slip movement on Guernsey with an overall southerly direction of tectonic transport. Deformation most likely occurred in the hanging-wall of a major south-dipping Neoproterozoic subduction zone.

Deep-marine strata of the Skiddaw Group, deposited in high southerly palaeolatitudes on the northern margin of Eastern Avalonia in the early Ordovician, contain a diverse ichnofauna dominated by examples of fodinichnia. This includes Alcyonidiopsis pharmaceus, several ichnospecies of Chondrites, Dictyodora zimmermani, Glockerichnus radiatus, Gordia marina, Ixalichnus enodius, two or possibly three ichnospecies of Phycodes, Planolites montanus, Volkichnium volki, an ‘arthropod-produced? repichnion’, ‘paired pits’, ?Gordia aff. marina, ‘thinly-walled, looping, burrows’ and burrows of Planolites/Palaeophycus affinity. Stellascolites radiatus Etheridge, 1876 is reassigned to the ichnogenus Glockerichnus Pickerill, 1982 as Glockerichnus radiatus (Etheridge, 1876).

Several of the ichnotaxa are present in other ichnofaunal assemblages of early Ordovician age which were also emplaced at high southerly palaeolatitudes. The relatively high diversity of this ichnofaunal assemblage supports suggestions that models of the rate at which the deep-marine environment was colonized during the early Phanerozoic are in need of revision.