The susceptibility of rocks to weathering into soils and the subsequent weathering of the solum itself are important both with respect to sediment formation and to agriculture. Residual soils developed on some rock types representative of the major soil associations of NE Scotland have consequently been examined in detail in an attempt to assess the weatherability of both the rocks and the derived soils. Methods based on chemical composition have been supplemented by potential methods related to the production of poorly-ordered aluminosilicate material and to depolymerisation of the silicate framework in the minerals present. In general, there is, as would be expected on the basis of increasing energy supply and increasing entropy, an increase in the amount of monomeric silica towards the surface and this appears to be closely related to the amount and nature of the poorly-ordered aluminosilicate. The results suggest that only the purely chemical methods can currently enable a reasonable assessment to be made of the susceptibility of a rock or soil to further weathering.

Evidence is presented for a late Proterozoic, tectonothermal event which affected the rocks of the Moine assemblage in the Central Highland region of the Scottish Caledonides c. 750 Ma ago. This is about 200 Ma before the early Palaeozoic Grampian orogeny, whose effects are superimposed on the Moine rocks as well as dominating the tectonism in the Dalradian Supergroup.

Field and isotopic studies are integrated in zones of ductile thrusting (sliding) which are typified by belts of tectonic schists with related swarms of quartz and muscovite-bearing pegmatite veins. Of particular significance is a ductile thrust (the Grampian slide) which separates deeper crustal rocks (the Central Highland division), interpreted as showing the imprint of the Grenville orogeny, from shallower rocks (the Grampian division) representing a supracrustal assemblage formed between the Grenville and the c. 750 Ma events.

The Grampian slide is the structurally highest member of a system of related, previously unrecorded slides affecting the Central Highland division. New structural, petrographic and Rb-Sr isotopic data, obtained largely from a recently recognised inlier of the Central Highland division at Laggan, bear out that the quartz and pegmatite veins are segregations formed during ductile shearing under amphibolite facies conditions. Muscovites from these veins yield ages between 780 and 730 Ma, and a regression analysis of tectonic schists and the muscovites gives an age of 740 ± 40 Ma. These data substantiate our previous hypothesis that the deeper-seated Moine rocks were affected by a distinct orogenic event at 750 ± 30 Ma.

In the Northern Highlands, similar vein swarms are related to the Sgurr Beag slide and to belts of previously unrecorded tectonic schists in the Glenfinnan division of the Moine assemblage. A new, 755 ± 8 Ma age obtained from such a tectonic schist at Kinloch Hourn, combined with previous, similar age data from lensoid pegmatites, imply that the c. 750 Ma event may have also affected the Morar and Glenfinnan divisions.

Fourteen granitoid plutons studied in the Baie d'Espoir area of southern Newfoundland are divisible into a northern group of eight and a southern group of six. The former tend to be undeformed, have thermal aureoles, and intrude greenschist facies Ordovician and Silurian rocks of the Dunnage zone following a period of folding and thrusting towards the SE. Four Rb-Sr whole-rock isochrons yield similar ages around 430 Ma for these plutons, fixing the deformation within early Silurian times. The latter plutons syntectonically intruded without aureole effects, and are all foliated and elongate parallel to the regional fabric of amphibolite facies gneisses and migmatites of the Gander zone. Whole-rock Rb-Sr isochrons around 350 Ma for both syntectonic and post-tectonic plutons indicate a rapid metamorphism, deformation, intrusion and uplift of the Gander zone in this area. There appear to be no systematic relationships between petrological and geochemical characteristics of the plutons and their tectono-stratigraphic setting. This study conclusively invalidates earlier hypotheses that deformed granitoid rocks of the Gander zone are older than the undeformed granitoids of the Dunnage zone; indeed, just the reverse is true.

A thick Ordovician marine flysch succession including greywackes, conglomer- ates, siltstones and shales occurs in West Nithsdale in the Northern belt of the Southern Uplands. Five new formations of Caradoc and ?Ashgill age are defined based mainly on petrographical and lithological evidence. The proposed correlation with areas up to 80 km distant to the SW, emphasises the persistent nature of the greywacke formations in the Southern Uplands when traced along strike. It is demonstrated that the main inliers of black shale in the Northern belt cannot be simple anticlines but are closely associated with large strike faults. The position of the investigated flysch succession in the accretionary prism model for the development of the Southern Uplands during the evolution of the Caledonides is indicated and its significance assessed.

A classification is proposed, based mainly on major element analytical data plotted in a coherent set of three simple chemical-mineralogical diagrams. The procedure follows two complementary steps at two different levels. The first is concerned with the individual sample: the sample is given a name (e.g. granite, adamellite, granodiorite) and its chemical and mineralogical characteristics are determined. The second one is more important: it aims at defining the type of magmatic association (or series) to which the studied sample or group of samples belongs. Three main types of association are distinguished: cafemic (from source-material mainly or completely mantle-derived), aluminous (mainly or completely derived by anatexis of continental crust), and alumino-cafemic (intermediate between the other two types). Subtypes are then distinguished among the cafemic and alumino-cafemic associations: calc-alkaline (or granodioritic), subalkaline (or monzonitic), alkaline (and peralkaline), tholeiitic (or gabbroic-trondhjemitic), etc. In the same way, numerous subtypes and variants are also distinguished among the aluminous associations using a set of complementary criteria such as quartz content, colour index, alkali ratio, quartz–alkalies relationships and alumina index.

Although involving a new approach using partly new criteria, this classification is consistent with most of the divisions used in previous typologies. The method may also be used in the classification of the volcanic equivalents of common plutonic rocks.

Lower Old Red Sandstone drainage of the Caledonian mountain chain in the northern British Isles converged in the region of the present North Channel between Scotland and Ireland. Calculations of possible catchment area of this drainage network suggest a major river system c. 530 km in length comparable to parts of the present day drainage network of the Himalayas. Evidence from the Lower Old Red Sandstone sedimentary assemblages in Northern Ireland and Scotland indicates that tributaries flowed NE and SW parallel to the Caledonian mountain front. These tributaries joined a trunk stream which flowed southward from present western Scotland through the southern part of the present Inner Hebrides region, and on through the region of the present North Channel and terminated in the contemporaneous Devonian sea. The coastline of this sea stretched E-W across southern Britain.

The essential drainage system established in Lower Old Red Sandstone times became re- established in Upper Old Red Sandstone times, but with a channel network with palaeoflow to the NE in Scotland. This probably joined a southerly flowing trunk stream in the North Sea region, possibly parallel with the western Scotland-Irish Sea drainage.

The Tibetan–Tethys zone of the Zanskar Himalaya shows a complete Mesozoic shelf carbonate sequence overlying metamorphic basement of the Central crystalline complex and Palaeozoic sedimentary rocks. Continental rifting in the Permian produced the alkaline and basaltic Panjal volcanic rocks and by Triassic time a small ocean basin was developed in the Indus-Tsangpo zone. Stable sedimentation continued until the Middle-Late Cretaceous when a thick sequence of tholeiitic to andesitic island arc lavas (Dras arc) were erupted in the basin above a N-dipping subduction zone. The Spontang ophiolite was emplaced southwards onto the Zanskar shelf edge during latest Cretaceous or earliest Tertiary times.

Following emplacement of the Spontang ophiolite, deep-sea sedimentation ended abruptly with initial collision between the Indian plate and the Dras island arc. Emplacement of the massive Ladakh (Trans-Himalayan) batholith along the southern margin of Tibet in late Cretaceous-Eocene time occurred by crustal melting as a result of northward subduction of Mesozoic oceanic crust along the Indus subduction zone. Southward-directed thrusting in both Zanskar and Indus zones accompanied ocean closure during the late Cretaceous–Eocene. Late Tertiary compression caused intense folding, overturning and a phase of northward-directed thrusting along the Indus suture zone and the northern margin of the Tibetan–Tethys zone, resulting in a large amount of crustal shortening.

A conglomerate test using 36 clast cores (76 specimens) from the upper Precambrian Port Askaid Tillite of the Dalradian Supergroup in the Garvellach–Islay region of Scotland shows that the tillite was remagnetised during orogenic activity in Lower Ordovician time. After 550°C thermal demagnetisation, the clast remanence directions give a mean of 155°, 14° (α95—12°). This is similar to the mean from four tillite matrix sites of 162°, 4° (α95—9°) and the mean ‘primary component direction’ of 166°, −12° (α95—6°) previously determined from the interbedded siltstones. This indicates that the matrix and siltstones were also remagnetised. These mean directions give virtual geomagnetic poles after tilt correction that fall within the cluster of British Ordovician poles from rocks in the Caledonian orogen, and thereby indicate a prefolding Ordovician age for the remagnetisation. Thermal demagnetisation studies and observations from polished and thin sections of tillite clast and matrix specimens show that secondary hematite derived from partially to completely altered magnetite is the dominant carrier of the metamorphic remagnetisation. These results show that remanence data from the Port Askaid Tillite cannot be used to support the hypothesis that a worldwide glaciation occurred during the Late Precambrian.

In the southern part of the Archaean craton of South India, an approximately 3.4–2.9 b.y. old migmatite–gneiss terrane (Peninsular gneiss complex) has been subjected to granulite facies metamorphism about 2.6 b.y. ago. During this event, the extensive charnockite-khondalite zone of southern India developed. A younger metamorphism (Proterozoic?) led to retrogression of the charnockites and khondalites, mainly under the conditions of the amphibolite facies.

The physical conditions of metamorphism have been evaluated by applying methods of geothermobarometry to the widespread charnockitic assemblages with garnet, orthopyroxene, clinopyroxene, plagioclase, and quartz. The interpretation of the P–T estimates includes a critical discussion of potential error sources, e.g. errors of the analytical data and the calibrations of the models, and takes into account the complex metamorphic history of the rocks and the kinetics of the mineral equilibria.

P-T estimates were obtained for seven subareas from the rim compositions of the coexisting minerals: Shevaroy Hills 680±55°C—7·4±1 kb; Kollaimalai area 680±40°C—8·6± 1 kb; Nilgiri Hills 680±90°C—6·6±0.8kb (upland massif) and 705±60°C—9·3±0.8 kb (northern margin); Bhavani Sagar area 650±50°C—7·2± 1 kb; Sargur-Mysore area 690±60°C—7·6 kb; Bangalore-Kunigal-Satnur area 760±50°C—6 kb. Except for the last subarea, the P-T model data reflect the conditions of a late annealing stage probably related to the retrogressive metamorphism. Conditions near the peak of granulite facies metamorphism (730–800°C—6·5–9·5 kb) are recorded by the core compositions of the minerals. Although a rather uniform cooling history of the main part of the charnockite-khondalite terrane is suggested from the temperature data, differential uplift of smaller blocks is indicated by the regional variation of the pressure data.

The migmatite complex of the Savonranta district of eastern Finland represents the combined effects of polyphase deformation, polymetamorphism and the emplacement of a series of dioritic, grandioritic, granitic and pegmatitic masses. The most significant feature in terms of both regional structure and control of neosome emplacement is a large wrench fault zone along which there has been a minimum of 30 km displacement. Its development was controlled by a stress system related to plate movement in the early-middle Proterozoic Svecokarelian orogenic belt.

Successive neosome development has been related to the extensive structural and metamorphic history of the amphibolite facies palaeosome mica schists which has been deduced from refolding and cross-cutting relationships. Rb–Sr whole-rock isotopic studies of a porphyritic granite, whose emplacement was controlled by the wrench fault regime, indicate an age of crystallisation of 1786 ± 80 m.y. The initial 87Sr/86Sr ratio of 0·7053 ± 01 shows the source region for the granite magma had a previous crustal history.

The Ordovician and Silurian rocks of the Southern Uplands of Scotland have been interpreted as sediments deposited on the northern margin of the Iapetus Ocean. Trace fossils are abundant at many localities in ocean-floor turbidites and mudstones that usually lack all other evidence of life. Twelve ichnogenera are present, and they are mainly meandering locomotion and feeding trails and burrow networks: Dictyodora, Caridolites, Helminthoida, Neonereites, Nereites, Protovirgularia, Gordia, Megagrapton, Paleodictyon, Chondrites, Plano-lites and Skolithos. The trace fossils occur in at least five distinct assemblages and the composition of these was probably controlled by the frequency and nature of the turbidity currents, and possibly by the oxygen content of the mudstones. Where turbidity currents were weak, abundant Dictyodora, together with Caridolites, Neonereites, Nereites, Protovirgularia and Gordia occur in various combinations. Where currents were stronger, traces such as Gordia, Paleodictyon and Megagrapton may be exhumed and cast on turbidite soles, and the sand may contain Skolithos. The ‘deep-sea’ Nereites trace fossil facies is divisible into several assemblages, presumably environmentally controlled.

A structural reinterpretation of Appin Group metasediments of the Dalradian Supergroup in part of the northwestern marginal zone of the Irish Caledonides is presented. No major F1 folds have been recorded although bedding occasionally faces upwards NW in S1. The structure is dominated by a series of NW-facing F2 recumbent folds and associated D2 tectonic slides. The slides, which have thrust the overlying rocks to the NW, are generally oblique to the fold axial planes and commonly cut out major F2 fold hinges. Rotation of the hinges towards the NW-SE (Caledonian) stretching direction in areas adjacent to the slides may have contributed to fold excision: an example of a major dislocated sheath fold is described. DM3 produces major SE-verging inclined folds. Although D4, D5 and D6 are of minor importance in the area D6 intensifies towards the SE to become the principal fabric in a major NE–SW-trending sinistrai shear zone that contains the c. 400 Ma Main Donegal granite. The early major structures of this area are compared with those in Dalradian Supergroup of adjacent parts of Scotland. It is suggested that the absence of a major F1 fold (analagous to the Islay anticline) and the occurrence of D2 recumbent folds and low angle thrusts in NW Ireland reflect the close proximity of the foreland, composed of the Lewisian complex, to the NW; such a situation is analagous to the Moine thrust zone in Scotland. The progressive development of low angle structures and thrusts to the W of the Scottish mainland is attributed to a westward shallowing of the Lewisian basement between the SW Highlands of Scotland and NW Ireland.

U–Pb zircon and Rb–Sr whole-rock analyses from various gneisses and plutonie rocks of the Moldanubian and Moravo-Silesian zones and the stable foreland of the Hercynian (Variscan) orogenic belt indicate that most of the crust in Central Europe was first formed during the Cadomian orogeny which straddles the Precambrian–Cambrian boundary. Zircons, however, have a memory of older ages which correspond with those of events known in Fennoscandia. The new radiometrie data are consistent with the stratigraphie record in that they do not provide any evidence for a major early Palaeozoic tectonothermal event between the Cadomian and Hercynian orogenies.

Granulites from two localities in the Moldanubian zone yield U–Pb zircon ages of 345 ± 5 Ma; discordant zircon data points indicate that the granulite facies metamorphism was not of long duration. Tectonic units containing these high grade rocks were emplaced amongst amphibolite facies rocks during an event of widespread shearing which has been dated at 341 ± 4 Ma on the basis of a lower U–Pb zircon intercept age from one of the sheared gneisses and 338 ± 3 Ma U–Pb ages from monazites. Rb–Sr muscovite ages of 331 ± 5 Ma from pegmatites axial planar to asymmetrical folds date the last stage of SE-directed simple shear. A Rb–Sr whole-rock isochron of 331 ± 4 Ma from a principal magmatic type of the Central Bohemian pluton confirms the field evidence that the large NE-trending plutons of the Moldanubian zone were emplaced during a late stage of the deformation. The strong disturbance of the U–Pb zircon isotopic system in the sheared gneisses suggests U loss while a high U/Th ratio in monazite from one of these tectonised rocks suggests the simultaneous passage of hydrothermal fluids. Thus a crustal source is indicated for the uranium deposits of the Moldanubian zone.

Critical to any plate tectonic model for the development of the Middle European Hercynides was the existence of an ocean in Early Devonian times which separated a North European continent from a South European continent(s). The northward movement of the South European continent over a shallowly-dipping subduction zone and subsequent continental collision can explain the high T–low P metamorphism and the imbricated tectonic style of the Moldanubian zone and adjacent Moravo-Silesian zone along the southeastern Hercynian foreland. The temporal separation of granulites and granites implies distinct conditions of formation and it has been suggested that the plutonism, following on from the imbrication of the Cadomian crust, was initiated by the subduction of wet oceanic sediments.

A brief account of the stratigraphy of the Westphalian (Upper Carboniferous) of the Ayrshire Coalfield is given. Older rocks are found to be overlain by Westphalian strata of differing age in various parts of the coalfield. A correlation of the coal seams known by numerous local names in various areas of the coalfield is shown. The vertical distribution of species of non-marine bivalves is illustrated and the faunas associated with various horizons discussed. The presence of variants of Anthraconaia pulchella Broadhurst at more than one horizon is noted. The lateral distribution of species at given horizons is examined and it is shown that elements of the overall fauna of an horizon may be absent in parts of the coalfield. The occurrence of marine bands in the succession is noted and their distribution discussed. It is suggested that during the Aegiranum Marine Band incursion the northern and north-western parts of the coalfield were nearer a land mass. A new stratigraphical name, the Bogton Marine Band is proposed. The band occurs within the Upper Similis-Pulchra Chronozone.

Late Devensian ice-sheet movement in the western Southern Uplands of Scotland is demonstrated by the distribution of erratics from four different bedrock sources and by glacial striae and ice-moulded landforms. This evidence shows an almost radial movement of ice from an ice-divide zone. The control of relief over ice flow and the distribution of erratics is emphasised. The distribution of erratics from two of the sources, however, shows that debris in the ice was transported only a very short distance in certain places. Abundant deposits of lodgement till occur in the vicinity of the former ice-divide. Although it is generally considered that glacial erosion, and therefore deposition, are insignificant at the centre of ice-sheets, this study suggests otherwise. It is inferred that till and erratics may be emplaced during ice-sheet build-up when conditions for erosion obtained, these deposits being protected from subsequent removal by the establishment of an ice-divide across the area. The implications for high rates of erosion in ice-sheet source areas are examined.

The stratigraphy of red bed successions in the Clew Bay area of County Mayo (Ireland) is described, and new palynological evidence for the age of some of the rocks is presented. The Old Red Sandstone in the Clew Bay area comprises several lithostratigraphic units. The Louisburgh succession is interpreted as part of a Silurian marginal marine sequence. Devonian strata are represented by the Islandeady Group which has yielded plant spores which suggest that these rocks should be assigned to the Lower Devonian (Siegenian to Emsian) and the Beltra Group which contains Middle Devonian (Eifelian) spores. These Lower and Middle Devonian strata are probably separated by an unconformity, and are overlain with clear unconformity by the highest unit, the Maam Formation, which is Dinantian (Carboniferous) in age. The Clew Bay Old Red Sandstone succession, therefore, shows important differences from that of the Midland Valley of Scotland, with which it has previously been compared.

Approximately 700 samples from five slate, three marble and five quartzite units have been analysed for 26 elements to determine the use of geochemistry in stratigraphic correlation. Statistical treatment of the data has established that for all the slates and marbles, and certain of the quartzites, geochemistry is a viable method of distinguishing units of similar lithology. The most useful elements for distinguishing the four main slate units are P, Cr. Zn, Cu and, to a lesser extent, Rb, Sr, Y, Nb, Ba, La and Ce. Sr may indicate climatic changes or variable organic activity. The three marble units were considered as three limestone and three dolostone types. Dolostones are distinguished by high insoluble residue contents and the elements that distinguish between the dolostones are heavily influenced by these. Limestones, however, have very large differences in Sr. SiO2, Al2O3, K2O, Cr, Mn, Cu, Rb, Sr, Y and Zr have been used in discrimint function analysis. These parameters are strongly controlled by the insoluble residue with Al2O3, K2O, Cr and Rb being correlated with shaley impurities and SiO2, TiO2 and Zr with sandy impurities. Sr, Pb, Y and Zn, and to a lesser extent S and Mn, appear to be associated with the carbonate fraction.

The quartzites were found to be of three major types: (1) a very variable deltaic deposit (Appin Quartzite Formation), (2) marine bodies of immature quartz sands (Glen Coe and Eilde Quartzite formations) and (3) highly mature quartz sands (Binnein Quartzite Formation and northerly outcrops of the Glen Coe Quartzite Formation). It is possible to distinguish these three types on the basis of some trace elements (Zn, Rb, Sr, Y, Ba, La, Ce) but it is not feasible to distinguish between the Glen Coe and Eilde quartzites purely on geochemistry. The Eilde Flags, an immature estuarine sandstone, has a geochemistry intermediate between that of the quartzites and the pelites, although with higher CaO, Zr and Ba than either.

Basic granulites, a variety of gneisses including sillimanite-garnet gneiss (khondalite), charnockite and intruded quartzofeldspathic material make up a migmatite complex showing evidence of polyphase deformation, polymetamorphism and successive neosome emplacement. The heterogeneity of the migmatites is dominantly the result of folding and boudinage rather than igneous activity.

Tight to isoclinal folds of the second recognised deformational phase affect lithological layering, granulite facies fabric elements of the first deformational phase and early neosome; they played a major role in the development of the macroscopically heterogeneous nature of the complex and they are also a key structure for correlation. Upright folds of the third deformational phase control the major disposition of lithological units and, together with their axial planar fabric, controlled the uprise of quartzofeldspathic neosome and of volatiles and heat which caused localised ‘charnockitisation’ of sillimanite-bearing gneisses. The effects of semibrittle and brittle deformation, including kink bands, fractures and shears, express late deformational phases during which there was neosome emplacement, some at 854 ± 6 m.y. ago (Rb–Sr muscovite age).