Inaccessible Island is the eroded remnant of an extinct, comparatively small intraplate volcano dominated by flows of alkaline olivine basalt. The oldest stratigraphie unit is a hydrothermally altered basement of somewhat questionable early Pliocene (6.5 Ma) age. This is unconformably overlain by a volcanic superstructure built up during the last three million years. The two formations have different trace element signatures that may be attributed to different mantle sources. Boulders of gabbro are common but the presence of an in situ plutonic intrusion could not be confirmed. Their K-Ar age of 12.8 Ma may be spurious and their possible relationship with the volcano is uncertain. Reliable age determinations of 0.95–0.72 Ma were obtained on lava flows of the second volcanic stage, subdivided into four units or stratigraphie members. The latest unit consists of plugs, sills and flows of an evolved magma fraction (benmoreite and trachyte) of which benmoreite is considered to be the more voluminous. Several dyke swarms of different ages reveal the internal structure of the volcano. It is concluded that the main volcanic centre was located immediately offshore to the northwest and that the edifice was attached to an east–west volcanic rift zone. Apart from marine erosion, massive land-sliding probably took part in shaping the island and its submarine platform.

Acritarchs from the Lower Cambrian Læsså formation on Bornholm, Denmark, are taxonomically diverse. Their state of preservation, including thermal, mechanical and chemical alteration, is discussed. Different states of thermal maturation of acritarchs in shales and phosphorites of the Broens Odde member could be explained in terms of possible irradiation from natural radioactive decay. The microfossils form two age-diagnostic assemblages that allow recognition of the Skiagia ornata–Fimbriaglomerella membranacea and Heliosphaeridium dissimilare–Skiagia ciliosa Assemblage Zones within the Broens Odde member of the Laeså formation. Acritarch-based biostratigraphy indicates that the Lower Cambrian Balka Formation and Læså formation correspond to the Schmidliellus mickwitzi Zone and Holmia kjerulfi Assemblage Zone recognized in Baltoscandia and the East European Platform. Acritarch distribution within three different depositional settings indicates that comparable spectra of morphotypes occurred in different depositional environments. This suggests the absence of facies control. During early Cambrian times palaeoenvironmental barriers in shallow, epicontinental shelf basins constituted a minor obstacle for widespread distribution of acritarch taxa. Formerly proposed early Palaeozoic acritarch provincialism appears insufficiently documented in the fossil record and no evidence could be extracted from the Cambrian record. Following a rapid radiation at the onset of the Phanerozoic, Cambrian phytoplankton populations underwent dispersion following oxygenic and nutrient-rich bodies of water within epicontinental and presumably basinal environments. Lower Cambrian acritarch taxa were largely cosmopolitan and little affected by lithofacies associations. A continuous flow of data is contributing to the emergence of acritarch-based biostratigraphy. Its apparent consistency suggests great usefulness for interregional and detailed event correlation.

The Mary Kathleen Fold Belt in northeastern Australia consists of highly deformed, Mid-Proterozoic sedimentary and volcanic sequences as well as intrusives, which were metamorphosed under low-pressure, high-temperature conditions. In the light of current controversy on tectono-thermal settings of low-pressure metamorphic terrains, the interrelations of progressive deformation and metamorphism have been closely examined. Remarkably, there is no direct evidence for syn-metamorphic extensional deformation nor is any significant intrusive activity recorded.

Syn-metamorphic structures indicate lateral, bulk coaxial shortening of at least 50–60%. Tight upright folds, pervasive axial planar fabrics, undulating fold axes, and a vertical mineral lineation characterize this deformation. The metamorphic textures, particularly those in andalusite- and/or cordierite-bearing schists, reveal the sequential growth of metamorphic minerals that was synchronous with progressively increasing bulk rock strain. The corresponding metamorphic reactions constrain a prograde P–T path segment that crossed the andalusite and sillimanite stability fields while temperature and pressure increased. After reaching the metamorphic peak, the region cooled down near-isobarically, before major decompression occurred. The prograde–retrograde P–T path forms a complete anticlockwise loop.

Due to the lack of evidence for crustal thinning and large-scale magmatism in the upper crust, alternative models are discussed in order to explain the transient high geothermal gradient. These are in particular convective thinning of the lithospheric mantle and fast decompression of crustal sections, possibly linked to tectonic processes preceeding the low-pressure/high-temperature orogenic event.

Exposures at Tottenhill quarry, west Norfolk, are described. Detailed sediment logs, lateral sediment distribution and facies relationships are presented, together with palaeocurrent measurements and pebble counts. It is concluded that the sequence represents a delta-like subaquatic fan accumulation that was deposited by glacier meltwater at the eastern margin of the present Fenland. The ice must have entered the area from the west to northwest. An arctic leaf flora is associated with still water pool sediments within the fan sequence. Pollen assemblages appear to be largely derived by reworking from underlying in situ temperate stage sediments which are correlated with the Hoxnian Stage.

The age of the deposits is discussed and it is concluded that the glaciation concerned must date from the early part of the Wolstonian Stage on the basis of the previously established stratigraphical sequence in the area.

The Eycott Volcanic Group of the Lake District Lower Palaeozoic inlier consists of basaltic and andesite and and andesite sheets and associated, mainly coarse, volcaniclastic rocks. The volcanic rocks have been regarded previously as interdigitated with, and equivalent in age to, mudrocks of the upper part of the Skiddaw Group (Tremadoc–Llanvirn). Microfloral evidence has been quoted in support of this interpretation, but has not been substantiated by re-assessment of the critical data. Furthermore, a recent examination of the base of the Eycott Volcanic Group has shown that it rests with angular unconformity on the Skiddaw Group. Skiddaw Group rocks beneath the unconformity range in age from possible late Cambrian to early Llanvirn. The lowest part of the Eycott Volcanic Group, the Over Water Formation, consists of siltstones and tuffaceous sandstones yielding a diverse microflora, and is intercalated with two andesite sheets interpreted herein as sills. Since the currently accepted Llanvirn age for the Eycott Volcanic Group cannot be confirmed, the volcanism may have been penecontemporaneous with the Llandeilo–Caradoc Borrowdale Volcanic Group episode. There are implications for a pre-volcanic tectonic deformation episode.

The Janusfjellet Subgroup on Svalbard consists on a 400 to 500 m thick sequence representing shallow marine depositional environments. Coarsening-upward units, often separated by carbonate beds, are commonly found in rhythmic developments. Rhythmicities (285000(?) and 850000(?) years) in the sedimentary sections show periods which may reflect pulses in nearby sea-floor spreading or strike-slip fault regimes. An astronomical control of the cycles cannot be excluded, although such changes most probably should be expected in superimposed episodes of shorter duration.

The mid-Oligocene sediments forming the Beacon Cottage Farm Outlier at St Agnes, Cornwall, have a stratigraphical and geomorphological importance which is out of all proportion to their modest residual bulk (some 300000 m3). During 1986–8 61 holes were sunk into the area surrounding Beacon Cottage Farm; many penetrated the Palaeozoic floor beneath the outlier. Collectively, these show that the outlier mostly covers rotten granite and Killas. The sub-Oligocene unconformity is uneven and varies in altitude by at least 20 m. The local Bovey Formation succession comprises two members: Basal Sand, which is often pebbly, and sandy silts, known commercially as Candle Clay, the whole totalling a maximum of 8.9 m. There is indirect evidence either that slopes on the rotted Palaeozoic floor locally exceed 45° or that several post-mid-Oligocene faults affect the outlier. We conclude that the Beacon Cottage Farm sediments probably represent aeolian, colluvially and fluvially redistributed rotten rock residues, formed locally during a break in the long period of late-Palaeogene subtropical weathering and pediplanation. The outlier is considered in relation to the geomorphological evolution of the Cornubian Massif.

Use of the nautiloid cephalopod generic names Orthoceras and Michelinoceras is briefly reviewed. Two new genera, Imbricatoceras (upper Ordovician-Silurian) and Radnoroceras (Wenlock-Ludlow), are proposed for common taxa with distinctive ornamentation.