The new mineral theophrastite, Ni(OH)2, from Unst, is Mg-bearing and occurs associated with a very poorly crystalline Ni-containing mixed hydroxide of the pyroaurite type and/or zaratite on chromitite. X-ray powder diffraction data show a shift in d spacing toward brucite compared with pure Ni(OH)2. Infrared, thermal, chemical, optical, and physical data are presented together with indexed powder data for fifteen lines ranging from d 4.66Å to 0.90Å. The solid-solution series brucite-theophrastite is briefly discussed.

Major, minor, and trace elements were measured with electron and ion microprobes for eighteen anorthoclase megacrysts from five locations. Comparisons with concentration ranges tabulated by Smith (1974) show excellent agreement except for consistently lower values of Mg and B. The discrepancy for Mg probably reflects Mg-rich impurities contaminating samples analysed by bulk methods. The cause of the discrepancy for B is unknown and deserves further study. Samples from Mt. Erebus, Antarctica, contain glass inclusions from which the following crystal/liquid partition coefficients ensue: Mg, 0.008; P, 0.04; Ti, 0.08; Fe, 0.04; Ba, 5.2; Sr, 8; Rb, 0.27.

Possible evolutionary paths of alkali-rich carbonatite magma may be related to the production of sodic and potassic fenites. It is concluded that the latter are generated not from separate Na- and K-rich carbonatites, but by the earlier preferential loss of Na from a sodi-potassic carbonatite magma. Trends of both Fe and Mg enrichment in carbonatites are illustrated from a number of centres, and ascribed to crystal fractionation, although metasomatism may be partly responsible. Current nomenclature of carbonatites is unsatisfactory and a division into sövites, magnesiocarbonatites and ferrocarbonatites is proposed, based on rock chemistry.

The scale and nature of the exsolution textures developed in some titanomagnetites have been used to calculate the rate at which the oxides were cooling at the time of exsolution. The cooling rates were calculated by evaluating a kinetic model, which describes the growth of an ulvöspinel-rich lamella in titanomagnetite during exsolution. The model was evaluated both by numerical techniques and by an approximate analytical method.

The cooling rates during titanomagnetite exsolution of the Taberg, Skaergaard and part of the Mt. Yamaska intrusions were calculated to be approximately 130, 12 and 6000°C per 1000 years respectively. These values are in good agreement with cooling rates calculated from heat flow models of the intrusions.

A method is presented for determining the composition of the material being instantaneously abstracted from the liquid during equilibrium crystallization of a solid solution in a binary system. It shows that, except when the solidus and liquidus curves are straight and parallel, the composition of the material being instantaneously abstracted from the liquid does not lie on the straight line joining the composition of the first crystals and last liquid for that bulk composition. Despite this, the latter straight line is a reasonable approximation to the actual curve.

Effects of supercooling have been studied in a range of basaltic melts by isothermal and constant cooling rate experiments at one-atmosphere, using the wire-loop container method. The nucleation of plagioclase in these melts is systematically controlled by supercooling (-ΔT), time below the liquidus temperature, and initial superheating (+ΔT). The temperature at which the melt is initially superheated prior to supercooling controls the temperature at which crystal nucleation first takes place in a supercooled melt undergoing cooling; the greater the + ΔT the larger the degree of supercooling required prior to nucleation of the liquidus phase during cooling. In all six compositions investigated there are at least two fields in time-temperature space, one in which the liquidus phase always fails to nucleate on supercooling (favoured by small -ΔT) and one (favoured by large -ΔT) in which it always nucleates. These two fields may be separated by another in which the liquidus phase may or may not crystallize. Supercooling phenomena are not restricted to the liquidus phase but can also occur when the melt becomes saturated with subsequent phases. It is shown that the composition of plagioclase varies systematically with -ΔT and it is demonstrated that isothermal supercooling ‘lines’ can be used with a relatively high degree of accuracy to predict when nucleation of the liquidus phase will take place during constant cooling rate experiments.

The petrography and geochemistry of a suite of dolerite dykes emplaced into orthogneisses of the Jotun Nappe, central southern Norway, are described. The dolerites, which appear to be tholeiitic in character, show well-developed ophitic and doleritic textures and are not foliated. They contain corona structures of six types which represent the various stages of reaction between olivine or clinopyroxene and plagioclase, and oxide grains and plagioclase. Corona growth always proceeds after the plagioclase has become clouded with numerous extremely fine opaque particles, and reaches its fullest development in rocks with the most heavily clouded plagioclase. Garnet grows in coronas only in rocks with Fe2O3/(Fe2O3 + FeO) = 0.20 to 0.27. The ratio MgO/MgO + Fe2O3 + FeO) is of lesser importance in controlling the growth of this mineral. The role of water in coronaforming reactions, and the preservation of original igneous textures indicates that the coronas are a product of post-solidification deuterism, possibly active at high pressures and temperatures, rather than of prograde metamorphism.

Found by N. Theis at a uranium prospect near Durango, Colorado. Occurs with uraninite, galena, malachite, azurite, etc. Colour pale blue-green, H = 1½, G = 4.25. Optically 2Vα ≈ 0°, α = 1.755, β = γ = 1.785; non-pleochroic. Chemical analysis on 1034 µg gave CuO 33.3 %, ZnO 33.1, CaO 0.3, As2O5 14.8, Sb2O5 7.0, H2O 10.5 leading to Cu5Zn5{(As,Sb)O4}2(OH)14. The cell indexes as orthorhombic a = 8.225Å, b = 7.123, c = 14.97. Strongest lines are 14.97 (9), 7.483 (5), 4.112 (4), 3.741 (10), 2.996 (4), 2.534 (9), 1.830 (5), 1.553 (3). The mineral and name have been approved by the Commission on New Minerals and Mineral Names, IMA.

Found on a specimen in the mineral collection of the National Museum of Wales, no. NMW 27.111.GR414, from the Aberllyn mine, Llanrwst mining field, North Wales, with hydrozincite on a breccia cemented by sphalerite, quartz, calcite, and ankerite. Atomic absorption and TGA analyses gave ZnO 37.8, CuO 22.0, SO3 14.9, H2O 24.5, total 99.2%, corresponding to (Zn2.50 Cu1.49)Σ3.99 S1.00 O7·7.32 H2O on the basis of total O = 7 in the anhydrous part. The ideal formula is (Zn,Cu)4SO4(OH)6·4H2O where Zn > Cu. It is hexagonal a 8.29, c 10.50 ± 0.01 Å, possible space groups P6, P, P6/m, P622, P6mm, Pm2, P2m, and P6/mmm. Isomorphous with synthetic Zn,SO4(OH)66·4H2O and (Zn,Cu)4SO4(OH)6·4H2O. Strongest X-ray powder diffractions are: 10.59(100)0001, 5.31(15)0002, 4.15(25)110, 2.71(42)210, 2.63(41)211,0004, 2.41(22)212, 1.57(23)322, 1.55(20)411. Namuwite is pale sea-green in colour, lustre pearly, streak very pale green, H (Mohs) 2. Cleavage {0001}, perfect. Density (g/cm3) 2.77 (meas.), 2.81 (calc. on the normalized empirical formula). It is optically uniaxial, sign not determined owing to the extremely low birefringence. Refractive index n = 1.577(5)(NaD). The mineral and name have been approved by the Commission on New Minerals and Mineral Names, IMA.

Scourian ultramafic granulites from the Assynt region, of Sutherland were retrogressed to amphibolite facies during the Inverian and in Laxfordian shear zones. Inverian assemblages are dominantly chlorite and tremolite with minor anthophyllite and dolomite. Laxfordian assemblages are cummingtonite, chlorite, and dolomite with only minor amounts of tremolite. Retrogression took place on a falling temperature path with temperatures between 750 and 550°C, and with H2O forming more than 90% of the fluid phase. Initially retrogression was caused by the influx of large volumes of hydrous fluid associated with the development of Inverian folds. During the Laxfordian shearing PCO2 was increased slightly. Serpentinization of olivine occurred at a much later stage.

Barium feldspar and barian muscovite are major constituents of the Aberfeldy Ba-Zn mineralization. Celsian varies from equigranular to a platy habit in quartz-celsian rock and forms porphyroblasts in schist and marble. Hyalophane is less common. Barian muscovite is a major component of the schist in the mineralized zone. Celsian (> 80 % Cn) and/or hyalophane coexist with muscovite containing c.6% Ba, and c.8.5% Ba was measured in muscovite from one feldspar-free specimen. Cymrite separated from foliated quartz-celsian rock conformed to the formula BaAl2Si2O8·H2O. The rock textures reflect regional metamorphism, but it is believed that the barium silicates are ultimately authigenic in origin. The platy habit of much of the celsian may have been inherited from cymrite formed during the development of tectonic fabrics.

Mesoperthite feldspars from hypersolvus granites, with granulite-facies mineralogy from the Scourian complex, N.W. Scotland have an average bulk composition of (Ab0.58Or0.42)88An12. The mesoperthites have an Ab/Or ratio close to the critical composition of the alkali feldspar solvus for anorthite-free compositions. The critical temperature of the ternary feldspar solvus is estimated at high anorthite contents and used to indicate a temperature in excess of 1000°C for the crystallization of the granite sheets prior to granulite-facies metamorphism and permits a maximum water content in the melt of 1%.

Sections perpendicular to [001] of ion-thinned specimens of amosite (fibrous grunerite) from Penge, Transvaal and anthophyllite from Paakila, Finland and Söndeled, Norway, have been examined by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. Observations on the nature of grain boundaries and alteration are compared with those of other workers on other fibrous amphiboles. Fibrous crystals grow with their fibre (c) axes approximately parallel to one another but they have considerable rotational disorder about that axis. Grain boundaries are generally irregular in shape and only follow low-index planes for short sections. In all specimens the amphibole has undergone some alteration to sheet silicates along grain boundaries, fractures, cleavages, and multiple-chain lamellae. Anthophyllite alteration products are talc, serpentine and chlorite, and amosite alteration products approximate to iron analogues of talc and serpentine. Talc layers are generally planar and their orientation is strongly controlled by the amphibole structure, whereas serpentine and chlorite layers often curve and their orientations are less frequently related to that of the amphibole. Comparison of specimens which appear finely fibrous in hand specimen with those which appear coarser, acicular or massive suggests that the nature of fibres produced by crushing is mainly controlled by the grain boundaries in the former type, but other factors such as fractures, cleavages, and defects are more important for the latter types.

Basement rocks of Santorini have been locally impregnated by iron oxides and other minerals. The hydrothermal fluids which caused the mineralization have extensively altered the impregnated rocks, but left granditic garnets in these unaffected.

Mössbauer spectroscopy and differential X-ray diffraction show that the iron oxides present are goethite and hematite in a ratio of about 2 : 1. The presence of hematite indicates that these minerals formed, directly from a hydrothermal phase, at higher temperatures than the recent submarine iron oxide deposits of Santorini, which contain no hematite.

The petrographical and chemical characteristics of the tourmalinite pebbles from the Lower Devonian conglomerates of Belgium are presented together with selected trace element data. The tourmalinites are shown to represent metasomatically altered rocks of variable origin and composition. A model of subvolcanic hydrothermal alteration is proposed.

The dolerites and gabbros of the Tertiary central complex of Slieve Gullion, NE Ireland, represent a suite of tholeiitic magmas (varying from tholeiitic basalt to tholeiitic andesite, Gamble 1979a) which crystallized in the root-zone of a shield volcano. The ubiquity of biotite suggests that the magmas were hydrous and, in addition, both silicate (olivine) and oxide (Ti-magnetite) phases show evidence for oxidation at high temperatures.

Instrumental methods of chemical analysis, including electron and ion-probes, X-ray fluorescence, atomic absorption, and plasma-source spectrometry, have largely replaced classical wet-chemical analysis except for ‘referee’ analyses, but have not so far proved able to determine the net state of oxidation of a rock or mineral with reasonable accuracy. Mössbauer spectroscopy can indeed give fairly accurate Fe2+ and Fe3+ estimates in favourable circumstances, but fails when the Fe2+: Fe3+ ratio is very small or very large or when the iron is present in several different lattice positions with different surroundings; and it cannot arrive at the net state of oxidation when other elements of variable valency are present. The term ‘net state of oxidation’ calls for some comment, and is dealt with in the full paper; for the moment we note as an example that Mössbauer spectroscopy shows that much of the iron in ludlockite is ferric, whereas a ‘ferrous iron’ determination corresponds to an arsenate of lead and ferrous iron, from which it follows that part of the arsenic must be trivalent, a result that could not have been arrived at from either the ‘ferrous iron’ or the Mössbauer data along. Thus in the present state of the art a wet-chemical method for net state of oxidation is a necessity.

Childrenite (Fe,Mn)AlPO4,(OH)2.2H2O, the iron-rich end-member of the childrenite-eosphorite diadochic series, was first discovered by Brooke (1823) on specimens from near Tavistock in Devon. Subsequently it has been recorded from a small number of other British localities, mostly in the Tavistock area, and also from near St. Austell in Cornwall, and from one locality in Cumbria. The Sir Arthur Russell collection, now in the British Museum (Nat. Hist.), has specimens from a few additional localities, all near Tavistock, and the Geological Museum, Institute of Geological Sciences, has a specimen from Wheal Jane, near Truro.