Extensive sampling, major element chemistry on over 300 samples and K-Ar radiometric dating have been carried out on the Ecuadorian Upper Tertiary–Quaternary volcanoes. The results show important space–time variations of the volcanic activity, between Late Miocene time and the present. In Late Miocene time a continuous volcanic belt, located approximately along the present volcanic front (VF), affected the whole country from the Cuenca basin to the south, up to Colombia to the north. Major changes occurred at about 5 Ma: volcanic activity stopped south of the Guayaquil fault belt and never resumed; to the north the active volcanic axis shifted eastward to the Cordillera Real (CR) area with a simultaneous relative decrease in intensity. Since Early Quaternary time the volcanic belt widened westward to the Western Cordillera where the volcanism resumed at about 1.5–1.0 Ma, giving rise to the very wide active volcanic zone of Ecuador.

The Plio-Quaternary products show significant longitudinal and latitudinal chemical and mineralogical changes. Volcanics of the VF and Interandean Depression contain amphibole and define a calc-alkaline trend with a K2O content lower than that of the CR products, which are characterized by a mostly anhydrous phenocryst assemblage. In both areas andesites dominate, but extreme compositions (basaltic andesites and rhyolites) are more diffuse in the CR than the VF. No significant transverse zoning has been detected in the northern region (north of the Chota-Mira transverse tectonic line). The observed temporal and spatial variations are interpreted as a result of the subduction of the Carnegie Ridge anomalous oceanic crust, underthrusting of which began approximately 6 Ma ago.

The Asille Group, a 1500 m succession comprising dominantly basaltic lavas but with interbedded sediments and silicic volcanics, lies unconformably upon metamorphosed basement northeast of Lake Turkana. Concordant K–Ar ages on alkali feldspars from pantelleritic units in the succession show that the Langaria Formation erupted 26.9±0.3 Ma ago in late Oligocene time, that Gum Dura Formation volcanism occurred at 15.8±0.2 Ma (early Miocene), and that there was widespread middle Miocene silicic volcanism at 13.0±0.3 Ma. Younger basaltic volcanism producing the flood lavas of the Gombe Group commenced at least 6.16±0.09 Ma ago in late Miocene time. These results, based upon 20 K–Ar age determinations, provide good numerical age control for much of the sequence developed within a little known sector of the Eastern Rift of Africa between the Ethiopian and Kenyan domes.

A 12-point whole-rock Rb–Sr isochron for the Carnsore Granite of southeastern Ireland yields an age of 428±11 Ma and initial 87Sr/86Sr ratio of 0.7068±0.0003 (index of goodness of fit, MSWD = 0.65). A similar mean 207Pb/206Pb age of 432±3 Ma from three slightly discordant zircon size fractions from the granite is also indicated, and shows that the pluton was emplaced contemporaneously with the neighbouring Saltee Granite.

Thus, Tuskar Group rocks, which are intruded by the Carnsore Granite, could be as young as Ordovician. While the early history of the Rosslare Complex is undoubtedly Precambrian, the new age for the Carnsore pluton means that the later intrusive and tectonothermal events in the history of this complex are no longer constrained to be Precambrian and may have occurred over a 150 + Ma interval in Cambro-Ordovician time.

The zircons from the Carnsore Granite are slightly discordant, and show no apparent inherited radiogenic lead component. The initial 87Sr/86Sr ratio suggests that the magma may have been derived as a melt in the lower crust. The higher strontium isotope ratios of the Rosslare gneisses would seem to preclude their involvement in the genesis of the Carnsore magma.

Morphological changes in bedforms composing a tidal delta at the northern entrance to Moreton Bay, Queensland have been studied by examining aerial photographs spanning a 26-year time period. The aerial photographs show the movements of 51 different sand-bank crestlines, and the morphological characteristics of both sand banks and sandwaves. From the orientation of sandwave crests to the sand-bank crestlines, zones of ebb- and flood-dominance in sand-transport direction are distinguished. The migration directions of the sand banks are predicted by considering the cross-sectional asymmetry of the sand banks together with their adjacent ebb/flood zones of net sand transport. The reliability of the predictions is tested by comparisons with sequential air photo data. When applied to 53 bedforms, the predictions achieved a high success rate, with 45 predicted migration directions matching those observed on the sequential aerial photographs. Bedform movement can be predicted, therefore, for any water depths in which submarine bedforms can be clearly seen on aerial photographs (< 10 m).

Based upon their mobility, sand banks are classified into three categories: dynamic sand banks, which change quickly (within 2 years) and which have migration rates that are non-uniform along the bank crestline; progressive sand banks, which change slowly (from 2–10 years) and have migration rates that are uniform along their crestlines; and immobile sand banks, which change only over time intervals which exceed 10 years. Changes in sand-bank morphology occur by migration of the crestline together with growth and decay, and are considered to be linked with changes of larger ebb- and flood-dominant zones of net sand transport. The three different sand-bank types are characterized by distinctive heights, crestline lengths and wavelengths. They occur in different locations within Moreton Bay, possibly related to distance from external sand supplies and to relative tidal current and surface wave energy levels.

The Old Red Sandstone (ORS) on the island of Hitra forms an approximately 1350 m thick succession of alternating continental mudstones, sandstones and conglomerates of possibly latest Silurian to Devonian age. Within the middle part of this succession, just above a major, scoured surface, a spectacular slump feature was observed. The phenomenon is interpreted as a unit of overbank/channel bank mudstones which, because of undercutting and liquidization, caved into a low sinuosity river channel. The Hitra sequence is the only one in the Norwegian ORS where such phenomena have as yet been identified.

The Woburn Sands (Lower Greensand Group, Aptian–Albian age), in Billington Crossing quarry, Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, England, show, along bedding planes of tabular cross-stratification, foreset alternations of quartz grains and goethitic ooids. Field and petrographic evidence suggest that: (a) the goethite in the layers and cores is primary; (b) the ooids formed by mechanical accretion of original Fe-hydroxide gels around nuclei on the sea-floor in shallower nearshore adjacent environments; (c) goethite cores of some ooids represent an earlier stage of iron deposition within the sediment where silica adsorbed by the iron-gels segregated in inclusions; (d) short-term variations in current strength and iron supply are responsible for the different arrangements of goethite platelets (tangential to random to radial) in the ferruginous layers in connection with the degree of crystallization of the colloidal iron during the accretion stage; (e) the ooids were then swept away in deeper waters by tidal action where their segregation in the lower parts of each foreset lamina is believed to have been hydraulically controlled.

Palaeomagnetic studies from the southern part of the Moine Thrust Zone (MTZ) indicate a complex pattern of four major secondary remanence components (A–D). Their relative ages appear to vary from mid-Ordovician to Recent/Tertiary. The oldest remanence (A) is tentatively interpreted as associated with the formation of the Lochalsh Syncline (D1) and/or D2. However, the consistency between component A and the regional southeast-plunging lineation, makes it uncertain to what extent component A reflects the structural grain rather than a true palaeofield record. Component B appears to be associated with early Devonian uplift along the MTZ relating to localized shearing/high level brittle thrusting, and is almost synchronous with the emplacement of lamprophyre and felsic dykes.

In the inverted limb of the Lochalsh Syncline, and beneath the Balmacara Thrust, possible Permian (component C) and Recent/Tertiary magnetic overprints are recognized. Component C is partly of high magnetic stability and may indicate localized shears in the inverted limb, usually considered as Caledonian shearing. It is uncertain to what extent the youngest component (D), essentially recorded in rocks close to the Balmacara Thrust in mylonites and fault breccias, reflects important tectonic reactivation and magnetic resetting. This component is governed by low stability magnetic phases with blocking temperatures below 200 °C.

An angular unconformity below Cambrian rocks is present in the northwest Himalaya in the Hazara district, Pakistan. Low-grade metamorphism and folding with axial planar cleavage present in Precambrian rocks below the unconformity, but not in those above it, confirm orogenic deformation at this time. This is the first clear evidence for such a deformation episode and it may be referred to locally as the Hazaran orogeny. Anatectic peraluminous granites of the Himalaya are of only slightly younger age and may be related to this orogenic episode.