For the purposes of a high-resolution multi-disciplinary study of the Upper Jurassic Kimmeridge Clay Formation, two boreholes were drilled at Swanworth Quarry and one at Metherhills, south Dorset, UK. Together, the cores represent the first complete section through the entire formation close to the type section. We present graphic logs that record the stratigraphy of the cores, and outline the complementary geophysical and analytical data sets (gamma ray, magnetic susceptibility, total organic carbon, carbonate, δ13Corg). Of particular note are the new borehole data from the lowermost part of the formation which does not crop out in the type area. Detailed logs are available for download from the Kimmeridge Drilling Project web-site at http://kimmeridge.earth.ox.ac.uk/. Of further interest is a mid-eudoxus Zone positive shift in the δ13Corg record, a feature that is also registered in Tethyan carbonate successions, suggesting that it is a regional event and may therefore be useful for correlation. The lithostratigraphy of the cores has been precisely correlated with the nearby cliff section, which has also been examined and re-described. Magnetic-susceptibility and spectral gamma-ray measurements were made at a regular spacing through the succession, and facilitate core-to-exposure correlation. The strata of the exposure and core have been subdivided into four main mudrock lithological types: (a) medium-dark–dark-grey marl; (b) medium-dark–dark grey–greenish black shale; (c) dark-grey–olive-black laminated shale; (d) greyish-black–brownish-black mudstone. The sections also contain subordinate amounts of siltstone, limestone and dolostone. Comparison of the type section with the cores reveals slight lithological variation and notable thickness differences between the coeval strata. The proximity of the boreholes and different parts of the type section to the Purbeck–Isle of Wight Disturbance is proposed as a likely control on the thickness changes.

Rb–Sr dating of clay subfractions from three sedimentary formations of Late Riphean to Vendian age from Varanger Peninsula, northern Norway, has helped to refine the geochronology of the Late Neoproterozoic–Cambrian time interval in this region. Eighteen subfractions in six narrow size-ranges from 1–2 μm to <0.1 μm were separated from shales of the Stangenes, Nyborg and Stappogiedde formations. The coarser subfractions include some 2M1 illite as well as the 1M polymorph. The finer subfractions contain only the 1Md illite. After leaching with ammonium acetate, Rb–Sr ‘leachochrons’ for the untreated subfraction, leachate and residue were derived for all subfractions. As the clay particle size decreases from 1–2 to 0.1–0.2 μm: (1) the proportion of chlorite, where present, is reduced; (2) the Crystallinity Index Standard (CIS) increases; (3) the 87Rb/86SR ratio in the residues increases; and (4) the apparent Rb–Sr age decreases. In addition, the data points of the residues are aligned linearly in both the 87Rb/86Sr–87Sr/86Sr and the 1/Sr–87Sr/86Sr diagrams. A similar pattern in the 87Rb/86Sr–87Sr/86Sr coordinates is observed for the data points of leachates. This suggests that mixtures of at least two, non-cogenetic, illite generations are present in all the shales, and that these illites crystallized in environments with dissimilar 87Sr/86Sr ratios. The minimum Rb–Sr ages of early burial diagenesis are c. 650 Ma for the Stangenes, and 560–530 Ma for the Nyborg and Stappogiedde formations. These results indicate that: (1) the age of the Riphean–Vendian boundary is <630 Ma; (2) the age of the Varangerian glaciation on the Varanger Peninsula is bracketed between 630 and 560 Ma; (3) a c. 560 Ma burial diagenesis age for the intra-tillite Nyborg Formation and post-tillite Stappogiedde Formation may result from subsidence and sedimentation associated with the Late Vendian Timanian (Baikalian) deformation in adjacent areas; and (4) the ages of the finer, authigenic illite subfractions range from 440 to 390 Ma and thus appear to reflect phases of Scandian deformation and uplift.

The botanical identity and facies distribution of fossil charcoal is described from Middle to Late Cenomanian (90–94 Ma) fluvial to estuarine units at Pecínov quarry, near Prague, Czech Republic. Braided alluvial facies associations contain charred conifer woods (family Pinaceae) possibly derived from upland forest fires, and abundant charred angiosperm woods, flowers and inflorescences (families Lauraceae and ?Platanaceae) derived from riparian gallery forest fires (Unit 2). Retrogradational coastal salt marsh facies associations contain abundant charred conifer wood (families Cheirolepidiaceae and Cupressaceae/Taxodiaceae) derived from fires in halophytic backswamp forest, and rare pinaceous charred cones and lauraceous angiosperm wood washed downstream from fires further inland (Units 3–4). Progradational coastal facies associations within an estuary mouth setting contain abundant charred conifer wood (family Cupressaceae/Taxodiaceae), common taxodiaceous conifer and angiosperm leaves, fern rachises, and lycopsid stems derived from fires in mesic backswamp taxodiaceous forests and supra-tidal fern-lycopsid thickets (Unit 5). Growth rings in angiosperm and conifer woods, leaf physiognomy and computer models indicate that climate was equable, warm and humid, but that there was a short annual dry season; most fires probably occurred during these annual drought periods. The abundance of charcoal and the diversity of taxa preserved in this state indicate that nearly all plant communities were fire-prone. Physiognomically, the Pecínov flora resembles present-day seasonally-dry subtropical forests where fires are a common occurrence.

The Neoproterozoic metasediments of northwestern Scotland were deformed during the 470 Ma Grampian orogeny. Their pre-Ordovician history has proved difficult to elucidate, due to conflicting evidence. While the stratigraphic record indicates deposition in intracontinental rift basins associated with the break-up of Rodinia, isotopic dates in the range 870–780 Ma from granite gneiss, early pegmatites and metamorphic garnets have been attributed to a Neoproterozoic ‘Knoydartian’ orogeny. Stratigraphic evidence for this orogeny is lacking, and it is not represented elsewhere on the Laurentian margin. An alternative interpretation is that much of the Knoydartian history can be related to extensional, not collisional processes. Specifically, it has been proposed that the 870 Ma West Highland granite gneiss that is intruded into the Moine rocks of northwestern Scotland is not the product of synorogenic anatexis but represents a suite of granite sheets that were generated during extensional rifting and were subsequently deformed and gneissified during the Grampian orogeny. This contribution presents numerical models of extension-related anatexis to test this hypothesis.

We first develop a methodology to estimate stretch values and the duration of extension and thermal subsidence for the Moine rift basins. A thermal model is then constructed for these basins using transient finite element techniques. This model shows that lithospheric extension sufficient to produce major rift basins, even if they are filled with feldspathic sediment with Neoproterozoic heat production characteristics, will not lead to crustal anatexis. However, a regional suite of mafic dykes in the more easterly (Loch Eil) Moine suggests that stretching led to decompression melting of the mantle. We model the effect of advecting heat into the extending lithosphere by the introduction of a modest volume of basaltic magma, and show that substantial granitic melt can be generated in the basement beneath the basin. The amount of anatexis varies with the locus of basalt intrusion. Some 30% more granite is generated by dykes emplaced along basin-bounding faults than by either dykes emplaced beneath the centre of the basin, or by underplating sills. The spatial distributions of the West Highland gneiss and of the mafic suite are compatible with this finding. There is clear field evidence that the protolith of the West Highland gneiss consisted of a suite of pre-tectonic granite sheets, and our modelling demonstrates that they could have been generated during the later stages of extensional rifting and Moine sedimentation.

The Cautley Mudstone Formation and Cystoid Limestone Member of the Ashgill Formation (Windermere Supergroup; Ashgill Series), from the Cautley district of northern England, has yielded an ostracod fauna of more than 30 species. Many of these have short ranges, permitting recognition of stratigraphically successive Pusgillian–lower Cautleyan, middle–upper Cautleyan, and Rawtheyan ostracod faunas. Several species are also known from the upper Ordovician of North America (Anticosti Island), Scotland (Girvan district) and the Baltic region (Estonia, glacial erratic boulders of northern Germany), providing evidence to correlate upper Ordovician successions in these areas. The ostracods include abundant podocopes, at some horizons accounting for more than 80% of the fauna. Binodicopes are also common, but palaeocopes are rare. Assemblages are typical of a clastic dominated open marine shelf setting. Diversity at most horizons is low (c. 3–5 species), but reaches a peak of between 13–14 species in middle Cautleyan horizons. Lower diversity at Pusgillian and Rawtheyan horizons coincides with the encroachment of deeper marine-shelf facies which were probably hostile to Ordovician benthonic ostracods. Some of the ostracods (particularly Aechmina) have distributions suggesting tolerance of a range of mid- to deep shelf benthonic palaeoenvironments, but none were pelagic. During Ashgill times the Cautley district (part of palaeocontinental Avalonia) was replete with ostracod genera and species which also occur in the Baltic region (palaeocontinental Baltica; more than 90% generic similarity) and to a lesser, but nonetheless significant extent in North America and Scotland (parts of palaeocontinental Laurentia). Such trans-Tornquist Sea and Iapetus Ocean distributional patterns add to previous ostracod data that support models which show palaeogeographical proximity of Avalonia and Baltica, and Avalonia and Laurentia, by Ashgill times. The widely cited observation, that trans-Iapetus ostracod faunas remained strictly provincial until the mid-or late Silurian, cannot be sustained.

The Eastern Ghats granulite belt of India has traditionally been described as a Proterozoic mobile belt, with probable Archaean protoliths. However, recent findings suggest that synkinematic development of granulites took place in a compressional tectonic regime and that granulite facies metamorphism resulted from crustal thickening. The field, petrological and geochemical studies of a charnockite massif of tonalitic to trondhjemitic composition, and associated rocks, document granulite facies metamorphism and dehydration partial melting of basic rocks at lower crustal depths, with garnet granulite residues exposed as cognate xenoliths within the charnockite massif. The melting and generation of the charnockite suite under granulite facies conditions have been dated c. 3.0 Ga by Sm–Nd and Rb–Sr whole rock systematics and Pb–Pb zircon dating. Sm–Nd model dates between 3.4 and 3.5 Ga and negative epsilon values provide evidence of early Archaean continental crust in this high-grade terrain.