Boreal, Tethyan, and Indo-Pacific faunal realms may be recognized in belemnite faunas of Callovian and most of later Mesozoic time. The presence of such clearly-defined realms indicates restriction of belemnite migration and perhaps the belemnites were confined to the shelves, extensive areas of deep water forming barriers. Migration of belemnites in the Tethyan and Indo-Pacific realms may be explained in terms of deep water barriers, but delimitation of the Boreal realm is thought to be a result of climatic zoning.

Ripple marks of unusual dimensions are recorded from the Sandbanks Limestone (Middle Limestone Group) at a foreshore locality 3 miles south of Spittal in North Northumberland. The structures are thought to have been formed in a partially cohesive calcareous mudas wave-oscillation ripples which have undergone penecontemporaneous modification.

A study of Metriophyllum gracile has revealed some unusual features in its mode of attachment and growth.

Potassium-argon age measurements made on samples of rock from Charnwood Forest and surrounding districts indicate that the porphyroids and syenites probably date from late pre-Cambrian times. The area was affected by both the Caledonian and Hercynianorogenies. A number of the intrusive rocks of the Forest have been shown to date from Caledonian times. A dolerite from the Leicestershire coalfield gave a Permian age.

Granodiorite intrusions in Jamaica were assigned by early workers to various ages from Pre-Cambrian to late Tertiary. Recent surveys have shown that the granodiorite intrudes Maestrichtian sediments and has provided material for pebbles in an Eocene conglomerate. Its age is therefore very late Cretaceous or very early Tertiary. Radio-metric determinations using Potassium/Argon; Rubidium/Strontium and isotopic lead methods suggest an age of 65 ± 5 million years.

Borehole cores have been obtained of a basic igneous sill at Landywood, near Cannock, Staffordshire. This intrusion consists mainly of microteschenite with a zone of teschenite in the top half of the sill. Later parts of the parental magma of this intrusion were dryer and crystallized to give crinanite and analcite olivine dolerite. These later parts were not intruded in sufficient quantities to spread through the whole of the sill and were restricted to the vicinity of the feeding pipe. Extensive secondary replacement of plagioclase by chlorite and of pyroxene by carbonate occurs in the teschenitic parts of the sill and is ascribed to the action of water and carbon dioxide derived from the magma.

The BP Exploration Company's Colston Bassett (South) No. 1 Borehole, Nottinghamshire, entered Coal Measures at 1,134 feet. These persisted for 901 feet, when massive tuffs were encountered which were 679 feet thick and overlay Millstone Grit. The tuff is composed of amygdaloidal glass, devitrified to a montmorillonite, and is rich in analcime. In a nearby borehole, no tuffs were encountered and the Coal Measures were 1,784 feet thick. It seems that at Colston Bassett (South) the lowest Coal Measures sediments are represented by the tuff, which is non-displacive and was perhaps a cone against which the later sediments were deposited.

Folds in the uppermost 10 feet of Triassic rocks in the cliffs of Sully Island, Glamorgan, are described and their origin is related to processes operating when the area was subject to permafrost.

The basal Purbeck of Dorset includes interesting “dirt-beds” or fossil soils. The limestones, previously considered freshwater, are here shown to be largely of marine algal origin containing species of Ortonella, Girvanella, and Solenopora and presumed algal stromatolites. Petrographic evidence of anhydrite, gypsum, and celestine suggests evaporitic conditions during their formation. This is supported by the presence of ostracods belonging to marine or super-saline species, and by the scarcity of other fauna.