In the Cayman Islands a core of Miocene and Oligocene crystalline limestones is overlain unconformably by limestones of the Pleistocene Ironshore Formation. Within this Formation five separate depositional environments are recognized. A reef facies contains corals still in their growth position. This reef facies is succeeded by a back reef facies, followed by a lagoonal facies. The lagoonal facies contains a diverse molluskan fauna of 75 species which differs considerably from that found in the present lagoons around the island. Rocks of these facies are overlain in places by ridges of calcarenite, considered to be shoal deposits. Higher ridges which overlie the Tertiary limestones and reef facies rocks are interpreted as beach ridges. It is thought that the Pleistocene sediments were deposited around a gradually subsiding core of Tertiary rocks.

Feeding burrow trace fossils are recorded from the Upper Brioverian of St Ouen's Bay, Jersey. The traces resemble Sabellarites (Dawson) and represent deep water turbidity metazoans of Late Precambrian age, which are unknown in the remaining Brioverian of the Massif Armoricain.

The ages of igneous rocks formed at the time of continental break-up indicate that crustal separation begins at, or shortly after, the peak of igneous activity. The present study summarizes and lends support to the conclusions of previous authors on the temporal relationship of igneous activity and continental break-up.

Each fluvio-lacustrine cyclothem may include the following lithotypes (in ascending order): (a) irregularly laminated silts and muds; (b) regularly laminated muds and silts; (c) muds with or without molluscan partings and bands; (d) colour mottled muds. Each cycle reflects a change from flowing water conditions (fluvial) to non-flowing water conditions (lacustrine), culminating in some cases with the formation of marsh. Each lithotype is thought to represent the environmental changes which resulted from the silting up of inter-channel depressions on a flood plain. Successive cyclothems possibly reflect renewed flooding following an increase in river level during more pluvial periods.

This note outlines some thoughts on the possible significance of the April 1972 Qir earthquake with respect to the geological structure of Fars Province, SW Iran. The area in which the disturbance occurred belongs to a belt of simple folds of the Zagros system. These folds exhibit localized anomalies of structure which are attributed both to renewed movements along deep-seated basement features and to the modifying effects of salt mobility in the subsurface. The absence of surface indications of rupture in the devastated area is puzzling, but the alignment of zones of maximum destruction to buildings suggests a shallow epicentre associated with a concealed N70°W trending thrust fault system. Such seismicity is indicative of the continued activity of the Zagros orogenic movements.

The two pits expose Pliensbachian silty shales and ferruginous limestones and sandstones. Fossils collected in situ are listed and two new morphospecies of fossil bivalve mollusc are described—Hippopodium tuffleyensis and Hettangia aperta. A taxonomic discussion is followed by palaeoecological inferences drawn from the essentially bivalve-dominated molluscan fauna. The conclusions indicate that the silty shales were deposited in well oxygenated waters, probably not exceeding 100 m, and the limestones at even shallower depths. Pebbles in the limestones indicate that some erosion preceded each of the limestones in the Margaritatus zone.

The bankfull width (w) of modern meandering rivers (sinuosity >1.7) is related to bankfull depth (h) by the equation w = 6.8h1.54. The equation may be used to calculate limits for the bankfull widths of palaeochannels that deposited alluvial fining-upwards cycles. Calculated bankfull widths and measured bankfull widths from epsilon cross stratification are further used to state ranges of values for meander wavelength and mean annual discharge using existing empirical equations. The empirical equations directly relating width/depth ratios to sediment load and sinuosity are shown to be generally valid only for small rivers because of the increase of width/depth ratios as meandering rivers increase in size.

Isopachytes of boulder clay in an area of Northwest Lancashire have been constructed from borehole-controlled geoelectrical data by separately using manual and automatic contouring techniques. At the sites of later drillings, the known boulder-clay thicknesses compare favourably with those indicated by both contour distributions, suggesting that the automatic techniques have a useful application in problems of this kind.

A series of metamorphosed (amphibolite facies) basic and intermediate igneous rocks from upper Swat, Pakistan, is described, with seven chemical analyses. The rocks intrude ?Palaeozoic metasediments and are partially bordered by other, later, intrusive and volcanic rocks. The group, now represented by, from S–N, epidote amphibolites, amphibolites, noritic and hypersthene gabbros, and quartz diorites, is considered to be derived from a series of plagioclase hypersthenites, norites, hypersthene gabbros, and hypersthene diorites. Variation diagrams are used to show that the series forms a differentiated sequence; FMA and lime-alkali diagrams suggest that it is similar to the rocks of the Garabal Hill–Loch Fyne area of Scotland. Some of the mineralogy of the group is briefly discussed, with five chemical analyses. A K/Ar age determination gives 67 Ma; thus the rocks probably derive from an early Himalayan (Alpine) tholeiitic basalt magma.