The development of techniques for quantitative stratigraphic correlation has tended to outstrip their acceptance by practising stratigraphers. To make these techniques more readily accessible and to encourage their use, this paper presents a brief, general review of the problem of quantitative stratigraphic correlation and then shows how, using a natural framework for stratigraphic correlation, the stratigraphic time-series, there can be seen an orderly pattern among them. The annotated bibliography, of almost 400 articles, includes a majority of those references concerned with quantitative stratigraphic correlation, in whatever sense: the scheme of annotation provides a straightforward, albeit subjective indication of the general thrust of each article.

From remotely sensed images of rock surfaces at coasts it is possible to map some characteristics of different rock types. To do this a selection must be made of those parts of the image that correspond to the rock surfaces prior to interrogation of their geological information content. A comparative study of satellite-acquired multispectral Thematic Mapper data and aircraft-acquired multispectral scanner data at four test sites on the Pembrokeshire coast was made. The spatial resolution of the Thematic Mapper data (30 m) proved to be too coarse to provide any continuity of mapping over several kilometres of rock exposures, whereas the 10 m resolution of the aircraft data was adequate to do this. Using the aircraft scanner data, neighbouring Old Red Sandstone and Carboniferous (mainly carbonate) rocks could be discriminated in both three-band and principal components images. Furthermore, it proved possible to distinguish between limestone and dolomite lithologies in the Carboniferous succession and between some of the mudstones and sandstones in the Old Red Sandstone. Airborne multispectral scanning of rocky coasts is a new potential tool for geological mapping in exploration projects in which it would be best integrated with the acquisition of airborne geophysical and field geological data.

The Chitradurga greenstone succession of south India comprises a thick pile (~ 10 km) of late Archaean volcanic flows and terrigenous clastic sediments, metamorphosed from greenschist to low-grade amphilobite facies. An older near-shore sedimentary sequence of cratonic affiliation and an off-shore bimodal volcanic sequence were deposited contemporaneously on a gneissic basement. The volcanics are metasomatically altered, and major, minor and trace element data fail to discriminate the metavolcanics in terms of modern plate settings. A younger turbidite sequence of coarser elastics covered the older deposits without any apparent tectonic or erosional break. All the rocks of the succession display evidence of similar deformation, prior to invasion by younger granites (~ 2.5 Ga)in a late syn-kinematic phase.

This suggests that initially a simple flat-lying downwarp in a continental crust served as the passive receptacle of the platform-type sediments, and also witnessed volcanism along extensional faulting. This phase of the basin was not associated with any compressive deformation. Subsidence of the Chitradurga basin by the denser volcanics and uplift in the gneissic borderlands provided the infrastructure for subsequent development of the younger turbidite sequence covering the still virtually undeformed older deposits. A compressive orogeny, accompanied by granitic intrusion (~ 2.5Ga) in a late kinematic phase, ultimately deformed and uplifted the basin-fill during the declining phase of basinal activity.

There is no evidence in the belt to suggest that the plate-tectonic (Wilson cycle) processes, pending a terminal orogeny, were operative during evaluation of the Chitradurga basin.

Investigation of a section near Morston on the central north Norfolk coast has revealed evidence of a complex sequence of beach deposits laid down under interglacial conditions in association with relative sea levels similar to those of the present. This material rests upon a highly calcareous till and is itself overlain by a deposit comparable with the Hunstanton Till of northwest Norfolk. This site therefore represents the first location at which Hunstanton Till has been found overlying older till, and the only location so far discovered in East Anglia at which interglacial deposits separate glacigenic sediments. The site also contains the only indubitable Quaternary warm stage deposits to have been recognized in central north Norfolk.

Litophragmatoceras incomptum gen. et sp.nov. is a small dimorphic planulate ammonite from the Upper Cenomanian Metoicoceras mosbyense Zone of Arizona in which microconchs are adult at as little as 5 mm diameter and macroconchs at 23 mm diameter or less. The quinquelobate suture is very simple, with entire lobes and saddles. It is distinct from all contemporaneous ammonites and is referred, with no great certainty, to the otherwise exclusively Upper Albian and Lower Cenomanian Flickiinae Adkins, 1928.