The chemical analyses, structural formulae, and trace element data are presented for 18 orthopyroxenes and 9 clinopyroxenes from the charnockitie rocks of Kondapalli, Andhra Pradesh, India. The chemistry of these pyroxenes is discussed and conclusions are drawn. The data are compared with the similar data available for the pyroxenes of the charnockites of the type area near Madras, some 200 miles south of Kondapalli. The element-distributional relationships between the coexisting pyroxenes are discussed and inferences are made regarding the temperature of crystallization of charnockite pyroxenes.

Chemical data are presented for four hypersthenes and one coexisting hypersthene-augite pair, and chemical, X-ray, and thermomagnetic data presented for five titaniferous magnetites, all from various horizons of the Taupo pumice sequence. These phenocrysts are regarded as primary crystallization products, and not of xenocrystic origin. The hypersthenes range from Mg46·4Fe51·4Ca2·2 to Mg65·7Fe31·2Ca3·1; the augite composition is Mg48·5Fe12·3Ca39·2. The occurrence of such magnesian pyroxenes may be explained by the early separation of titaniferous magnetite, although it is also possible that the initial iron ratios of the liquids were already sufficiently low to precipitate these pyroxenes.

The magnetites exhibit varying stages of oxidation. Data on the least oxidized specimens indicate they were initially magnetite-ulvöspinel solid solutions, with 40 to 50% (mol.) solid solution ulvöspinel. Subsequent oxidation has modified their compositions; there is some evidence that this could have occurred during normal weathering processes.

Olivine crystals showing {100} deformation lamellae between crossed polars show spots streaked out transversely to 00l layer lines in X-ray oscillation photographs. Compositional inhomogeneity is ruled out by optics and electron microprobe analysis. Structurally controlled gliding on {100} (plane of greatest atom density) in the direction [001] (close-packing direction) is deduced on analogy with deformed metals. Mechanism of lamella formation is discussed in terms of superincumbent load; but it is concluded that pressures due to crystal growth are mainly responsible.

Measurements have been made of the magnetic susceptibility and of the polarized absorption spectra of epidotes of the Al-Fe, Al-Fe-Mn, and Al-Cr series. Magnetic susceptibility measurements at room temperature by the Guoy method indicate that Fe3+, Mn3+, and Cr3+ are in ‘high-spin’ electronic states in the epidote structure, and the electronic transitions observed in the absorption spectra have been assigned on this basis. The polarized spectra, measured over the range 4000 to 22 000 Å by a polarizing microscope using a universal stage technique, showed each epidote group to be distinctly pleochroic. This pleochroism correlates with the presence of ions in distorted coordination sites.

Extinction coefficients of Fe3+ in epidote are higher than those for other Fe (III) compounds, indicating that Fe3+ ions occupy the non-centrosymmetric (Al, Fe) site. The low value (13200 cm−1 at 0·155 Fe3+ and 12700 cm−1 at 0·915 Fe3+) of the crystal-field splitting parameter, Δ, implies that the site is easily expanded to accommodate ions larger than Al3+ There is also evidence that increasing Fe3+ content causes distortion of the (Al,Fe)O6 octahedron, suggesting a possible mechanism for the zoisite ⇌ clinozoisite transition.

The spectra of Al-Mu-Fe epidotes have been interpreted in terms of intense contributions from Mn3+ ions in the non-centrosymmetric (Al, Fe) site, and weak contributions from Mn3+ ions in the centrosymmetrie AlOH site. Values of Δ vary from 13730 cm−1 (0·082 Mn3+) to 13400 cm−1 (0·747 Mn3+). Both (Al, Fc) and AlOH sites have strong tetragonal distortions (c/a ~ 0·95), leading to the observed large Jahn-Teller splitting of 12000 cm−1.

The Al-Cr epidote spectra show weak absorption bands, attributed to Cr3+ ions in a centrosymmetric site of approximately orthorhombic symmetry (i.e. the AlO site). The value of Δ is about 16300 cm−1.

Review of all available data on the distribution of Fe3+, Mn3+, and Cr3+ between the sites gives the following site preferences: Fe3+, Al > AlO > AlOH; Mn3+, Al ≥ AlOH ≫ AlO ; Cr3+, AlO ≫ Al, AlOH.

Dalyite, K2ZrSi6O15, occurs in the ejected syenite blocks of Serra de Agua de Pau (Lagoa do Fogo), São Miguel, Azores, in an assemblage sanidine-arfvedsonite-quartz-aegirine-fayalite-astrophyllite-dalyite-pyrrhite. Other blocks from the same locality contain biotite-zircon in place of astrophyllite-dalyite. A comparison made between the chemistry of one specimen of each type indicates that they may be related by paraeutectoid fractional crystallization.

Vlasovite, Na2ZrSi4O11, previously reported as monoclinic by Pyatenko and Voronkov from an occurrence in the Kola Peninsula, Russia, has been found in rocks from Ascension Island in a triclinic twinned modification. The obliquity is very slight (α and γ, differ from 90° by less than 1°), and X-ray photographs show arrays of paired spots corresponding to diffraction by different parts of the crystal related by the twinning operation, reflexion across (010).

On heating, this vlasovite is found to transform to the monoclinic variety at 29° C. The phase change has been followed on a single-crystal X-ray heating camera, and the obliquity is found to have successively smaller values as the crystal is heated from temperatures below room temperature to 29° C. The obliquity is characteristic of the particular temperature over the transformation range and is not affected by thermal history.

The transformation appears to be a displacive one, similar in some respects to α → β tridymite and α → β cristobalite, and some information has been obtained by X-ray structural investigations about the nature of the atomic movements involved.

When the microscope is used in the measurement of reflectivity there is a glare effect, due to internal reflections from optical parts, for which corrections have to be made. In the present paper these effects are measured in a new series of objectives for reflected-light microscopes, and it is shown that the factors involved are the number, curvature, separation, and blooming of the lenses, along with the conditions of adjustment of the microscope. For a given objective the conditions producing the smallest glare are: small area of specimen illuminated and measured, high numerical aperture of the illuminating system, and adjustment of the illuminaton in such a way that the axis of the illuminating beams is slightly oblique. A theory of glare is outlined, and procedures for making the necessary corrections are described—by calculation and by graphical procedure. These corrections can be neglected when a sufficient number of graded standards is used.

Contact metamorphic and metasomatic effects are described in the black radiolarian cherts of Lower Carboniferous age occurring at varying distances from the margin of the Dartmoor granite in the neighbourhood of Meldon, near Okehampton, Devon.

Development of biotite by contact metamorphism is over-printed by metasomatic conversion of chert to coarse-grained calc-silicate hornfels. Changes are localized and controlled by structural planes including faults and joints. Earliest effects are scapolitization giving black-and-white calc-flinta by local addition of calcium and subtraction of silicon. The same trend in transfer of elements is maintained in later phases: wollastonite-diopside reaction zones may enclose cores of black-and-white cale-flinta and are in turn replaced by wollastonite-grossular and grossular reaction zones marking the sites of main channels for migration of mineralizing fluids. Finally, veins with datolite-diopside, datolite-grossular-idocrase, and datolite-grossular-zeolite assemblages were formed in the altered cherts. Tin was available with aluminium and ferric iron during metasomatic changes in which garnet developed.

Some chemical transfer may be reciprocal changes with interbedded limestones, but appeal is made to external sources for the later metasomatizing agents.

Pyrolusite pseudomorphous after manganite occurs at Serro do Navio, Amapa, Brazil. It consists of wedges, flattened on (100) and elongated along [010], twinned on (011) and showing forms d{210}, , b{010}, and f{021} (all indices referred to manganite, in the setting of Dana, 7th edn). The difficulty of distinguishing between pyrolusite pseudomorphous after manganite and after groutite is discussed and also the possible existence of the latter. The distinction was made here by measuring the twinning angle between the pyrolusite lattices using (0kl) precession photographs. Specimens of manganite intergrown with pyrolusite are described and their relative orientations determined. On heating, manganite partly decomposes to a monoclinic phase, a 9·9 Å, b 5·73 Å, c 4·89 Å, β 98°, space group I2, Im, or I2/m.

Synthetic mixtures of CaO and Fe2O3 fired in air at temperatures in the range 1180° C to 1240° C in some cases lost oxygen and formed ferrous-iron-bearing compounds. Samples after firing were examined by incident light microscopy and X-ray diffraction; new powder data are presented for the phases reported. In addition to α-Fe2O3, CaFe2O4, and Ca2Fe2O53. four distinct phases have been identified. These are and two forms of , described previously by Braun and Kwestroo (1960). The likely compositions of these phases are given.