At least five successive intrusions of nepheline-bearing magmas fractionated in situ and developed repeatedly overlapping, yet distinct chemical trends in the mafic silicates. Representative electron probe analyses are given for olivine, clinopyroxene, amphibole, biotite, and aenigmatite and their variations discussed. Increasing Na with fractionation produced aegirine-rich clinopyroxene and caused Na/K in amphibole to increase from 2.4 to 7.0. Siz/Alz increased in both amphibole and in the less abundant mica. Mn-enrichment is common to all of the mafic silicates, including the olivines and it is suggested that the parent magmas were initially Mn-rich.

Mineralogically the Motzfeldt centre is evolved and similar to the other centres in the Igaliko complex. However, the Motzfeldt centre contains the most fractionated rocks (lujavrites) and is in this respect similar to the peralkaline Ilimaussaq intrusion. The compositional ranges and trends of the mafic silicates in Motzfeldt thus provide links between the uncommon peralkaline plutons and the more abundant and typical nepheline syenites.

In the Ören area at the base of the Lycian Nappes, chloritoid is common on a regional scale. Mn and inferred Fe3+ contents are low. Chloritoid + quartz occur rather than the more hydrous equivalent pyrophyllite + chlorite, Fe/(Fe + Mg) values in chlorite ranging down to 0·27. Calcite and dolomite, which coexist with chloritoid and pyrophyllite, give a temperature estimate of 350± 30°C, implying moderate to high activities of water for pyrophyllite stability. Muscovite-paragonite geothermometry is unreliable. Mg/Fe distribution coefficients between chloritoid and chlorite differ systematically from literature values from higher grades (biotite and garnet zones). Intensity of colour in chloritoid correlates with inferred Fe3+ content, which decreases outwards in grains showing prograde growth zoning.

The first five papers of this issue of the Mineralogical Magazine have as a common theme Tertiary Igneous Geology. In May 1983 the Society held a thematic meeting on the igneous rocks of the Tertiary Province and from this has followed a collection of papers, grouped here together for convenience. The range of topics covered is broadly based and the papers demonstrate the extent of current research activity in the area.

All readers of the Magazine will be aware of the extent of the contribution made to igneous petrology and geochemistry by work done on the Tertiary Igneous Province. The Tertiary age of the igneous rocks had been recognized from work during the last century by Sir Archibald Geike and Professor J. W. Judd.

Mineralogical and chemical data are presented on an intrusion of a hypersthene gabbro body into coarse-grained noritic cumulates of the critical zone, which occurs at the margin of the Rustenburg Layered Suite of the Bushveld Complex. Two types of contact relations are found between the above two rock suites: (1) a clearly cross-cutting contact is observed on the southern margin of the hypersthene gabbro body close to the interface between the layered suite and the floor rocks; (2) a diffuse heterogeneous contact is found on the north-western limb of the body which is further into the complex. Field observations and chemical data suggest that, at the time of the hypersthene gabbro injection, the surrounding cumulates were above ambient temperatures. The difference in the contacts described above is probably related to the prevailing temperature gradient at the time of emplacement. The cumulate rocks further into the complex were at a higher temperature than those closer to the margin.

Trace element chemistry and phase relations in the basalt tetrahedron indicate that the hypersthene gabbro is genetically unrelated to the cumulate rocks which it intrudes. The body probably represents an offshoot of the magma from which the upper zone of the Rustenburg Layered Suite crystallized.

The Dippin sill, which is emplaced into the Triassic sediments of SE Arran, is an alkaline basic sheet which displays pronounced hydrothermal alteration. The 40-m-thick sill has suffered pervasive contamination with radiogenic Sr, introduced from the Triassic sediments by hydrothermal fluids. Stable isotope measurements suggest that fluids were of meteoric origin, but were restricted to a small closed-system circulation. Initial 87Sr/86Sr ratios in the sill were raised from an original value of 0.7032 to a maximum of 0.7091, contamination being especially pronounced near the contacts at Dippin Head itself (localities 12 and 14) and in a drill core section through the sill above Dippin. Hydrothermal Sr was incorporated into an early-formed high-CaO, high-Sr analcime, which replaced unstable high-silica nepheline in interstitial patches. However, this high-CaO analcime, along with plagioclase, was later replaced by a low-CaO, low-Sr analcime, allowing Sr leaching from the margins of the sill. Hydrothermal fluids are thought to have migrated up to 1 km laterally, up the dip of the sill, mainly via tension joints forming in the cooling intrusion. Pooling of hot fluids at the upper end of the sill probably raised water/rock ratios in this region and allowed greater Sr contamination during mineralogical alteration. The undersaturated mineralogy of the sill accounts for its pervasive hydrothermal Sr contamination, which contrasts markedly with the relatively undisturbed Sr isotope compositions of Hebridean granites involved in hydrothermal systems.

Subsolidus diopside compositions and coexisting diopside and liquid compositions which are also in equilibrium with anorthite and forsterite in the system CaO-MgO-Al2O3-SiO2 were determined by X-ray diffraction and by electron microprobe in samples equilibrated at 1 bar and at 7 kbar. Along with previous data from the literature and using a recently published grid relating diffraction peaks to composition, results from both techniques are satisfactorily reconciled. At 1 bar, diopside composition (moles, Di = CaMgSi2O6, En = Mg2Si2O6, CaTs = CaAl2Si2O6) in equilibrium with anorthite, forsterite, and spinel (analogous to alkali basalts) are close to Di79CaTs20En1 and those in equilibrium with anorthite, forsterite, and pigeonite (analogous to tholeiitic basalt) are close to Di75CaTs3En22. At 7 kbar the equivalent compositions are Di69CaTs28En3 and Di69CaTs26En5 respectively.

In the system CaO-Na2O-MgO-Al2O3-SiO2, electron microprobe analyses of augites and liquids at 1 bar confirm the changes expected in the loci of liquids and show that the low Na2O (< 0.50 wt.%) augites are similar to those in CaO-MgO-Al2O3-SiO2. At 7 kbar the orthopyroxene field has expanded sufficiently and augite was not encountered in the limited range of samples studied.

In remelted rocks the augite compositions at 1 bar are similar to the compositions of augites in low pressure effusive rocks. At 2–15 kbar, the available data in the literature for dry basalts show that experimentally recrystallized augites are very sub-calcic and very aluminous, and no natural equivalents exist in plutonic gabbros or in ophiolitic rocks. This discrepancy is not resolved but either the experimental pyroxenes are metastable or the pyroxenes presently in the rocks are not the pristine compositions.

A nepheline mugearite dyke in the Walcha area, New South Wales, contains xenoliths of Cr-diopside lherzolite, garnet- and spinel websterites, and two- pyroxene-garnet granulites. The Cr-diopside lherzolite xenoliths are regarded as refractory upper mantle which finally equilibrated at c. 950–980°C. The garnet websterites are considered to represent spinel websterite segregations from an Mg-rich olivine tholeiite magma at 14–16 kbar which on isobaric cooling to 1000–1050°C passed into the garnet pyroxenite stability field. Spinel-amphibole websterites which probably last equilibrated at c. 950°C and pressures of 9–12 kbar have dose mineralogical affinites with the Cr-diopside lherzolite xenoliths. The mafic granulites may represent metamorphosed crystal segregates resulting from relatively large degrees of crystallization of tholeiitic basaltic magma which finally equilibrated at c. 14 kbar and 1000°C Subcalcic clinopyroxene and spinel megacrysts crystallized from the host nepheline mugearite at c. 13–20 kbar.

Alkaline mafic sills of Jurassic to Cretaceous age in the Oman Mountains have coarse-grained wehrlite centres composed of olivine and zoned diopside-titanaugite with large interstitial poikilitic titanian hornblendes and titanian barian phlogopites and biotites which appear to have crystallized from a trapped, intergranular, volatile-rich liquid. The fine-grained chilled margins of the sills are olivine-poor and composed largely of titanaugite, kaersutite, sphene, and interstitial altered plagioclase. The rocks have high contents of incompatible elements (Ti, P, Sr, Ba, Zr, Nb, and others) and steeply inclined, light element enriched, REE patterns. The parent magma is estimated to have been a hydrous alkali picrite with c. 12% MgO from which the wehrlite formed by olivine accumulation. The unusual tectonic setting of the sills, in a Mesozoic continental margin sequence emplaced in an Alpine thrust belt, is noted.

The Myggbukta Complex is a shallowly dissected central volcano superimposed on the early Tertiary Plateau Basalts of NE Greenland. This, and the Kap Broer Ruys centre, 30 km to the east, appear to be the most northerly central complexes of the North Atlantic Tertiary Province. The Myggbukta Complex comprises a suite of extrusions and minor intrusions ranging from picritic basalt to potassic rhyolite: most of the suite appears related by relatively low pressure (< 10 kbar) crystal fractionation. A small rise in initial 87Sr/86Sr (0.70593) with silica content is attributed to minor contamination through crustal anatexis. A basic dyke-swarm associated with the complex, precedes it and shows more limited differentiation. The basalts of the dyke-swarm and the Myggbukta Complex are genetically intimately related to the lavas forming the upper part of the earlier plateau basalt succession (UPLS). It is proposed that a large shield volcano developed some 100 km west of the developing spreading centre (Mohns/Aegir ridge), of which the UPLS, the dyke-swarm and the Myggbukta Complex represent three successive evolutionary stages. A generalized increase in differentiation through time can be recognized from one stage to the next. The acid intrusions of the Kap Broer Ruys area are probably also largely residues of basalt fractionation like their Myggbukta counterparts. However, higher initial 87Sr/86Sr ratios (0.70625–0.71034) imply a greater degree of crustal contamination.

Rock samples from the various metabasic hornfelses of the Land's End granite aureole were analysed for major elements by X-ray fluorescence analysis and for rare-earth elements (REE) by instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA). The REE patterns of the unaltered dolerites of the area seem to be analogous to those of the alkali basalts, taking into account a slight mobilization of the light REE during low-grade metamorphism.

The REE content of the metabasic rocks of the aureole has increased relative to that of the unaltered dolerites due to the introduction of REE, along with K, from the granite by the action of hydrothermal solutions. The parallel increase in REE with the increase in K is demonstrated.

The metasomatic hornfelses of igneous origin form two groups showing slightly different REE patterns and different rates of increase in REE content. The REE patterns of the two groups show a Eu anomaly increasing with the increase in REE content for the first group and decreasing with the increase in REE content for the second group, A qualitative model of the distribution of the REE in the metabasic aureole rocks is given.

Garnet porphyroblasts in metasediments from Magerøy crystallized during static metamorphism. They display three optical zones, each having characteristic inclusions and chemistry. The compositional zoning is related to prograde metamorphism (an inner zone, 1, and a graphite-bearing zone) and retrogression (the outer zone, 2). Inclusions of two types are present in zone 1: type 1 are equidimensional remnants of the matrix, preferentially included along planes of rapid growth; type 2 are tubular and represent recrystallized quartz grains concentrated along defects in the garnet lattice. The defects are lineage boundaries between growth segments related to screw dislocations on crystal faces. Crystal growth developed at relatively high degrees of supersaturation, but below the supersaturation required for the development of dendrites. The inclusions suggest rapid growth of zone 1, caused by heat flow from an adjacent interkinematic mafic/ultramafic intrusive complex. The graphite-bearing zone crystallized at the metamorphic peak, while the inclusion-free idioblasfic rim probably developed during retrograde metamorphism.

Gabbroic-textured shonkinitic rocks of unknown age cut deformed Archaean dunites and peridotites in the area immediately north of Salem. Magnesite formation post-dates their intrusion. The location of these rocks and the magnesite is thought to be controlled by the intersection of two major basement lineaments. A sequence of crystallization of the minerals and rocks from early undersaturated to late oversaturated rocks is established. Compositions of the coexisting mineral phases are reported here for the first time. Clinopyroxenes, which are relatively unevolved, commonly coexist with olivine (chrysolite) and sanidine. Bronzite, often intergrown with magnetite and green spinel, is occasionally present. In the most undersaturated rocks nepheline-sanidine fingerprint intergrowths occur, whilst perthitic sanidine, albitic plagioclase, and quartz are present in over-saturated rocks. Late in the crystallization sequence, in over-saturated rocks, PH2O appears to have increased allowing the formation of amphibole as well as clinopyroxene.

Particle morphology can result in very pronounced effects of crystallinity on the Mössbauer spectra of lepidocrocite. Such effects can noticeably increase the quadrupole splitting of poorly crystallized paramagnetic lepidocrocites, making it necessary to fit two doublets of different quadrupole splittings to Mössbauer spectra of such samples, and may lower the onset of magnetic ordering from the bulk Néel temperature of 77 ±1 K to about 50 K.

At 4.2 K, distributions of magnetic hyperfine fields with a limiting upper field of 460 kOe are observed. The contributions of lower fields to such distributions increase with decreasing crystallinity, producing asymmetrically broadened resonant lines.

Three metasedimentary enclaves up to a kilometre in length of contrasting compositions within the polymetamorphic Banded Gneissic Complex (> 2580Ma) have been studied for their mineral parageneses and metamorphic conditions. The largest enclave, consisting of kyanite-chloritoid-muscovite schist with quartz or corundum, and kyanite-fuchsite-corundum ± diaspore, was metamorphosed at most under lower amphibolite conditions, and is thus not isofacial with the surrounding schists and gneisses (of the ‘basement’ complex) which reached sillimanite-grade metamorphism in the last orogenic cycle (Aravalli: 1650–950Ma Orogeny) in Rajasthan.

The second enclave is a calc-silicate rock which occurs as a small lens. The presence of two generations of wollastonite which formed during different metamorphic events in the calcite-quartz-grossularite-anorthite-clinopyroxene assemblage indicates polymetamorphism.

The third enclave is a metabasic rock which records a complete polymetamorphic history in discontinuous zones in garnet coexisting with hornblende-chlorite-plagioclase-quartz±epidote. To explain the garnet zoning a model involving partial resorption of early garnet during the initial recrystallization stage of superimposed regional metamorphism is preferred to the alternative based on a single prograde metamorphism and retrogression.

The mineralogy of the calc-silicate and metabasic enclaves gives a recrystallization temperature of c. 700°C and a pressure in the range of 8–3 kbar during the second metamorphism.

An alternative explanation for the occurrence of chrome-spinel layers in the Eastern Layered Series of the Rhum intrusion is suggested by extreme concentrations of chrome-spinel in small-scale structures in the layer at the unit 7–8 boundary (Brown, 1956). These take the form of downward pointing cones several centimetres across and deep, and lined or wholly filled with chrome-spinel; lamination in the underlying allivalite exhibits quaquaversal dips around these cones. By comparing these structures to fluid escape structures in clastic sediments, it is proposed that spinel is the product of mixing and reaction of upward moving interstitial liquid and more primitive liquid newly emplaced in the chamber. Further evidence for the presence of a second liquid during spinel crystallization is provided by spherical silicate inclusions within spinel grains. Complex zoning in feldspars in the underlying allivalite suggests that the newly emplaced primitive liquid was able to penetrate the crystal mush on the intrusion floor.

Malayaite and tin-bearing garnet occur within a skarn assemblage at Gumble, NSW. A metasomatic origin is proposed for these minerals under conditions of T = 300-500°C Xco2 < 0.30 and fO2 = 10−18 to 10−30 bars. Malayaite has formed as a result of reaction between a metasomatic fluid rich in Sn, F, H2O and silica, and tin-bearing andradite and wollastonite. The main requirements for tin-bearing skarn formation appear to be an F-Sn-rich granite, an iron-rich skarn assemblage, and a relatively long cooling history.

An unusual form of sector zoning has been recorded in some Lewisian zircons. The sectors lie in a plane cut perpendicular to the c-axis and are observed as variations in the intensity of cathodoluminescence, and in trace-element concentrations. Sectors radiating from the centre of growth out to the {100} faces exhibit low-intensity cathodoluminescence and are enriched in Y and depleted in Hf and Zr. Those radiating to the {110} faces are brightly luminescent, slightly enriched in Hf and depleted in Y. X-ray diffraction data, and comparison with previous studies of zircons, suggest that the sectors vary slightly in crystallographic orientation, such that the boundaries between sectors form discontinuities in the structure.

Geochemical data (including REE determinations) are presented for all five Mourne Mountains granites and three Northern Ireland rhyolites. These confirm (1) the extremely fractionated nature of some of the rocks (Sr and Ba < 10 ppm, Rb > 400 ppm, Eu/Eu* < 0.1, and K/Rb < 100), and (2) a major revision to the outcrops of the E. Mourne granites G1 and G2 in which much of the former is reclassified as G2. Combined petrographic and geochemical studies have also indicated that magmatic pulses were involved in the emplacement of Mourne intrusions G2 (Revised)-G5 inclusive.

The N. Ireland Tertiary acid rocks exhibit general geochemical similarities to their analogues elsewhere in the British Tertiary Igneous Province (in which Sr is generally < 100 ppm and CeN/YbN generally < 8 with Eu/Eu* often < 0.6), but as a suite the Mourne granites are enriched in Rb and some other LIL elements relative to their N. Arran counterparts.

The more fractionated acid magmas of NE Ireland are believed to have evolved from primitive granitic parent liquids by crystal fractionation at depth which involved major and accessory phases (including zircon and allanite). In the Mourne (and County Antrim) areas the primitive acid compositions lie at the ends of basaltic (tholeiitic) differentiation series, and in the Mourne central complex there is a complete geochemical sequence from basic rocks through intermediate members to primitive and ultimately highly evolved, subalkaline, granitic intrusions. It is concluded that the data are consistent with the Mourne granites and Northern Ireland rhyolites being essentially basaltic differentiates, although Sr isotope evidence indicates some (probably minor) crustal involvement.

Uvarovite and grossular, the former comparatively rare, occur along the serpentinite-graphite schist contact in the Fengtien area, on the eastern slope of the Central Range of Taiwan. Uvarovite occurs as small emerald-green euhedral crystals on diopside-fels with dodecahedral crystal forms and many other modifications. Its refractive index is 1.782, specific gravity 3.702, and unit cell edge 11.912 Å. Chemical and probe analyses give average Cr2O3 contents of 11.60 wt. %; spectrographic analysis shows significant enrichment in Cr, Be, Co, Y, Sb, and La over grossular. Associated minerals include nephrite, diopside, tremolite asbestos, zoisite, and clinozoisite. Grossular is reddish-brown; large crystals, dodecahedral in form often modified by trapezohedrons, are associated with diopside, idocrase, and calcite. n = 1.746, SG = 3.636, and a = 11.866 Å. Structurally and chemically it is quite near the grossular end member. Grossular is considered to be formed from pneumatolysis associated with the intrusion of ultramafic rocks, whereas uvarovite is a replacement product of relict chromite in the original ultramafic rocks where migration of elements such as silicon and calcium from wall rocks are prominent.

A FORTRAN program has been written which inputs amphibole analyses, and outputs complete IMA-approved names, along with tabulated analyses, formula units, and IMA classification parameters. Several important corrections, additions, and amendments to the IMA scheme were found to be necessary. Two newly approved names have been incorporated—sadanagaite (ferro-pargasitic amphibole with Si < 5.5), and nyboite (alkali amphibole with (Na+K)A ⩾ 0.5, Fe3 ⩽ AlVI, Si < 7.5). The name anophorite (alkali amphibole with (Na+K)A ⩾ 0.5, Fe3 > AlVI, Si < 7.5) has been reinstated to complement nyboite, with the approval of the Amphibole Subcommittee of the IMA. Results of computer processing of several hundred analyses, which together cover the range of IMA-approved names, are summarized. These indicate substantial differences between IMA and previous nomenclature. The IMA-favoured procedure for reallocating total Fe in microprobe data is quite effective, except in kaersutites. Over half the analyses processed have anomalously high cations (e.g. Ca > 2), or cation totals (e.g. T + C + B > 15), commonly reflecting low H2O determinations. These prevent strict obeyance of the IMA site occupancy calculation rules. This problem can often be overcome by recalculation free of H2O, but other cases require modifications to the IMA rules. In particular, ‘misclassification’ of certain sodic-calcic amphiboles as edenite follows from transferring large excesses of C cations to the B site.