The Currywongaun and Doughruagh masses of northern Connemara represent a section through a syntectonic, partially layered intrusion formed of ultrabasic cumulates all having plagioclase of around An94. Differentiation and contamination of the magma from which these cumulates were precipitated ultimately produced an acid residuum which was responsible for the hydrous metasomatism of the earlier formed ultrabasic rocks resulting in the extensive formation of quartz-amphibole-anorthite gneisses in the petrogenetically ‘upper’ parts of the intrusion. Coexisting Ca-rich and Ca-poor amphiboles in the gneisses are interpreted as ‘frozen’ reaction intermediates that were in local equilibrium. The bulk-rock chemical data presented confirm that the compositions of the quartz-rich gneisses can be attributed almost entirely to the addition of Si to the ultrabasic rocks, coupled with the removal of Mg and Ca. The data also suggest that Zr, which reaches around 1000 ppm in some of the gneisses, may have been ‘mobile’ under these conditions of hydrothermal metasomatism.

A mineral closely resembling eudialyte in single crystal X-ray pattern and chemistry has been found in one granite block from the 5 Mile Post area on Ascension Island. To our knowledge, eudialyte has not previously been recognized in this suite of granites although they contain two other rare zirconium silicates, dalyite and vlasovite. Textural evidence suggests that the eudialyte, which is remarkable for its high yttrium and REE content, crystallized from very late-stage magmatic fluids. Rare-earth patterns are only slightly fractionated (CeN/YN = 1.8–2.5) compared with those of allanites and sphenes from Skye granites which presumably have similar parageneses. In contrast, the whole-rock REE pattern shows greater enrichment of light REE (CeN/YN ∼ 10). This difference in REE pattern is considered to be due to the effects of REE and other element complexing related to the peralkalinity of the granite liquid.

The occurrence of pumpellyite in Late Cretaceous volcanic rocks of the Coloured Series, NE of Neyriz, is reported for the first time. The form of the pumpellyite and its chemistry are described. The mineral assemblages of the prehnite-pumpellyite facies of metamorphism are present, indicating that burial metamorphism has occurred, a new factor to be considered in the tectonic evolution of the Zagros suture zone.

The crystal morphology of plagioclase feldspar in seven mafic rocks has been studied by isothermal supercooling and constant rate cooling experiments at 1 atmosphere using the ‘wire-loop’ suspension method. There is a systematic variation in crystal morphology with supercooling (−ΔT), but the transitions between the different morphologies are gradual, and consecutive forms sometimes occur together. As −ΔT increases, the sequence of plagioclase morphology is generally laths → skeletal forms → fan spherulites. During isothermal supercooling the position of the plagioclase morphological fields is shown to be dependent on −ΔT, superheating (+ΔT), and also on time to a greater or lesser degree. Variations in melt composition and viscosity affect the position and slope of the boundaries of the fields. In the constant rate cooling experiments, the morphological type is dependent on the cooling rate and can be used to a limited extent as an indicator of the range of supercooling over which the first crystals nucleated and grew.

Microscopic rods of wüstite and sulphide phases have been observed within silicate crystals from metallurgical slags. The rods, which are distinct from acicular crystals of accessory minerals, tend to be orientated perpendicular to the faces of the host crystal. These rods, and their constant orientation, are a product of the crystallization environment. It is proposed that they result from saturation of the melt with the relevant phase at the growth front of the silicate crystals. This microstructure is compared with known examples of microscopic rods and tubes in rocks.

The occurrence of three accessory minerals with significant rare earth contents in Tertiary acid rocks of St. Kilda is described. Allanite, zirkelite, and chevkinite were identified by electron probe analysis (with energy-dispersive attachment) and the chevkinite confirmed by X-ray diffraction. Brief comparison is made with other Tertiary occurrences of RE minerals. This is the first recorded occurrence of chevkinite in Great Britain.

A new sodium aluminium sulphate phosphate has been named peisleyite. It has the ideal formula Na3Al16(SO4)2(PO4)10(OH)17 · 20H2O. It occurs as fine-grained, compact, brittle, white material on dumps at Tom's Phosphate Quarry, near Kapunda, South Australia. Strongest X-ray diffraction lines are 12.63 Å (100) 010, 7.82(35) 11, 5.41(35) 004, 7.59(30) 111. Unit cell parameters are a 13.31 ± 0.006, b 12.62 ± 0.006, c 23.15 ± 0.01 Å, β 110.0°±0.03°, Z = 2.

Euhedral crystals of the low-temperature mineral lansfordite, MgCO3 · 5H2O, have been prepared from saturated magnesium bicarbonate solutions at temperatures below 10°C. The crystals are monoclinic P21/a with a = 12.4758(7), b = 7.6258(4), c = 7.3463(6)Å, β = 101.762(6)°, V = 684.24Å3, Dcalc. = 1.693 g cm−3, Dobs. = 1.70(1) g m−3. At room temperature, the crystals slowly effloresce to produce pseudomorphs of nesquehonite, MgCO3 · 3H2O. Dehydration is complete at 300°C, with decarbonation taking place in the interval to 560°C. A new X-ray powder diffraction pattern is presented, and details of the infra-red absorption spectrum are discussed.

X-ray powder methods have been used to study the room-temperature structures of the synthetic sodalites: Li8(Al6Si6O24)Cl2, K7.6Na0.4(Al6Si6O24)Cl2, and Na8(Al6Si6O24)I2. Natural sodalite was also studied and the atomic coordinates show satisfactory agreement with those determined from the single-crystal data of Löns and Schulz (1967). The LiCl- and KCl- as well as the NaCl-sodalites refined in the expected sodalite space group P3n, but the NaI-sodalite fitted 13m better. The resulting structural data reveal shortcomings in the previous computer models for sodalite structures and an improved computer modelling procedure is devised which successfully predicts atomic coordinates, starting from the experimental a value and an estimate of the cationanion distance. The method incorporates the experimental result that the average T-O distance (T = Al, Si) throughout the samples is ∼ 1.678 Å, and Si-O and Al-O are set at 1.618 and 1.738 Å, respectively. Although T-O remains little changed throughout the samples, the data confirm the inverse relationship between ∠ T-O-T and the tetrahedron tilt angle ϕ, in which ∠ T-O-T approaches ∼ 160° as ϕ → 0° and the sodalite cage becomes fully expanded.

The new method proposed by Ferguson (1980, 1981) for estimating the T-site occupancies in K-rich feldspars from lattice constants is discussed and compared with the linear model using the structural indicators Δ(bc), Δ(b*c*), Δ(αγ), Δ(α*γ*). The latter method appears to be considerably more effective in view of its wider application to alkali feldspars of different compositions and structural states. Ferguson's (1980, 1981) method has been conceived for K-rich feldspars alone and may produce results that tend to be more erroneous the further a K-rich feldspar lies from the two-step ordering paths involved in the formulation of the determinative procedure itself.

Although a ‘chlorite’ is usually simple to recognize in thin section because of its characteristic colour, form, and often very low or anomalous interference colours, the identification of the various species is more difficult and requires both chemical and X-ray work for accurate determination. Roy and others have demonstrated that chlorites are polymorphous and occur in two structural groups, the normal 14 Å chlorites and the 7Å septechlorites (Nelson and Roy, 1958). Many chlorite varieties may be found in both structural states, low-temperature end-members and compositionally extreme end-members favouring the septechlorite structure, especially antigorite, amesite, chamosite, greenalite, and cronstedtite. Phillips (1964) subsequently proposed that six variables, Y, R3+, R2+ , Σ, H, plus the appropriate structural designation, must be fixed to define completely a variety of the chlorite group and from this he developed a numerical system of classification. Unfortunately these specific chemical and structural properties cannot be directly recognized by normal optical methods.

Favourability of uranium mineralization in six tertiary granitic plutons of the Alaska Range in the Talkeetna and Mt McKinley quadrangles was studied. The uranium concentrations of drainage sediment samples, which were collected and analysed by the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory for the National Uranium Resources Evaluation, were statistically evaluated and compared to those of the surrounding area using factor and cluster analyses. The results of this study suggest that five of the six plutons under consideration are likely to contain uranium mineralization. These plutons are probably a potential source rock for uranium in the region.

A new occurrence of awaruite, from India, is reported in the ultramafic units of the Dras area which form part of the Indus Suture ophiolites in Kashmir Himalaya. Its formation in these rocks suggests a low-temperature process of serpentinization. Ni and Fe released from olivine and/or pyroxene must have formed awaruite peragenetically next to magnetite and pentlandite.

The Alderley Edge deposit, Cheshire, England has been mined principally for Cu and Pb. Here, veins and disseminations occur in coarse-grained clastic sediments of Triassic age and are classified as belonging to the red-bed type of mineralization.

Examination of material in polished and thin section has shown the mineralization to be multiphase. The earliest opaque phases are associated with the diagenesis of the sandstones and include authigenic anatase, plus bravoite, pyrite, and chalcopyrite within authigenic quartz overgrowths. This stage of mineralization was followed by the formation of intergrown bravoite, pyrite, chalcopyrite, sphalerite, and galena accompanied by minor amounts of Ni-Co-Fe sulpharsenides, marcasite, and tetrahedrite cementing the clastic grains. This primary assemblage has undergone extensive alteration resulting in the formation of djurleite, covelline, and blaubleibender covelline accompanied by Pb and Zn carbonates and sulphates. Later, extensive shattering of the cemented clastic grains has been infilled by supergene Cu, Pb, and Zn carbonates and sulphates, limonite, and other secondary minerals.

Electron probe microanalysis of the sulphides shows the pyrite to contain significant Ni and Cu but lesser amounts of Co; the sphalerite to be an Fe-poor variety but to contain Cd, and the chalcopyrite to contain Sb. Ag is present in appreciable amounts in tetrahedrite and occurs in trace amounts in both sphalerite and chalcopyrite but not in galena. The concentration of Ag increases with the alteration of the primary sulphides to secondary sulphides. This is most clearly demonstrated by the alteration of chalcopyrite to an idaite-like phase and finally to djurleite when the Ag content increases from 0.10 to 2.35 wt. %.

The curious history of the mineral eggonite is reviewed, and two new occurrences are described. The original specimens, for which Schrauf gave good morphological and optical data in 1879, with a tentative suggestion that it was a cadmium silicate, were fakes; the tiny crystals of the new mineral were glued on to hemimorphite specimens from Altenberg, Belgium. In 1929, Zimanyi edited and published observations by Krenner, who found the mineral on silver ores from Felsöbánya, Hungary, added to Schrauf's physical data, and identified it as an aluminium phosphate. It was not until 1959 that Mrose and Wappner showed that it is scandium phosphate, ScPO4 · 2H2O, and essentially identical with kolbeckite, described by Edelmann in 1926 as a phosphate and silicate of beryllium, aluminium, and calcium from Saxony, and with sterrettite, described by Larsen and Montgomery in 1940 as an aluminium phosphate from Fairfield, Utah.

In 1980 the IMA Commission on New Minerals and Mineral Names, while accepting the identity of the three minerals and rejecting the name sterrettite, were almost equally divided over the names eggonite and kolbeckite, which are thus both acceptable; since eggonite has 47 years priority, we suggest that it should have preference.

The available physical and chemical data on eggonite are summarized and added to, and two new occurrences, at Potash Sulfur Springs, Arkansas, and at Sakpur, Gujarat, India, are described.