The 2 km × 5 m Newmains Dyke in the Scottish Southern Uplands consists mainly of primitive (mg number > 70), at least partly mantle-derived lamprophyre (vogesite spessartite, SiO2 50–60%), with hornblende-pyroxene-rich cumulates (SiO2 < 50%) and small amounts of quartz syenitic to granite residua (60–73% SiO2). The lamprophyres and cumulates yield an Rb-Sr whole-rock isochron age of 395±9 Ma (MSWD 2.0), and (87Sr/86Sr)i 0.70514±5—identical values to the nearby Criffell granitic pluton. After some 65% hornblende + clinopyroxene fractionation of parent lamprophyre magma, a volatile phase separated and metasomatically enriched the country rock greywackes in K, Ba, and Rb. The remaining quartz syenitic liquids became contaminated by 87Sr from these greywackes, which have a mean (87Sr/86Sr)395 value of 0.70789±114. Further fractionation of the contaminated syenitic liquids gave the granitic rocks, which have (87Sr/86Sr)395 values of 0.7056–64. The dyke appears to demonstrate in situ some of the hidden processes previously invoked to explain the evolution of the Criffell pluton itself.

Spinel lherzolite xenoliths from two localities in the Massif Central are undepleted in Al2O3, CaO, and Na2O. One suite from Tarreyres, is K2O depleted and amphibole-bearing whereas the other, from Monistrol d'Allier some 18 km away, is amphibole-free and has a higher mean K2O content of 0.035 wt.%. We present bulk major and minor element abundances in a harzburgite and a lherzolite from each locality and microprobe analyses of their constituent phases. Amphibole-bearing lherzolite and its pyroxenes are light-rare earth element (LREE) depleted, whereas amphibole-free lherzolite and its pyroxenes are LREE enriched. Both harzburgites and their pyroxenes are LREE enriched and one rock contains LREE enriched glass. The harzburgites are like harzburgite xenoliths from elsewhere but each lherzolite represents a previously unrecognized type of mantle in terms of the mineralogy and REE content. The implication for basalt genesis are briefly discussed.

Ratios between elements Mg, Fe, Co, Cr, Ni, V, and Sc are consistently different in mafic rocks of the upper critical zone, and those above the Bastard unit. Within the 300 m section above the Merensky Reef, 87Sr/86Sr ratios increase from c.0.7063 to c.0.7087, irrespective of rock type. Decoupling of Mg/(Mg + Fe2+) ratios and the Ca contents of plagioclase, and wide variations in the proportions of anorthosite within the Bastard, Merensky, and Merensky Footwall units, are inconsistent with anorthosite formation by simple fractional crystallization of magma batches of limited volume. Conversely, significant differences in Sr-isotope ratios show that these anorthosites could not have shared a common parental liquid. These data are used to develop a model whereby (a) the 300 m column above the critical zone represents the mixing of liquids of isotopically and geochemically discrete upper critical and main zone lineages, (b) mafic layers of the Bastard, Merensky, and Merensky Footwall units crystallized from discrete injections of primitive, mafic liquid while (c) the leucocratic upper parts of these units crystallized during progressive hybridization of liquid residua, which remained after significant separation of mafic phases, with a supernatant column representing the liquid residua of earlier cycles, and (d) the buoyancy of plagioclase, and enlargement of the primary phase volume of plagioclase consequent upon an increase in An/Ab ratio of hybrid liquids, were significant factors in the generation of anorthositic layers.

Despite poor exposures and lack of ‘stratigraphic’ control, there is consistent mineralogical and textural evidence that the Insch Upper Zone (UZ) represents a cumulate sequence developed from a single episode of progressive fractionation. This sequence has been subdivided on the basis of the phase layering, with cumulus plagioclase, pyroxenes and Fe-Ti oxides providing continuity from the Middle Zone (although the pyroxenes appear to be temporarily restricted to inter-cumulus status in the lower part of the UZ succession). The reappearance of cumulus olivine after its absence throughout the Middle Zone, marks the base of the UZ, and it is later joined by cumulus apatite, and then by alkali feldspar and zircon. Higher in the succession cumulus orthopyroxene, followed by olivine and Fe Ti oxide, eventually disappear. There is pronounced cryptic variation of the principal cumulus minerals (olivine Fo47−6, orthopyroxene En58−24, clinopyroxene Mg#63−6, plagio-clase An60−39 and the cumulus alkali feldspar is distinctly Ba-rich when it first appears. Comparison with the later fractionation stages of other layered intrusions shows broad similarities to the Bushveld and Skaergaard intrusions and closer similarities to the Fongen-Hyllingen body, which, like Insch, is a Caledonian synorogenic intrusion. The behaviour of the Insch pyroxenes, which show smoothly progressive Fe-enrichment despite their temporary absence as cumulus phases early in the UZ, together with the apparent range in cumulus plagioclase compositions in each sample, are taken to indicate that the cumulus mineral assemblages have been to some extent modified by re-equilibration with trapped inter-cumulus magma.

The mineralogy, including the accessory phases låvenite, rosenbuschite, and catapleiite, and consequent petrogenetic implications have been investigated for a group of four overlapping nepheline syenite complexes (Chikala, Chaone, Mongolowe, and Chinduzi) and for spatially associated silica-saturated and over-saturated perthosites, from the northern part of the Chilwa Alkaline Province, Malawi.

The complexes are thought to have formed by injection into high-level chambers of magma pulses genetically related to a common source magma at depth. Evidence for the source magma is preserved in salitic cores observed in the pyroxenes and a trend to more hedenbergite-rich compositions is believed to have formed by evolution of this magma. Subsequent trends of acmite enrichment followed magma injection into the higher-level chambers; the actual pyroxene trend associated with each individual complex is a function of the evolution attained by the source magma, oxidation potential, and perhaps even alkali activity. On the basis of such a two-stage model, the pyroxene data suggest emplacement of the Chaone and Mongolowe magmas somewhat earlier than that of Chikala, with the Chinduzi magma migrating even later.

Amphiboles and biotites are believed to have formed after high-level injection of the magmas. Their compositions broadly reflect the nature of the crystallizing pyroxenes in that magnesian hastingsitic hornblendes and more Mg-rich biotites are associated with more Mg-rich sodic pyroxenes, whereas katophorites and annite-rich micas are generally associated with sodic pyroxenes somewhat richer in hedenbergite. Sub-solidus crystallization in some of the complexes is represented by aegirine and magnesio-arfvedsonite. Nepheline compositions indicate broadly similar crystallization temperatures within the complexes, namely 950 to 750°C. Oxygen fugacities for these magmas obtained from biotite/annite compositions vary from 10−19 to 10−14 bars for this temperature range. Mineralogical data, particularly from pyroxenes and amphiboles, strongly suggest that the perthosites, spatially associated with the nepheline syenite complexes, are genetically unrelated.

Garnets with an unusual inclusion pattern of cylindrical quartz intergrowths have been found to develop exclusively in the presence of graphite. The intergrowths consist of quartz rods, 1–5 µm in diameter, originating at the sector-zone interfaces in the garnet with the long axes normal to the crystal faces. The lattice orientation and continuity of the quartz suggests that the interphase boundaries between the quartz and garnet are epitaxially related and that new material was added to the tube as the crystal face of the garnet grew. In the presence of a C-O-H fluid, at the temperatures and pressures recorded, (P = 6.5 kbar, T = 500°C), the amount of CO2 present restricts the solubility of SiO2 in the intergranular fluid phase, where the oxygen fugacity (fo2) is below the Quartz-fayalite-magnetite (QFM) buffer, and within the stability field of graphite. The reduced solubility will lower the concentration of SiO2 in solution, and hence restrict its ease of transport via the fluid, resulting in an excess of SiO2at the site of garnet growth. Under such conditions the SiO2 is incorporated in the growing garnet in the form of the cylindrical quartz intergrowths.

Three almandine-rich metamorphic garnets have been studied by analytical electron microscopy and electron microprobe analysis. Electron microprobe analyses with total Fe calculated as Fe2+ show that there are no significant departures from stoichiometry due to the presence of Fe3+ in any of the garnets studied. However, in the transmission electron microscope (TEM) all the garnets were found to contain myriad spherical, iron-rich particles up to 400 Å in diameter. Microdiffraction techniques have revealed that the particles are a cubic spinel phase, consistent with magnetite. There is no crystallographic relationship between the host garnet and the particles, a rare situation for exsolution processes. The presence of such particles is interpreted in terms of the exsolution of magnetite from almandine garnet during cooling. This can apparently occur at temperatures below 55°C. The size of the particles is a qualitative indicator of the cooling rate of the rock, but is also dependent on the original Fe3+ content of the host garnet.

A xenolith from the Delegate breccia pipe (New South Wales, Australia) contains sapphirine in equilibrium with aluminous clinopyroxene, garnet, and plagioclase (An48). This unusual assemblage probably developed from a clinopyroxene (±spinel ± plagioclase) cumulate during cooling from > 1400°C to c. 1000°C at pressures near 15 kbar. The sapphirine is close to the 7:9:3 composition, suggesting that bulk composition is more important than P-T conditions in determining the stoichiometry of natural sapphirines. A similar occurrence of sapphirine has also been recorded in mantlederived xenoliths from the Stockdale kimberlite in Kansas. Re-examination of sapphirine granulites from Finero suggests that their primary assemblages and origin may have been similar to those of the Delegate xenolith. Sapphirine is clearly stable under upper-mantle conditions in Ca-Al-Mg-rich bulk compositions.

This paper presents the results of an experimental study of the miscibility gap between trioctahedral and dioctahedral micas in the system K2O Li2O-MgO-FeO-Al2O3-SiO2-H2O-HF at 600°C under 2 kbar PH2O. The existence of this miscibility gap is known from previous experimental studies. The gap is large in the lithium-free system; its width reduces progressively with increasing Li content; for sufficient Li contents (Li > 0.6 atom per formula unit, based on 11 oxygens), a single Li-mica phase is obtained, intermediate between trioctahedral and dioctahedral micas. Any bulk composition located inside the miscibility gap gives an assemblage of two micas, one of the biotite-type and one of the muscovite-type. All the compositions located outside the gap, and, in particular, those belonging to the joins phlogopite-trilithionite and muscovite-zinnwaldite (or its magnesian equivalent) give a single mica phase, provided that the fluorine content is sufficient. The ratio Li/F ≈ 1 is a convenient suitable value. The types of micas and the evolutions of their compositions are well characterized by their interplanar distance d060. These experimental results allow the interpretation of most compositions of naturally occurring lithium micas, in the range 0 ⩽ Li ⩽ 1 a./f.u. Natural micas of biotite-type and muscovite-type are located on both sides of the miscibility gap and their compositions get closer with increasing Li content.

In the Artikutza area, near the contact with the southern Aya granite, skarns containing hedenbergite, grandite, epidote, quartz, calcite, actinolite, idocrase and magnetite occur and have been found to contain ilvaite layers. This is the second reported occurrence of ilvaite in Spain; spectral reflectances, colour values. Vickers hardness numbers and chemical composition are given. The monomineralic ilvaite lens intercalation developed by hydrothermal alteration of hedenbergite in a second stage of skarn formation.

Babingtonite is a common constituent of calcareous volcanic detritus in the interstices of pillow lavas from an outcrop of the Takitimu Group, western Southland, New Zealand, Associated minerals include Fe-rich prehnite (Fe/(Fe+Al) = 0.12–0.33), Fe-rich epidote (Ps24–53), grandite garnet (av. Andradite70 Grossular30), quartz, calcite, chlorite, and pumpellyite. Babingtonite shows little departure from its ideal composition other than minor Mg, Mn, and Al and a trace of Na.

Textural evidence and microprobe data suggest that the babingtonite, Fe-rich epidote, calcite, and quartz formed from hydrothermal solutions by direct precipitation in open cavities and by replacement of higher temperature silicate phases (in particular plagioclase and basaltic glass) in a shallow marine volcanic environment. During subsequent burial and low-grade metamorphism babingtonite was partially replaced by prehnite, less Fe-rich epidote, grandite, and chlorite.

Johninnesite, ideally Na2Mg4Mn12As5+2 Si12043(OH)6,, is triclinic, P1 or P1̄, with a = 10.44(2), b = 11.064(6), c = 9.62(1) Å, α = 107.43(7), β = 82.7(1), γ = 111.6(1)°, V = 894(2) Å3, and Z = 1. It occurs as yellow-brown fibrous aggregates, associated with rhodonite, kentrolite, and richterite, from the Kombat Mine in Namibia. Johninnesite has cleavages on {100} and {010}, density of 3.48 (meas.), 3.51 (calc.) g/cm3. It is biaxial negative, with 2Vx = 41.9°, α = 1.6742(4), β = 1.6968(3), γ = 1.6999(3); dispersion r > υ, distinct.

Orthopyroxene and clinopyroxene, with biotite, are widespread in the high-level Cheviot granite, while amphibole is rare. The pyroxene compositions are very close to (Mg,Fe)2Si2O6 and Ca(Mg,Fe)Si2O6. Biotite compositions, with low Si and Al, are characteristic of biotites coexisting with pyroxenes. Geothermometric estimates based on oxide and pyroxene compositions show that present mineral compositions result from post-consolidation equilibration.

The second occurrence of the asbestiform silicate carlosturanite is reported. The mineral occurs in Taberg, Sweden, and it was previously reported as ‘picrolite’, that is fibrous antigorite. Carlosturanite from Taberg is non-pleochroic, green in colour and has positive optical elongation. The unit cell parameters are a = 36.55, b = 9.31, c = 7.27Å, β = 101.05°. Based on the determined formula, (Mg20.47Fe0.59Mn0.06Cr0.01Ti0.01) (Si11.68Al0.28)O27.81(OH)34.19H2O carlosturanite can be expected to crystallize within the pure MgO-SiO2-H2O system as a low-grade metamorphic mineral.

Because there are close similarities in structure and properties of carlosturanite and the picrolite variety of antigorite, their distinction requires careful attention to X-ray and electron diffraction patterns and chemical compositions. The present identification of the Taberg specimen as carlosturanite puts a lower limit of 33.7 Å to the known range of a parameters of antigorite.

Benleonardite, ideally Ag8(Sb,As)Te2S3 with Sb > As, is a new mineral species that occurs in ore specimens collected from the dumps of the disused Bambolla mine, Moctezuma, Mexico. The associated minerals are acanthite, hessite, an unnamed Ag4TeS phase, pyrite, sphalerite, and native silver. Together with benleonardite, these form thin black crusts in fractures filled with quartz and dolomite in highly altered, tuffaceous, andesitic and rhyolitic rocks. Benleonardite is an opaque mineral and, in reflected plane-polarized light in air, it is weakly bireflectant from very pale light blue to slightly darker blue. It is not pleochroic. Luminance values (relative to the CIE illuminant C) for Ro and R′e computed from visible spectrum reflectance data for the most bireflectant grain, are 33.6 and 31.7% in air, and 18.3 and 16.5% in Zeiss oil (ND 1.515) respectively. Vickers micro-indentation hardness is 105–125 (VHN25). The X-ray powder diffraction pattern could be indexed on a tetragonal cell with a 6.603(5) and c 12.726(6) Å; for Z = 2, the calculated density is 7.79 g/cm2 for the average analysis. The strongest five lines in the X-ray powder pattern are [d in Å (I) (hkl): 12.7 (70) (001); 3.188 (30) (021,004); 2.936 (100) (022); 2.608 (35) (023); 2.158 (35) (124).

Metavivianite has been shown to be not dimorphous with vivianite. Assuming the homogeneity and uniformity of the original type samples, it is a triclinic hydrated ferri-ferrous hydroxy phosphate whose formula may be given as Fe2+3-xFe3+x(po4)2(OH)x(8-x)H2O where x > 1.4. The precise oxidation limits between which the triclinic lattice is stable are not known but the structure persists close to total oxidation of all iron. The structure of metavivianite was established using a fragment of kerchenite whose formula as originally given is covered by the general metavivianite formula. Assuming the homogeneity of the original (1907) samples, kerchenite and metavivianite appear to be identical.

The structure and elastic properties of MgSiO3, a major mantle-forming phase, have been simulated using computer models which predict the minimum energy structure by using interatomic pair potentials to describe the net forces acting between the atoms. Four such interatomic potentials were developed in this study, and are compared with potential N1 of Miyamoto and Takeda (1984). The most successful potential (W3) was derived by fitting the short range potential parameters to both the experimentally obtained structural and elastic properties of MgSiO3 perovskite. The relative stabilities of some of the possible perovskite polymorphs, the orthorhombic, cubic, and tetragonal phases and hexagonal polytypes, were evaluated at 0 K and between 1 bar and 2 Mbar. The orthorhombic phase is found to be stable at all but the highest pressures, where the cubic phase may be stable. The temperature of the ortho-rhombic to cubic transition may decrease with increasing pressure. The energy of a stacking fault on (110) in the cubic phase was estimated using the ANNNI model and found to be about 1.95 J m−2 using potential W3. The distance of separation of partial dislocations of this type is predicted to increase with increasing pressure from 8.4 Å at 1 bar to 9.2 Å at 1 Mbar.

Two distinct habits of redledgeite are described: small black bipyramidal crystals and yellow-green fibres. The mineral is a Ba-Cr-Ti oxide rather than a Mg-Cr-Ti oxide as previously supposed. Electron microprobe analysis gave Ba1.10(Cr1.82Ti5.95 Fe0.10V0.08)Σ7.95O16 and Ba1.27(Cr2.48Ti5.49Fe0.02)Σ7.99 O16 for the black and yellow-green forms respectively. The mineral is a monoclinic hollandite-type phase, space group I2/m, with a = 10.129(2); b = 2.959(1); c = 10.135(2) Å; β = 90.05(11)° and Z = 1; calculated density for the black form is 4.413 g cm−3. The crystal structure was refined to R 6.3%, Rw 7.4% using 1017 reflections with F > 3σ(F) from a set of 1062 unique reflections. Electron diffraction studies revealed weak superlattice reflections, with a period of 2.24b due to tunnel cation ordering.

The crystal structure of a freibergite (Ag-tetrahedrite) from Keno Hill, Yukon, Canada, and a tetrahedrite from Turquetil Lake, NWT, Canada, have been refined. The freibergite, Cu5.84Ag4.22Fe1.59Zn0.43 Sb4.10AS0.13S13, a = 10.610(2) Å, and the tetrahedrite, Cu10.24Fe1.03Zn0.97Ag0.05Sb3.66As0.28S13, a = 10.364(2) Å, were both refined in space group I4̄3m. The refinements confirm that Ag does occupy the threefold coordinated metal site as first described by Kalbskopf (1972) and that Fe also occupies this site. The structural changes accompanying Ag substitution are described and a model to explain the upper limit of substitution at four atoms of silver for thirteen atoms of sulphur is proposed.