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Analysts of texture, mineralogy, and chemistry of bottom sediments in Conception Bay, southeastern Newfoundland has shown: (1) Sediment texture is related to water depth, (2) water depth, CaCO3 content, organic-C content, and feldspar/quartz peak area ratios are all related to sediment mean grain size, (3) concentrations of major elements are related to clay, organic-C, and CaCO3 contents and feldspar/quartz peak area ratios of sediments, (4) concentrations of trace elements are related to clay and organic-C contents, (5) sediment pH is related to Organic-C and CaCO3 contents, and (6) sediment temperature is related to water depth. These relationships indicate that four interrelated factors regulate sedimentary geochemical variables: Source and depositional environment are primary factors that regulate the type of solid components comprising sediments and sediment grain size, respectively; grain size is a secondary factor that regulates mineral and organic matter content of sediments; solids composition (quartz, feldspar, clay minerals, CaCO3, and organic matter) is a tertiary factor that regulates sediment chemistry. Sediment pH is regulated mainly by CaCO3 content and temperature is regulated by depositional environment. Particular attention should be paid to these factors when conducting sedimentary geochemical investigations.A surface layer of brick-red, iron-enriched sediment around Bell Island, which is the waste product of former mining activities, provides the only evidence of man's alteration of the Conception Bay bottom environment. Therefore, trace and major element concentrations in bottom sediments described in this paper are natural background levels which can be utilized for a future comparative study in the event of increased urbanization and/or industrialization of the Conception Bay area.Results of echosounder profiling have shown that the physiography of Conception Bay has been glacially modified. Four sets of marine terraces have been identified at water depths of 110–120, 90, 70–75, and 20 m. These terraces are correlative with others found elsewhere in Atlantic Canada.

Previous investigators have shown that natural chromium-bearing spinel solid solutions adhere closely to the general formula (Mg, Fe++) (Cr, Al, Fe+++)2O4 and may therefore be graphically portrayed in a triangular prism, the length of which represents the ratios MgO/FeO, and the cross section the relative proportions of Cr2O3, Al2O3, and Fe2O3. In this paper, theoretical expressions are derived whereby the prism may be "contoured" for conditions of isothermal–isobaric equilibrium according to (a) the spinel compositions that may coexist with olivine or pyroxene having specific MgO/FeO ratios; (b) the activity ratios of Cr/Al, Cr/Fe+++, or Al/Fe+++ that obtain in the environments in which the spinel solid solutions form, and (c) the oxygen fugacities that accompany formation of spinel in systems containing olivine (forsterite–fayalite) and orthopyroxene (enstatite–ferrosilite). Rough "working" values for the thermochemical coefficients involved are estimated from limited calorimetric data and chemical analyses of spinel–olivine and spinel–orthopyroxene pairs.

The Pharusian belt of west-central Ahaggar belongs to the 'basement complex' underlying the Paleozoic and later sediments of the Sahara. This paper reports and discusses the Rb–Sr ages obtained on total rocks and minerals from two granitic stocks of the belt: the Tioueiine and Iskel intrusions.Both plutons gave good whole-rock isochrons, which show that the systems were closed 560 ± 40 m.y. ago with respect to Rb and Sr. This is, most probably, the age of crystallization. Three of the four values obtained on biotites are somewhat lower and scattered in the range 502–526 m.y. The discrepancies are probably due to deuteric reactions or incipient weathering. They can be ascribed neither to the loss of 87Sr during the cooling down of the granites, nor to rejuvenation by some later thermal or tectonic event.These studies confirm previous results of random sampling in Ahaggar and prove that large-scale igneous activity took place during the Early Cambrian Epoch. Knowing from field data that the Tioueiine and Iskel are late orogenic granites, it must be concluded that the Pharusian orogeny came to an end at that time.Such a result contradicts early assumptions, made in the field, of a middle Precambrian age for the Pharusian orogeny. It gives further weight to modern ideas concerning the 700–500 m.y. events in Africa, and it leaves time for erosion to create the Saharian platform before the deposition of the first Paleozoic sandstones.

In this paper evidence is presented in support of the hypothesis that the upper 2-3 km of oceanic layer II is a zone of chemical reaction between seawater and the oceanic crust as it moves away from the mid-ocean ridges.A model is constructed assuming that the principal alteration products resulting from the action of sea-water on primary basalts are:1. K-rich smectite formed during weathering of basalt,2. chlorite formed during retrograde metamorphism, and3. albite–actinolite formed during primary greenschist metamorphisms at the ridge crest.These three processes in combination could extract most of the stream input of K+, Mg2+, and Na+ and add SiO2, Ca2+, Fe2+, and Mn2+ to the ocean systems in amounts comparable to stream input.The steady state reaction of basalt with interstitial seawater to produce alteration minerals could exercise a strong influence in the chemistry of seawater and release energy in amounts sufficient to form a portion of normal heat flow measured on the ocean floor.

The petrology of four plugs of fresh, coarse-grained olivine dolerite, of Pliocene age, is described in this paper. Two plugs, which exhibit textural and mineralogical variations, are described in detail. Major element analyses and selected trace element analyses for fifteen samples illustrate the chemical nature of the dolerite as well as fractionation in small marginal portions of the plugs. Strontium isotope values indicate that the plugs represent basaltic magma that was not contaminated by crastal matter. Both the mineralogy and the chemistry of the plugs indicate that the magma was mildly alkaline, and suggest that it was a differentiate of a primary olivine basalt magma, perhaps derived through crystal fractionation in a high-level magma chamber.

In the Archean greenstone belt at Sioux Lookout, N.W. Ontario, a lowermost belt of volcanic rocks is unconformably overlain by sediments of the Abram Group. Our mapping has subdivided the Abram Group into three formations. The lowest (Ament Bay Formation) consists of interbedded conglomerates and sandstones. The sandstones contain large-scale cross-stratification, and the conglomerates and sandstones both lack graded bedding. The depositional environment was a subaerial alluvial fan—this is the first description of such a feature based upon modern sedimentological work in Archean rocks. The Daredevil Formation conformably overlies the Ament Bay Formation, and is composed of felsic and basic tuffs, and some interbedded turbidites. The uppermost (Little Vermilion) Formation is composed entirely of turbidites.The petrography of the sand, and large clasts, in the Ament Bay Formation indicates derivation from a dominantly granodioritic terrain. Some granodiorite boulders contain greenstone xenoliths, implying intrusion of the granodiorite after formation of the lowermost belt of volcanic rocks.In a final section of the paper, we define two Archean facies associations—a Resedimented association containing turbidites, pebbly mudstones, resedimented conglomerates, and basinal black argillites; and a Continental association, containing alluvial fan deposits, and possible coastal deposits from South Africa and Australia. The facies sequence in the Sioux Lookout belt is Continental followed by Resedimented facies, the reverse of the normal geosynclinal flysch (resedimented) → molasse (continental) sequence.

This paper describes the field relations of Tertiary basalts which are preserved as small patches intermittently along the coast for 90 km northwest from Cape Dyer, Baffin Island. The flat-lying, subaerial lavas generally rest directly on the Precambrian basement but in some localities a thin sequence of terrestrial sediments intervenes between the basement and the volcanics. Where the sediments occur, the overlying volcanics tend to be divisible into a lower unit of subaqueous volcanic breccia and an upper sequence of subaerial flows. In age, stratigraphic position and magma-type, these volcanics strongly resemble those of the basalt province of west Greenland. A model is presented for the generation of both provinces in a single volcanic episode, related to the opening of Labrador Sea – Baffin Bay by continental drift.

North-northwesterly striking Mackenzie diabase dikes of middle-Proterozoic (Helikian) age are profuse in the western part of the Canadian Shield. Published paleomagnetic data on dikes of this trend in Mackenzie District, on the Muskox Intrusion, the Coppermine River volcanic rocks, and the Sudbury dikes suggest that they are all products of closely related igneous events. This paper presents paleomagnetic data that suggest that the intrusion of extensive diabase sheets in the East Arm of Great Slave Lake, and of dikes as far to the northeast as Melville Peninsula and as far to the southeast as Manitoba, were also parts of these events. The mean paleomagnetic pole position for the Mackenzie dikes and for related intrusive and extrusive rocks is [Formula: see text], 171 °W with [Formula: see text]. Radioactive age determinations, some of which are unpublished, indicate an age of about 1200 m.y. for the formation of these rocks. It is suggested that for convenience all of these apparently related intrusive and extrusive igneous episodes be referred to as Mackenzie igneous events.

The sequence of the Labrador geosyncline is subdivided in three cycles, each beginning with deposition of shallow-water quartzites and precipitates and culminating with the deposition of thick shale–graywacke–basalt suites. This paper describes the stratigraphy and sedimentology of the formations deposited during the gradual re-stabilization of the basin at the end of cycle I.At the end of cycle I, red, green, and gray pro-deltaic shales and sandstones prograded into the basin from the west. They interfinger eastwards and upwards with the Dertaull Dolomite. In the west laminated dolomite was deposited on a deltaic platform; brecciated and conglomeratic dolomites developed at the slope margin, and grade into alternating laminated dolomite, conglomeratic dolomite, and pelite in the basin. Slumping and turbidity currents were important transport mechanisms. Lenses of massive dolomite deposited in relatively deep water occur in the center of the trough and a platform extended in the eastern, eugeosyclinal zone. Upper horizons of the Denault Dolomite grade into the Attikamagen IV basinwards. The basal member of the Attikamagen IV consists of relatively deep-water shales; these grade upwards into red silstone and fine-grained sandstones of deltaic or pro-deltaic origin. The Fleming Breccia overlies the Denault Dolomite at the western margin of the trough. This unit is probably derived from a bedded sequence of siltstone, sandstone, and dolomite, that has been profoundly altered by complete replacement of dolomite by chert, followed by pene-contemporaneous brecciation and slumping. The Wishart Formation overlaps all older units with a marginal unconformity, but has gradational contacts with the latest deposits of Cycle I (uppermost Attikamagen IV and perhaps Fleming) closer to the basin center.

This paper presents new radiometric data that permit some qualified statements to be made on the depositional history of the Belt sedimentary rocks. The period of deposition of sedimentary rocks of the Precambrian Belt Series has been placed within a broad time interval, for they rest on metamorphosed basement rock dated at ~ 1800 m.y. and are overlain by the Middle Cambrian Flathead Quartzite (circa 530 m.y.). Prior geochronometric data gathered during the last decade indicate most of the Belt Series to be older than ~ 1100 m.y.K–Ar and Rb–Sr techniques have been applied recently to a variety of samples selected from the whole gamut of the Belt Series. Glauconite from various formations in the sequence McNamara Formation down to the uppermost beds of the Empire Formation in the Sun River area has been dated at 1080 ± 27 m.y. by the K–Ar method and at 1095 ± 22 m.y. by the Rb–Sr mineral isochron method. A Rb–Sr whole-rock isochron based on argillaceous sedimentary rocks from this 5000-ft section gives an age of 1100 ± 53 m.y. The concordance of the preceding results and the K–Ar ages (1075 to 1110 m.y.) on Purcell sills and lava imply that this age represents the time of sedimentation of these units.A Rb–Sr isochron based on whole-rock samples stratigraphically far below the Umpire Formation— the Greyson Shale, Newland Limestone, Chamberlain Shale, and Neihart Quartzite in the Big Belt and Little Beit Mountains—yields an age of 1325 ± 15 m.y. This result is interpreted as indicating a substantial unconformity beneath the Belt Series, at least in central Montana; it also suggests a major hiatus, unsuspected from field evidence, between the uppermost part of the Empire Formation and the Greyson Shale.The results for the youngest of Belt rocks—the Pilcher Quartzite and the Garnet Range Formation, which are exposed in the Alberton region—are equivocal in that there is widespread dispersion. A large component of detrital muscovite in some of the samples could readily account for the magnitude and sense of this dispersion. A maximum age of ~930 m.y. based on an isochron of minimum slope through the various points may be inferred for this sequence. A K–Ar age of 760 m.y. obtained on biotite from a sill in the Garnet Range Formation provides a minimum age for these younger Belt rocks.Three distinct periods of sedimentation for Belt rocks sampled are suggested at ≥ 1300, 1100, and ≤ 900 m.y., with two substantial hiatuses of 200 m.y. or more. In addition the data for the sequence in the Big and Little Belt Mountains suggest that sedimentation may not have commenced for a period of possibly 400 m.y. after the metamorphism that affected basement rocks, while the data for the Garnet Range and Pilcher sequence suggest that sedimentation ceased some 200 to 400 m.y. prior to the deposition of the Middle Cambrian Flathead Quartzite.To suggest that the Belt sediments were deposited continuously over a period of 400 m.y. or more would imply an unusually low average rate of deposition of ≤ 0.1 ft/1000 yr, and this for the thickest part of the Belt Series. As a realistic expression of the depositional history of the Belt Series, both viewpoints are open to question, but the viewpoint that the Belt basin has been characterized by discontinuous sedimentation would be more in keeping with the principle of uniformity.

With the advent of crystal settling in a solidifying igneous intrusion, the roof contact of the intrusion may be continuously subjected to temperatures approaching those of the magma itself. This causes steeper temperature gradients in the roof rocks and, consequently, more rapid heat loss and solidification than would occur if the crystals were frozen to the roof. By contrast, the accumulation of crystals in the lower parts of the intrusion acts to lower the floor contact temperature and so reduces temperature gradients in the floor rocks; but since the proportion of liquid near the floor is reduced, the overall effect also is to speed solidification, specifically in this case, from the floor upwards. The present paper reviews in a qualitative way the relation between crystallization mechanisms and temperature in a magma body when crystal fractionation is a major process. It then examines quantitatively, by means of one-dimensional solutions of the heat flow equation, the influence on crystal accumulation rates and roof rock temperatures of (a) variations in magma temperature, (b) pre-intrusion temperature gradients in the roof rocks, (c) shallow emplacement, (d) formation of an upper border zone or floating of crystals, and (e) latent heat effects associated with contact metamorphism. Finally, it considers the effects of heat loss to the floor rocks on (i) crystallization in the magma above the accumulating pile of crystals, (ii) solidification of trapped pore magma, and (iii) contact metamorphism of the floor rocks. Some of the more important equations presented also apply to sills, sheets, and dikes showing no crystal fractionation.

This paper pursues the study of an apparent correlation between lead isotope abundance characteristics and features of the deposits in which the lead is discovered. New and precise analyses have been carried out on 55 galena samples, mostly From Australasian ore deposits classified as stratiform. To help clarify the interpretation, certain vein leads related to those which are stratiform have been included, as has one analysis of volcanic cotunnite.New evidence is offered that all leads began their isotopic evolution in a unique primary system which has very restricted spatial variation in the ratios U/Pb and Th/Pb. Leads from certain stratiform deposits approach more closely in isotopic composition the products of the primary system than do vein leads, many of which involve extensive crustal histories thai further modify the isotope ratios. The analyses presented here have sufficient precision to permit a close examination of the differences in isotope ratios between stratiform leads and the products of a simplified model for the primary system. The differences are significant and important.Novel aspects of the experimental technique are discussed.

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