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The Flagstone Bench Formation ranges in age from earliest Triassic to Norian (Late Triassic) and is exposed in the Beaver Lake area of the northern Prince Charles Mountains. This sandstone-dominated formation rests conformably on the Bainmedart Coal Measures and represents the upper part of the Permian-Triassic Amery Group. It is divisible into three members: the Ritchie, Jetty and McKelvey members (in ascending order). Nine sedimentary facies assignable to three facies associations (major channel, crevasse/fan and flood-basin deposits) are recognized within the formation. Ritchie Member sedimentation took place during a transition from consistently hygric to seasonally dry conditions and the unit comprises sandstone-dominated, sheet-like channel deposits interspersed with few, thin, mottled, haematite-rich flood-basin siltstones. Deposition took place under fluctuating discharge conditions chiefly within the channel tracts of axially (northwesterly/northeasterly) flowing, low-sinuosity braided rivers. The Jetty Member shows a gross upward-fining profile dominated in the lower part by poorly sorted pebbly sandstones and in the upper part by ferruginous mudcracked siltstones, mottled palaeosols, calcrete and thin massive sandstone sheets. This unit reflects deposition of easterly directed alluvial fans and extensive flood-basin silt under a semi-arid climatic regime. The Upper Triassic sandstone-dominated McKelvey Member shows a return to axial drainage along the Lambert Graben with sedimentation occurring primarily within low-sinuosity braided channel tracts under wetter climatic conditions.

A mineralogical and 40Ar/39Ar study of 13 amphibole samples in the Kamila Amphibolite Belt and Kamila Shear Zone in northern Pakistan has found a correlation between the degree of greenschist facies alteration and quantity of excess 40Ar. Additionally, there is a north-south divide with amphibole samples from the northern region showing larger degrees of greenschist facies alteration, brittle deformation, and excess 40Ar incorporation compared to the predominantly plastically deformed, less altered, amphibole samples from the Kamila Shear Zone in the south. Acid leaching of two amphiboles from the Kamila Amphibolite Belt indicates that a large proportion of the excess 40Ar is correlated with later greenschist facies alteration phases, and can be easily removed by acid etching, thus revealing acceptable regional 40Ar/39Ar plateau ages.

The Permo-Triassic Trinity Peninsula Group is a widespread, regionally metamorphosed metasedimentary sequence in northern Graham Land, Antarctica, which forms the local 'basement' to the mainly Jurassic-Cretaceous Antarctic Peninsula magmatic arc. The metamorphic grade, thermal evolution and pressure series of this major tectono-stratigraphical unit are largely unknown. Determining the nature of the metamorphism has relied hitherto on conventional optical identifications of the major phases, mainly in rare volcanic beds. However, diagnostic mineral parageneses are generally absent and the precise metamorphic grade is unknown or has to be inferred over large areas. Using white mica (illite) crystallinity of interbedded mudrocks, the Trinity Peninsula Group is now shown to have been pervasively altered mainly at anchizonal and epizonal grades. Conditions ranged from upper anchizonal in the northeast to thoroughly epizonal in the southwest. Outwith thermal aureoles near plutonic intrusions, the alteration temperatures ranged mainly from 250 to 325 [degrees] C, exceeding 300 [degrees] C in the highest-grade (epizone/greenschist facies) parts of the sequence. The facies series, K-white mica b cell dimension measurements and mineral phases present are characteristic of an intermediate pressure series altered under moderate geothermal gradients (< 35 [degrees] C/km), corresponding to burial depths of c. 7-10 km. Unroofing and substantial erosion of the Trinity Peninsula Group took place during polyphasal vertical tectonic movements linked to the development of the magmatic arc in northern Graham Land. The geological setting of the Trinity Peninsula Group is ambiguous and could have been a foreland (or back-arc) basin or the mid- to upper levels of an accretionary prism.

Neoproterozoic-Cambrian rocks of the Zavkhan Basin (Govi-Altay, western Mongolia) comprise large-scale alternations of siliciclastic- and carbonate-dominated units (cf. 'Grand Cycles'). Analysis of such depositional sequences near the base of the Cambrian confirms that the distribution of trace fossils, small shelly fossils and calcimicrobial structures was strongly controlled by ecology and taphonomy, corresponding to specific points in a sea-level cycle. Evolution of the Cambrian biota is thus viewed through a series of narrow time windows, once only for each depositional cycle. Correlation of the Precambrian-Cambrian boundary level on the basis of the first appearance of the Phycodes pedum assemblage is also fraught with difficulty, since stratigraphic resolution may be limited to a single sea-level cycle (c. 1-5 Ma). It is suggested that, in many cases, basin analysis will need to be undertaken before this boundary can be drawn.

A small suite of trace fossils from the Zavkhan Basin (Govi-Altay) includes many of the ichnotaxa typical of the Nemakit-Daldynian, Tommotian and younger Cambrian stages, and other indeterminate forms. The traces are almost entirely from the sandstone intervals of the large-scale alternations of carbonate and siliciclastic sediments, thus emphasizing the facies and taphonomic controls on trace fossil distribution, and hence the inherent difficulties in using trace fossils in detailed global correlation, especially in using first appearances. The assemblage of traces and biofabrics is seen as resulting from the partly non-uniformitarian (non-actualistic) sedimentary environments that pertained over the boundary interval, rather than as evolutionary failures and subsequently vacated environments.

The Lower Siwalik succession of the Jammu area has been distinguished into three major lithofacies associations: a sand-dominant association, a sandy-mud-dominant association, and a silty-heterolithic association. The sand-dominant association is made up of three lithofacies: cross-bedded sandstone, rippled silty sandstone and bioturbated sandy siltstone, which are organized in multi-storeyed sandbodies representing deposition in major river channels. The sandy-mud-dominant association is made up of two lithofacies, mottled clayey siltstone and interbedded sandstone, siltstone and mudstone, representing deposition in overbank areas of flood-plain and natural levee-crevasse splays. The sand-dominant association and sandy-mud-dominant association are grouped together as a channel-related succession and are products of processes in the river channel. The silty-heterolithic association consists of four lithofacies: mottled siltstone, mottled silty sandstone, bedded calcrete and mottled mudstone. They are considered to be deposits of Doab (upland interfluve) areas operating independently of present-day major river channels. These deposits have been formed in minor channels, sloping surfaces, and lakes and ponds of the interfluve regions. The cyclicity of both successions (channel-related and Doab-related) has been determined using a partial-independence statistical model.