The nature and field relations of the Ordovician Maumtrasna Formation,County Mayo,Ireland

The nature and field relationships of the Maumtrasna Formation of the Partry Mountains, Co. Mayo, show that the formation underlies the regionally mappable Glenummera Formation, which is of Llanvirn age, and it is laterally equivalent to the Rosroe and Derrylea Formations, also of Llanvirn age. The formation rests unconformably on two different volcanic domains, the basic volcanics of the Bohaun Volcanic Formation to the northwest (of unknown age) and the largely acidic volcanics and sediments of the Tourmakeady Volcanic succession to the southeast (Arenig). It is not the youngest formation in the Ordovician succession of the South Mayo Trough, as was previously thought. This largely conglomeratic unit forms a coarsening upward sequence deposited on alluvial fans which were inundated by a marine transgression at the base of the Glenummera Formation. Clasts in the conglomerates are mainly of granite and porphyry with a minor metamorphic component. The source is interpreted as an arc rooted on a metamorphic basement which lay to the south and east. The suggestion that this area was present day Connemara finds little support. This area may expose some of the ‘hidden’ geology of the Midland Valley of Scotland.     

Late Ordovician (Sandbian) brachiopods from the Mweelrea Formation,South Mayo,western Ireland: stratigraphic and tectonic implications

A Late Ordovician (Sandbian), Scoto‐Appalachian brachiopod fauna from the Mweelrea Formation in western Ireland confirms a location for the South Mayo Trough adjacent to the Laurentian margin, characterized at this time by a succession of marine excursions over fluviatile environments. The new, younger biostratigraphical data help to constrain the timing of late Grampian folding of this part of the South Mayo Trough. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An ordovician fauna from Lough Shee,Partry Mountains,Co. Mayo,Ireland

An hitherto undocumented early Ordovician fauna from mudrocks at Lough Shee in the Partry Mountains contains species of sponge, machaeridian, bivalve, gastropod, cephalopod, brachiopod, and trilobite, together consistent with a deep-water setting marginal to the North American province. The trilobite and brachiopod data suggest a correlation of the Lough Shee mudrocks with the upper Whiterock Stage (equivalent to a level near the D. ‘bifidus’ – D. murchisoni boundary, within the middle Llanvirn). The sparse, low-diversity assemblage is specialized and demonstrates the development of aspects of the Whiterock fauna in the South Mayo Trough.     

Rapid tectonic exhumation, detachment faulting and orogenic collapse in the Caledonides of western Ireland

Collision of the oceanic Lough Nafooey Island Arc with the passive margin of Laurentia after 480 Ma in western Ireland resulted in the deformation, magmatism and metamorphism of the Grampian Orogeny, analogous to the modern Taiwan and Miocene New Guinea Orogens. After 470 Ma, the metamorphosed Laurentian margin sediments (Dalradian Supergroup) now exposed in Connemara and North Mayo were cooled rapidly (>35 °C/m.y.) and exhumed to the surface. We propose that this exhumation occurred mainly as a result of an oceanward collapse of the colliding arc southwards, probably aided by subduction rollback, into the new trench formed after subduction polarity reversal following collision. The Achill Beg Fault, in particular, along the southern edge of the North Mayo Dalradian Terrane, separates very low-grade sedimentary rocks of the South Mayo Trough (Lough Nafooey forearc) and accreted sedimentary rocks of the Clew Bay Complex from high-grade Dalradian meta-sedimentary rocks, suggesting that this was a major detachment structure. In northern Connemara, the unconformity between the Dalradian and the Silurian cover probably represents an eroded major detachment surface, with the Renvyle–Bofin Slide as a related but subordinate structure. Blocks of sheared mafic and ultramafic rocks in the Dalradian immediately below this unconformity surface probably represent arc lower crustal and mantle rocks or fragments of a high level ophiolite sheet entrained along the detachment during exhumation.Orogenic collapse was accompanied in the South Mayo Trough by coarse clastic sedimentation derived mostly from the exhuming Dalradian to the north and, to a lesser extent, from the Lough Nafooey Arc to the south. Sediment flow in the South Mayo Trough was dominantly axial, deepening toward the west. Volcanism associated with orogenic collapse (Rosroe and Mweelrea Formations) is variably enriched in high field strength elements, suggesting a heterogeneous enriched mantle wedge under the new post-collisional continental arc.     

The clew bay group: A displaced terrane of highland border group rocks (Cambro-ordovician) in Northwest Ireland

Marine turbidites, tuffs, black mudstones and conglomerates of the Cambro-Ordovician Clew Bay Group, were deposited in the E–W elongate transtensional Clew Bay Graben that is centred on Clew Bay, NW Ireland. The group is characterized by extensive sedimentary deformation and mass movement on slides; olistostromes, autoclastic breccias and course proximal turbidites are interbedded with apparently less disturbed but often overturned sediments. The Clew Bay Group lies structurally above serpentinized dunite/harzburgite breccias, schistose carbonate peridotites, and other basic and ultrabasic igneous rocks that have ophiolitic geochemical affinities; the sediments may have been in part deposited upon oceanic crust. Ophiolites and sediments that now rest on the Clew Bay Thrust abut Silurian shallow water strata in which the main tectonothermal history, associated with sinistral transcurrent faulting along the thrust zone, is dated at about 410 Ma. The sole thrust dips northward and coalesces with a major deep structure along the Fair Head-Clew Bay Line (FCL) that is the western continuation of the Highland Border Fault of Scotland. Blueschist relics in the Dalradian immediately to the north of the FCL indicate that subduction was active early in the history of the late Cambrian–early Ordovician Grampian orogeny. The Clew Bay Thrust was a sinistral, transpressional shear zone late in its history, but it probably originated as an obduction complex. The Clew Bay Group cannot be traced into sedimentary, metamorphic or structural continuity with the adjacent Dalradian to the north or Ordovician and Silurian rocks in the South Mayo Trough to the south. It should be considered as a distinct terrane (Clew bay Terrane) or a subterrane of Highland Border-type rocks along the southern margin of the Grampian Terrane.     

Lower and Middle Ordovician conodonts of Laurentian affinity from blocks of limestone in the Rosroe Formation,South Mayo Trough,western Ireland and their palaeogeographic implication

The Middle Ordovician Rosroe Formation consists of some 1350 m of coarse, mainly siliciclastic to volcaniclastic sedimentary rocks, deposited in a submarine fan environment, and is restricted to the southern limb of the South Mayo Trough, western Ireland. Discrete allochthonous blocks, reaching 5 m in size, are present in the formation at several localities. Conodonts recovered from these blocks, collected from two separate locations, are of late Early and mid Mid Ordovician age. The conodonts have high conodont‐alteration indices (CAI 5) indicative of temperatures as high as 300^o to max. 480 °C; some found in the Lough Nafooey area have abnormally high indices (CAI 6), which correspond to temperatures of about 360^o to max. 550 °C. The oldest fauna is dominated by Periodon aff. aculeatus and characterized by Oepikodus evae typical of the Oepikodus evae Zone (Floian Stage; Stage Slices Fl2–3, Lower Ordovician). The younger conodont assemblage, characterized by Periodon macrodentatus associated with Oistodella pulchra, is referred to the P. macrodentatus conodont Biozone (lower Darriwilian; Stage Slices Dw1–2). The Rosroe conodont assemblages are of Laurentian affinity; comparable faunas are well known from several locations along the east to south‐eastern platform margin of Laurentia and the Notre Dame subzone of central Newfoundland, Canada. The faunal composition from the limestone blocks suggests a shelf edge to slope (or fringing carbonate) setting. The faunal assemblages are coeval with, respectively, the Tourmakeady Formation (Floian–Dapingian) and Srah Formation (Darriwilian) in the Tourmakeady Volcanic Group in the eastern part of the South Mayo Trough and probably are derived from the same or similar laterally equivalent short‐lived carbonate successions that accumulated at offshore ‘peri‐Laurentian’ islands, close to and along the Laurentian margin. During collapse of the carbonate system in the late Mid Ordovician, the blocks were transported down a steep slope and into deep‐water by debris flows, mixing with other rock types now found in the coarse polymict clastics of the Rosroe Formation. The faunas fill the stratigraphical ‘gap’ between the Lower Ordovician Lough Nafooey Volcanic Group and the upper Middle Ordovician Rosroe Formation in the South Mayo Trough and represent a brief interval conducive to carbonate accumulation in an otherwise siliciclastic‐ and volcaniclastic‐dominated sedimentary environment. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The farnacht formation along the south side of the clew bay fault zone,Western Ireland: Its chemistry and age of metamorphism

The tectonically isolated Farnacht Formation consists of calc-alkaline dacitic-andesitic lavas of volcanic arc affinity. It is situated immediately to the south of the Clew Bay Fault Zone (western continuation of the Highland Boundary Fault Zone of Scotland) in the northeast corner of the Lower Palaeozoic South Mayo Trough in northwest Ireland. It has been metamorphosed to biotite grade greenschist facies following the development of a pervasive, c-s composite muscovite, quartz, and feldspar schistosity. The Farnacht Formation may comprise a terrane that is directly unrelated to nearby Ordovician and Silurian rocks; its present position was fixed largely by Wenlock times. The age of the Farnacht Formation and the deformational event(s) that produced the schistosity are not known. ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹ Ar step heating from four specimens have dated the crystallization of biotite at from 422 ± 2 to 405 ± 14 Ma with a mean age of 413 Ma. These ages date either the post-D2, pre-D3 metamorphic peak, or a hornfelsing of the same structural age related to an unseen thermal source, and provide a minimum age for the end Silurian - early Devonian Caledonian tectonothermal activity in the northeast part of the South Mayo Trough.     

New litho- and biostratigraphic evidence for a Mid-Ordovician hiatus in southern central Snowdonia,North Wales

Detailed mapping and biostratigraphic data provide new evidence of a major break below the base of the Caradoc succession along the northern margin of the Harlech Dome in south central Snowdonia. Within this outcrop the sequence is locally complicated by subsequent tectonic and volcanic events, but undisturbed sections indicate a break of at least 10 Ma between upper Arenig and middle, or upper, Llandeilo strata. The break is greatest between two N-S trending fracture systems, the Cwm Pennant Fault Zone in the west and Trawsfynydd Fault Zone in the east, which both have a persistent history of reactivation. Between these two fractures neither Llanvirn nor lower Llandeilo strata occur. This contrasts with the thick, and perhaps complete, sequence preserved in the Cadair Idris district on the southern margin of the dome and suggests that, during Llanvirn times, the Harlech Dome formed a major uplifted and tilted block, with a tectonically active northern margin. Subsequently, uplift and tectonism either ceased before, or was overwhelmed by, the ensuing sea-level rise associated with the gracilis (early Caradoc) transgression. The preservation of ooidal ironstones around the dome suggests that it may have became a large shoal or platformal area at this time. Renewed uplift and erosion along the northern margin of the Harlech Dome during the early Caradoc (gracilis to multidens) led to large-scale disruption of the stratigraphic succession by mass gravity flow and slumping, overprinting and locally accentuating the effects of the earlier hiatus.     

The Lichi Mélange in Coastal Range, eastern Taiwan: its origin, mechanism and evolution

Marine surveys show that the submarine Huatung Ridge extends northward to the Lichi Mélange in the southwestern Coastal Range, suggesting that formation of the Lichi Mélange is related to the arcward thrusting of the forearc strata in the western part of the North Luzon Trough during the active arc-continent collision off southern Taiwan. New seismic survey along 21oN transact across over the North Luzon Trough in the in-cipient arc-continent collision zone further reveals that the deformation of the Huatung Ridge occurs soon after the sedimentation in the western forearc basin, while the sedimentation is continuous in the eastern part of the remnant North Luzon Trough until the complete closure of the forearc basin approaching to SE Taiwan. This suggests that the sequence in the Huatung Ridge can just be coeval to the lower sequence of the remnant forearc basin strata. Multiple lines of new evidence, including micropaleontology, clay mineralogy and fis-sion track analyses along the Mukeng River and its tributary key sections, are used to test this thrusting forearc origin hypothesis of the Lichi Mélange.     

中国近海天然气水合物的研究进展

南海、东海具有形成天然气水合物的良好动力学环境和丰富的烃类气体来源。根据卫星对海面增温异常的观测、底水气体地球化学、标志矿物和流体组成的研究表明 ,南海、东海海底存在强烈的烃流体活动和排气作用 ;南海南北陆坡区海底气体主要由CH4组成 ,前者多为微生物成因气 ,后者多为热解气 ;冲绳海槽热液沉积区的气体 ,主要为CO2 (86 % ) ,其次为CH4、H2 、H2 S(14 % ) ,分别来自岩浆流体及陆源有机质的降解 ,也属热解成因气。地震地球物理的研究主要集中于南海东北部、北部、南部陆坡区和冲绳海槽中南部 ,测线长度还很有限 ,虽然都有BSR标志的发现 ,但质量比较好 ,研究程度也比较高的还只有南海东北部主动陆缘和北部被动陆缘的一些海域。通过沉积物烃含量和热释光的研究 ,南海、东海共获得 6个地球化学异常区。在综合对比物化探、地热等项资料的基础上初步认为 :笔架南 (Ⅰ )、台西南—东沙 (Ⅱ )异常区是寻找水合物的最佳远景区 ;琼东南—西沙海槽(Ⅲ )、中建南—中业北 (Ⅳ )和冲绳海槽南部异常区是寻找水合物和常规油气藏的有利地区 ,但Ⅳ区更有利于寻找油气 ,其余 2区更有利于寻找水合物 ;南沙海域的研究程度总体上比较低 ,但在其中的南沙海槽 ,物化探异常标志均优 ,甲烷含量较其它地区高 2个数量级     

The Droimchogaidh sill,Connacht, Ireland

The Droimchogaidh sill, south-central Mayo, is sheeted at high-level in the Ordovician sedimentary pile of the South Mayo Trough. This association now lies raised on the eastern fringe of the Connemara-Murrisk Tertiary uplift. The sill is basin-shaped with a maximum thickness of about 100 m. It is composed of isotropic or weakly layered olivine gabbro, and subordinate, locally-developed picritic cumulates and syenitic differentiates. The chemistry of the gabbro reveals the effects of post-emplacement hydrothermal circulation, but the magma that supplied the sill was probably similar in composition to that of the analcime-olivine dolerite dikes further west. The ⁴⁰Ar/³⁰Ar dating gives an age of 55 ± 1 Ma for the sill, consistent with a younger set of ages from the Irish/British Tertiary province.     

Tectonic evolution of the Anadyr Basin,northeastern Eurasia,and its petroleum resource potential

The published data on the sedimentation conditions, structure, and tectonic evolution of the Anadyr Basin in the Mesozoic and Cenozoic are reviewed. These data are re-examined in the context of modern tectonic concepts concerning the evolution of the northwestern Circum-Pacific Belt. The re-examination allows us not only to specify the regional geology and tectonic history, but also to forecast of the petroleum resource potential of the sedimentary cover based on a new concept. The sedimentary cover formation in the Anadyr Basin is inseparably linked with the regional tectonic evolution. The considered portion of the Chukchi Peninsula developed in the Late Mesozoic at the junction of the ocean-type South Anyui Basin, the Asian continental margin, and convergent zones of various ages extending along the Asia-Pacific interface. Strike-slip faulting and pulses of extension dominated in the Cenozoic largely in connection with oroclinal bending of structural elements pertaining to northeastern Eurasia and northwestern North America against the background of accretion of terranes along the zone of convergence with the Pacific oceanic plates. Three main stages are recognized in the formation of the sedimentary cover in the Anadyr Basin. (1) The lower portion of the cover was formed in the Late Cretaceous-Early Eocene under conditions of alternating settings of passive and active continental margins. The Cenomanian-lower Eocene transitional sedimentary complex is located largely in the southern Anadyr Basin (Main River and Lagoonal troughs). (2) In the middle Eocene and Oligocene, sedimentation proceeded against the background of extension and rifting in the northern part of the paleobasin and compression in its southern part. The compression was caused by northward migration of the foredeep in front of the accretionary Koryak Orogen. The maximum thickness of the Eocene-Oligocene sedimentary complex is noted mainly in the southern part of the basin and in the Central and East Anadyr troughs. (3) The middle Miocene resumption of sedimentation was largely related to strike-slip faulting and rifting. In the Miocene to Quaternary, sedimentation was the most intense in the central and northern parts of the Anadyr Basin, as well as in local strike-slip fault-line depressions of the Central Trough. Geological and geophysical data corroborate thrusting in the southern Anadyr Basin. The amplitude of thrusting over the Main River Trough reaches a few tens of kilometers. The vertical thickness of the tectonically screened Paleogene and Neogene rocks in the southern Main River Trough exceeds 10 km. The quantitative forecast of hydrocarbon emigration from Cretaceous and Paleogene source rocks testifies to the disbalance between hydrocarbons emigrated and accumulated in traps of petroleum fields discovered in the Anadyr Basin. The southern portion of the Anadyr Basin is the most promising for the discovery of new petroleum fields in the Upper Cretaceous, Eocene, and Upper Oligocene-Miocene porous and fracture-porous reservoir rocks in subthrust structural and lithological traps.     

塔里木板块二叠纪构造演化的古植物群（大植物、孢粉）响应

塔里木板块二叠纪的构造演化导致板块古地理位置、古地貌和古环境的演变(包括气候条件的改变)，相应地塔里木板块的植物群在区系性质方面发生了重要变更。该板块二叠纪植物群演替历史分为3个演化阶段：①欧美植物群阶段(阿赛尔期-罗德期)；②欧美-安加拉混生植物群阶段(沃德期-吴家坪期)早期；③安加拉植物群阶段(吴家坪期中晚期-长兴期)。     

冲绳海槽岩浆作用的区域性差异

冲绳海槽位于西太平洋活动大陆边缘,是一个目前正处于弧后扩张作用早期的、年轻的弧后盆地,张性断裂发育,火山活动强烈.岩石类型分布和岩石地球化学特征表明冲绳海槽中部和南部的岩浆作用存在明显差异,但迄今为止人们对于导致该差异的原因尚不清楚.对已有的冲绳海槽玄武岩的资料进行了综合对比分析,并依据冲绳海槽岩浆岩的Pb同位素组成特征,指出冲绳海槽及其所在的沟弧盆体系之下的地幔属于印度洋型地幔,相对于海槽中部的玄武岩岩浆,海槽南部的玄武岩岩浆来自地幔更高程度的熔融;冲绳海槽玄武岩岩浆受到了俯冲板块物质加入的影响,且南部玄武岩岩浆受影响的程度要高于中部,这可能受控于俯冲板块的深度(南部:100~150 km;中部:约200 km);冲绳海槽玄武岩部分属于MORB型,这应是冲绳海槽早期扩张的重要特征和证据之一.在上述分析工作的基础上,提出了今后对冲绳海槽岩浆作用的研究应主要集中在以下几个方面:冲绳海槽基底岩石类型的甄别与分布;岩浆源区地幔的类型及特征;板块俯冲对冲绳海槽岩浆作用的贡献及制约机制;冲绳海槽岩浆作用与海底热液活动的内在联系等.      

Turbidites from the Clew Bay Complex,Ireland: provenance based on petrography,geochemistry and crustal residence values

The Clew Bay Complex in the Irish Caledonides represents a Caledonian element separating the Irish–Scottish Dalradian to the north from the South Mayo Ordovician arc basins to the south. The petrographic, geochemical and crustal residence characteristics of the Silurian sandstones within the complex are presented. Petrological analysis indicates that the sandstones were derived from a transitional continental provenance, possibly a passive continental margin or the cratonic flank of a foreland basin. Whole rock geochemistry confirms this provenance type and demonstrates the absence of any significant ophiolite detritus. Sm–Nd model ages indicate a possible derivation from Upper Dalradian or Torridonian rocks, although a mixed provenance may also be considered. These data indicate distinct differences between these turbidites and those of the nearby North Galway succession and suggest that the Clew Bay Complex could be regarded as a suspect terrane with respect to at least parts of the South Mayo arc zone. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Geochemical characterization of Cretaceous sandstones from the Southern Benue Trough,Nigeria

Geochemical studies of sandstones from the three lithostratigraphic successions in the southern Benue Trough of Nigeria were undertaken for a geochemical characterization of the sandstones, and to assess their strati-graphic and source evolution.Major and trace elements data were obtained from outcrop sandstone samples. The SIO2/Al2O2, Fe2O3/K2O ra-tios and CaO contents have been used to characterize the Cretaceous sandstones into Al-rich and high and low Fe2O3/K2O ratio sandstones. Results indicate that there are geochemical features that display stratigraphic trends across the succession from the Asu River Group, Eze-Aku Group to the proto-Niger Delta succession which may imply a discontinuous evolution from different source terrains of Precambrian and Mesozoic ages that supplied the sediments. The Asu River Group sandstones have lower SiO2, Al2O3, Fe2O3 and higher MgO; the Eze-Aku sand-stones have higher TiO2, CaO, alkalis and lower MgO while the proto-Niger Delta sandstones have higher SiO2, Al2O3, Fe2O3 and lower alkalis and CaO. These discontinuities signify the influence of tectonic impulses that af-fected the southern Benue Trough during the Cretaceous time. Changes in ratios of TiO2/Al2O3, Fe2O3, Cr and Zr suggest an increasingly mafic contribution to the depositional basin with time. The chemical index of alteration in-creases with time, possibly suggesting that a more intense weathering regime in the hinterland developed with time.     

Sedimentology and depositional environments of the Ordovician Umm Sahm Sandstone Formation in southern Jordan

The Ordovician Umm Sahm Sandstone Formation of Jordan comprises approximately 200-m-thick succession of fluvial quartzarenites with subordinate claystone and siltstone lithologies of shallow marine conditions. The Umm Sahm Formation is characterized by its dark brown color, frequent jointing, and steep scarps. The Umm Sahm Formation is bounded by the marine claystones of Hiswah Formation at the top and the fluvial sandstones of the Disi Formation at the bottom. The Umm Sahm Formation is composed of two main facies: fluvial facies and tidal facies. The fluvial facies constitutes about 93% of the total thickness. The lower few meters of the succession passes upward from the Disi Sandstone Formation into similar massive white sandstone facies exhibiting similar white color, fine- to coarse-grained sandstone, with round-shaped pebbles. Trough and planar cross-bedding show a northwest unidirectional palaeocurrent trend. Light brown colored quartzarenites similar to those of the Cambrian Umm Ishrin Sandstone Formation are most common in the upper part of the succession. The tidal facies occupies three intervals in the middle part of the succession. It is composed of laminated and thin-bedded sandstones, siltstones, and claystones. They are rippled and varicolored with abundant trace fossils (Cruziana, Harlania, ruzophycus). The presence of hummocky cross stratification indicates the earliest short-lived tempestite conditions during the Paleozoic erathem of Jordan. The first appearance of Graptolites in the Ordovician rocks of Jordan was recorded during this study in the tidal facies of the Umm Sahm Formation. The vertical arrangement of both fluvial and tidal facies indicates three successive short-lived transgressions and regressions. These marine incursions indicate the successive shoreline advances of the Tethys Ocean, which was located northward, and inundated the southern braid plain. The three short-lived transgressive events took place, and the Tethys marine margin was displaced southward, giving rise to deposition of tidal facies in an open coast tidal flat. Following the transgressive events, renewed progradation and strandline retreat took place, fed by large amounts of siliciclastics derived from the continent and transported by braided streams across the intertidal zone.     

南沙海槽东南缘深水逆冲推覆构造

位于我国南海南部南沙海槽东南缘深水逆冲推覆构造系统记录着古南海俯冲与消亡及南海扩张的演化史,为现今仍在活动的构造系统。本文综合阐述了深水逆冲推覆构造的几何学和运动学特征、形成时代和形成过程,并结合区域地质背景探讨其动力学机制,建立构造演化模式。研究结果表明,基于几何学特征差异该构造系统在平面上可划分为南段和北段,垂向上分为上部逆冲推覆构造体系和下部逆冲推覆构造体系。受控于动力学机制,北段褶皱构造变形强度明显大于南段,体现在相邻逆冲褶皱排列间距明显小于南段。综合区域地质背景分析认为:下部逆冲推覆构造体系变形机制为晚白垩世—早中新世古南海俯冲消亡于婆罗洲之下的地壳缩短作用,而上部逆冲推覆构造体系变形机制为中中新世以来三角洲推进的重力滑脱作用与苏禄海盆扩张的地壳缩短作用的叠加结果。     

The stratigraphy and sedimentology of the Ordovician Partry Group,southeastern Murrisk,Ireland

The uppermost part of the Ordovician succession in southeastern Murrisk, western Ireland, consists of coarse-grained sedimentary rocks and tuffs, the Partry Group, hitherto subdivided into the Mweelrea Formation, unconformably overlain by the Maumtrasna Formation. The age of the lower part of the succession is late Llanvirn whilst that of the upper part is unknown. Evidence is presented to show that the two formations are lateral equivalents. Consequently the Mweelrea Formation is redefined and the Maumtrasna Formation becomes redundant. The revision of the stratigraphy enables a coherent sedimentological model for the group to be proposed. The sediments of the Mweelrea Formation were deposited on alluvial fans and distally-equivalent alluvial plains and delta fans. The direction of sediment transport was towards the north and northwest.     

A revision of the age of the hen-dy-capel ooidal ironstone (ordovician), llanengan,N. Wales

Pendent didymograptid graptolites are described from mudstones immediately overlying the Hen-dy-capel ironstone (St. Tudwal's Peninsula, Lly̌n, North Wales). The graptolites indicate a Llanvirn age for these beds, implying a Llanvirn or Arenig age for the ironstone, in contrast with the previous interpretation of a gracilis Biozone age. The redating of the ironstone horizon suggests that the Pen-y-gaer mudstones may be at the base of the local Nant Ffrancon Formation, rather than being equivalent to the lower Caradoc Tyddyn Dicwm beds above the Tremadog ironstone as widely supposed. The ironstones at Trefor, Betws Garmon, and Llandegai, which have been correlated with the Hen-dy-capel ironstone on the basis of acritarch assemblages, may also have a similar age. A reinterpretation of the age of these localities as Llanvirn would remove the stratigraphic problems introduced by their previously suggested early gracilis Biozone age. The Hen-dy-capel ironstone forms one of a large number of ironstones recorded from close to the Arenig-Llanvirn boundary in N. Wales, and elsewhere at high southern palaeolatitudes.