The latitudinal motion of the Tibetan Himalayathe northernmost continental unit of the Indian plateis a key component in testing paleogeographic reconstructions of the Indian plate before the India-Asia collision. Paleomagnetic studies of sedimentary rocks (mostly carbonate rocks) from the Tibetan Himalaya are complicated by potentially pervasive yet cryptic remagnetization. Although traditional paleomagnetic field tests reveal some of this remagnetization, secondary remanence acquired prior to folding or tilting easily escapes detection. Here we describe comprehensive rock magnetic and petrographic investigations of Jurassic to Paleocene carbonate and volcaniclastic rocks from Tibetan Himalayan strata (Tingri and Gamba areas). These units have been the focus of several key paleomagnetic studies for Greater Indian paleogeography. Our results reveal that while the dominant magnetic carrier in both carbonate and volcaniclastic rocks is magnetite, their magnetic and petrographic characteristics are distinctly different. Carbonate rocks have wasp-waisted hysteresis loops, suppressed Verwey transitions, extremely fine grain sizes (superparamagnetic), and strong frequency-dependent magnetic susceptibility. Volcaniclastic rocks exhibit pot-bellied hysteresis loops and distinct Verwey transitions. Electron microscopy reveals that magnetite grains in carbonate rocks are pseudomorphs of early diagenetic pyrite, whereas detrital magnetite is abundant and pyrite is rarely oxidized in the volcaniclastic rocks. We suggest that the volcaniclastic rocks retain a primary remanence, but oxidation of early diagenetic iron sulfide to fine-grained magnetite has likely caused widespread chemical remagnetization of the carbonate units. We recommend that thorough rock magnetic and petrographic investigations are prerequisites for paleomagnetic studies throughout southern Tibet and everywhere in general.

Intermediate igneous rocks exposed in the Badger Pass area and 3.5 km away in the McDowell Springs area of Beaverhead County, Montana, previously mapped as Cretaceous intrusive (Ki), and Cretaceous undifferentiated volcanics (Kvu) respectively, exhibit little geochemical variation. Trace element, and lead isotope analyses provide strong evidence allowing for a single source. REE patterns, obtained through ID-ICP-MS, are essentially identical. Mineral/melt Eu analyses reveal that Eu behaved predominantly as a divalent cation, refuting an earlier study asserting that trivalent Eu dominated. Data suggest rocks were formed under low oxygen activity conditions, not oxidizing conditions as previously reported. Geochemical data combined with field mapping allow us to establish the temporal relationship between late Cretaceous thrusting, intrusion, and volcanism in this locale. Folding, faulting and thrusting were significantly, if not entirely, completed prior to the commencement of volcanism. Volcanism included contemporaneous thrust plate intrusion, foreland extrusion, and hypabyssal foreland intrusion.

The Palaeoproterozoic Dannemora inlier is situated in the north-eastern Bergslagen region. The inlier consists of primary and reworked volcanic deposits, stromatolitic limestone and skarn that have been subjected to upper greenschist facies metamorphism. Thicknesses of the different volcanic deposits indicate deposition within a caldera, where syn-volcanic alkali alteration was strong. The deposition was submarine and below wave base in the eastern part of the inlier, but above wave base in the central part where erosion channels together with cross-bedding occurs frequently. The Dannemora Formation is the volcanosedimentary succession of the inlier. Two borehole profiles, a northern and a southern, cover the whole Formation and show different alteration patterns. A strong depletion of Na2O and enrichment of K2O dominate in the southern profile, whereas this pattern is not as evident in the northern profile. The uppermost section of the totally eight constituting the Formation, is intercalated with ore-bearing dolomitic limestone and skarn, and has experienced at least two episodes of alteration. An anticline has been established lithogeochemically from immobile element ratios and the reoccurrence of an accretionary lapilli bed. Numerous altered sub-alkaline, calc-alkaline and basaltic dykes have been recorded in the Dannemora inlier. They are the result of mixing and fractionation of at least three magmatic sources and carry a mixed signature of subduction zone and within-plate volcanic tectonic setting. A seismic profile across the Dannemora inlier images a strong reflector package that dips c. 50° E to the east of the inlier. This package coincides with the polyphase, E-up reverse, brittle-ductile Österbybruk deformation zone (ÖDZ). Yet another steep reflector in the Dannemora ore-field extends to a depth of more than two kilometres. This reflector might represent either a deep-seated iron deposit or a fluid-bearing fault zone.