Herr Professor Dr. A. G. Nathorst besuchte auf seiner arktischen Expedition des Jahres 1898 auch die Bäreninsel und entdeckte gelegentlich der Besteigung des Mount Misery zusammen mit Herrn Dr. J. G. Ander sso n eine Anzahl von Fossilien, welche erHerrn Professor Dr. Damesin Berlin übersandte. Dieser erkannte ihr obertriadisches Alter, wurde jedoch durch eine bald darauf eintretende Erkrankung, welche seinen Tod herbeiführte, an ihrer Bearbeitung gehindert. Auf die liebenswürdige Empfehlung meines Freundes Herrn Professor Dr. H. Conwentz hin hatte Herr Professor Natiiorst die Güte, mir die Bearbeitung dieses Materiales zu übertragen. Eine vorläufige Mitteilungx) ist hierüber 1899 erschienen <...>

Durch planmäßiges Eigenaufsammeln und vor allem auch durch die Abnahme der seitens der Steinbruchsarbeiter gemachten Funde aus den Schichten des unteren und besonders mittleren Malm des nördlichen Frankenjura ist es mir im Laufe der Jahre gelungen, ein außerordentlich umfangreiches Material an wohlerhaltenen Ammoniten zusammen zu bringen, dessen eingehendere Untersuchung und Bekanntgabe unsere Kenntnis dieser interessanten fossilen Tierklasse nach meinem Dafürhalten nicht unwesentlich zu ergänzen gestatten dürfte. Neben Aspidoceraten und Oppeliiden kamen mir im Laufe der Zeit besonders Perisphictiden in außerordentlich reicher Zahl an Arten und Formen und teilweise in vorzüglicher Erhaltung und vollreifen Stadien in Menge in die Hände. <...>

Sapphirine granulites occur in the Daqingshan and Jining areas in the Palaeoproterozoic Khondalite belt, which divides the Western Block of the North China Craton into the Yinshan block to the north and the Ordos block to the south. The sapphirine granulites in the Daqingshan area are always in contact with meta-gabbronorite dykes, implying a causal relationship. The sapphirine-bearing rocks are divided into spinel-garnet-sillimanite-biotite-plagioclase-sapphirine gneiss, UHT sapphirine granulite, and spinel-garnet granulite. The sapphirine granulite contains up to 30% sapphirine, garnet (30-50%), spinel (5-15%), sillimanite (5-15%), biotite (10-20%) and plagioclase (10-20%) with minor cordierite, rutile and ilmenite, but without quartz and orthopyroxene. Bulk chemical compositions show that the sapphirine granulites have very low SiO2 contents (39wt.%), high Al contents, and low XMg. Biotite contains very high TiO2 contents up to 7.6wt.%. Detailed petrographic examination of the sapphirine granulites reveals five mineral assemblages (M0-M4): (1) an assemblage (M0) of mineral inclusions within garnet cores, (2) a matrix (peak) assemblage (M1) represented by coarse-grained garnet, sapphirine, spinel, sillimanite, biotite and plagioclase, (3) sapphirine + plagioclase symplectite (M2), (4) spinel + plagioclase symplectite (M3), and (5) retrogressive biotite (M4). The P-T stability field in the pseudosection of the NCKFMASH system indicates that the temperature of the peak UHT metamorphism of the Daqingshan sapphirine granulites is in the range 910-980 ° C (this compares with the peak regional metamorphic temperature of the khondalites of 700-820 ° C). The P-T path inferred from the P-T stability fields of the mineral assemblages (M1 -M4) suggests that the peak UHT metamorphism (M1) was followed by nearly isothermal decompression (M2 and M3) and later cooling (M4). Field relations and geochrono-logical data suggest that the high-heat flow necessary for the UHT metamorphism of the sapphirine granulites from the Daqingshan area was provided by coeval ~1.93-1.92 Ga gabbronorite intrusions that were most probably generated by ridge subduction, which was also responsible for abundant garnet-rich granites by crust melting the area.

This volume was edited by Russell I. Hemley in preparation for a short course by the same title, organized together with Ho-kwang Mao and sponsored by the Mineralogical Society of America, December 4-6, 1998 on the campus of the University of California at Davis. This is number 37 in the Reviews in Mineralogy series, begun in 1974 and continuing with vigor, at least into the near future, with volumes on "Uranium Mineralogy and Geochemistry," on "Sulfate Mineralogy," and on "Natural Zeolites" planned for 1999 and 2000. Volume 36 (1056 pagesl), "Planetary Materials," edited by 1.1. Papike, appeared earlier this year, and it is certainly not unrelated to the subject of this volume on the physics and chemistry of the deep interior of one of the planets. Rus Hemley has highlighted Reviews in Mineralogy Volumes 14, 18, 20 and 29 as particularly relevant to the subject matter of "Ultrahigh-Pressure Mineralogy."