Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-x5gtn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-09T12:43:07.939Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Siluro-Devonian evolution of the southern Midland Valley of Scotland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

R. A. Smith
R. A. Smith
Affiliation:
British Geological Survey, Murchison House, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3LA, UK
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Geological studies along the southern margin of the Midland Valley of Scotland, together with previously published work, suggest a strike-slip model for its evolution during Silurian and Devonian times. The data emphasize the ‘older Caledonian’ influence and persistent, albeit intermittent, transcurrent activity along the Southern Upland Fault which is the boundary between the Midland Valley and Southern Upland terranes. A comparison of the geological characteristics of the Silurian and Devonian rocks in the southern Midland Valley with characteristics from strike-slip basins elsewhere suggests that the Midland Valley rocks were deposited and locally deformed under sinistral strike-slip regimes with two main episodes of transtension — the first acting in Llandovery—Wenlock times and the second in Lower Old Red Sandstone times. A strike-slip model involving transpression may explain why there is a strong unconformity between the Llandovery—Wenlock and the Lower Old Red Sandstone strata in the Pentland Hills and Girvan inliers but only a marked change in sedimentary facies at the equivalent horizon in the inliers of the central Midland Valley. The Lower Old Red Sandstone was probably deposited in a transtensional regime, but the succession is complicated by the widespread Lower Old Red Sandstone calc-alkaline magmatic event. The mid- Devonian deformation is also variable in its effects and the more easterly trend of the en echelon fold axes relative to the Southern Upland Fault trend is indicative of sinistral transpression. Carboniferous and older rocks were affected by smaller dextral movements on the Southern Upland Fault and related faults which started during Namurian times when a change to an overall dextral regime took place.

Type
Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 132 , Issue 5 , September 1995 , pp. 503 - 513
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Batchelor, R. A., & Clarkson, E. N. K., 1993. Geochemistry of a Silurian metabentonite and associated apatite from the North Esk Inlier, Pentland Hills. Scottish Journal of Geology 29, 123–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bluck, B. J., 1978. Sedimentation in a late orogenic basin: the Old Red Sandstone of the Midland Valley of Scotland. In Crustal evolution in northwestern Britain and adjacent regions (eds Bowes, D. R. and Leake, B. E.), pp. 249–78. Special Issue of the Geological Journal no. 10.Google Scholar
Bluck, B. J., 1980. Evolution of a strike-slip fault-controlled basin, Upper Old Red Sandstone, Scotland. In Sedimentation in oblique slip mobile zones (eds Reading, H. G. and Ballance, P. F.), pp. 63–78. Special Publication of the International Association of Sedimentologists no. 4CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bluck, B. J., 1983. Role of the Midland Valley of Scotland in the Caledonian Orogeny. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Earth Sciences 74, 119–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bluck, B. J., 1984. Pre-Carboniferous history of the Midland Valley of Scotland. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Earth Sciences 75, 275–95.Google Scholar
Bluck, B. J., Gibbons, W., & Ingham, J. K., 1992. Terranes. In Atlas of palaeogeography and lithofacies (eds Cope, J. C. W., Ingham, J. K. and Rawson, P. F.), pp. 1–3. Geological Society of London Memoir no. 13.Google Scholar
Cocks, L. R. M., & Toghill, P., 1973. The biostratigraphy of the Silurian rocks of the Girvan district, Scotland. Journal of the Geological Society, London 129, 209–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davidson, K. A. S., Sola, M., Powell, D. W., & Hall, J., 1984. Geophysical model for the Midland Valley of Scotland. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences 75, 175–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, J., & Hawkesworth, C. J., 1994. Early calc-alkaline magmatism in the Mogollon-Datil Volcanic Field, New Mexico, USA. Journal of the Geological Society, London 151, 825–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dorning, K. J., 1982. Early Wenlock acritarchs from the Knockgardner and Straiton Grit Formations of Knockgardner, Ayrshire. Scottish Journal of Geology 18, 267–73.Google Scholar
Floyd, J. D., 1994. The derivation and definition of the ‘Southern Upland Fault’: a review of the Midland Valley-Southern Uplands terrene boundary. Scottish Journal of Geology 30, 51–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Graham, A. M., & Upton, B. G. J., 1978. Gneisses in diatremes, Scottish Midland Valley: petrology and tectonic implications. Journal of the Geological Society, London 135, 219–28.Google Scholar
Hall, J., Powell, D. W., Warner, M. R., El-Isa, Z. M. H., Adesanya, D., & Bluck, B. J., 1983. Seismological evidence for shallow crystalline basement in the Southern Uplands of Scotland. Nature 305, 418–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Halliday, A. N., Aftalion, M., Upton, B. G. J., Aspen, P., & Jocelyn, J., 1984. U-Pb isotopic ages from a granulitefacies xenolith from Partan Craig in the Midland Valley of Scotland. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences 75, 71–4.Google Scholar
Harding, T. P., Vierbuchen, R. C., & Christie-Blick, N., 1985. Structural styles, plate-tectonic settings and hydrocarbon traps of divergent (transtensional) wrench zones. In Strike-Slip Deformation, Basin Formation and Sedimentation (eds Biddle, K. T. and Christie-Blick, N.), pp. 51–77. Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists Special Publication no. 37.Google Scholar
Heinz, W., & Loeschke, J., 1988. Volcanic clasts in Silurian conglomerates of the Midland Valley (Hagshaw Hills inlier) Scotland, and their meaning for Caledonian plate tectonics. Geologische Rundschau 77 /2, 453–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hutton, D. H. W., 1987. Strike-slip terranes and a model for the evolution of the British and Irish Caledonides. Geological Magazine 124, 405–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kennedy, W. Q., 1958. The tectonic evolution of the Midland Valley of Scotland. Transactions of the Geological Society of Glasgow 23, 106–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kokelaar, B. P., 1982. Fluidization of wet sediments during the emplacement and cooling of various igneous bodies. Journal of the Geological Society, London 139, 21–33.Google Scholar
McKerrow, W. S., & Elders, C. F., 1989. Movements on the Southern Upland Fault. Journal of the Geological Society, London 146, 393–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McNestry, A., 1993. Palynology Report on 18 samples from 1:50k Sheet 15W New Cumnock. BGS Biostratigraphy and Sedimentology Group Report, WH/93/335R.Google Scholar
Mitchell, W. I., 1992. The origin of Upper Palaeozoic sedimentary basins in Northern Ireland and relationships with the Canadian Maritime Provinces. In Basins on the Atlantic Seaboard: Petroleum Geology, Sedimentology and Basin Evolution (ed. Parnell, J.), pp. 191–202. Geological Society of London Special Publication no. 62.Google Scholar
Mykura, W., 1960. The Lower Old Red Sandstone Igneous rocks of the Pentland Hills. Bulletin of the Geological Survey of Great Britain 16, 131–55.Google Scholar
Oliver, G. J. H., Smellie, J. L., Thomas, L. J., Casey, D. M., Kemp, A. E. S., Evans, L. J., Baldwin, J. R., & Hepworth, B. C., 1984. Early Palaeozoic metamorphic history of the Midland Valley, Southern Uplands-Longford-Down massif and the Lake District, British Isles. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Earth Sciences 75, 245–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paterson, I. B., & Hall, I. H. S., 1986. Lithostratigraphy of the late Devonian and early Carboniferous rocks in the Midland Valley of Scotland. British Geological Survey Report 18, no. 3Google Scholar
Paterson, I. B., McAdam, A. D., & Macpherson, K. A. T., in press. The geology of the country around Hamilton. Memoir of the British Geological Survey.Google Scholar
Park, R. G., 1988. Geological Structures and Moving Plates. Glasgow and London: Blackie.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pearce, J. A., 1983. Role of the Sub-continental Lithosphere in Magma Genesis at Active Continental Margins. In Continental Basalts and Mantle Xenoliths (eds Hawkesworth, C. J. and Norry, M. J.), pp. 230–49. Nantwich: Shiva.Google Scholar
Phillips, E. R., 1994. Whole-rock geochemistry of the calcalkaline Old Red Sandstone lavas, Sheet 15 (New Cumnock), Scotland. British Geological Survey Mineralogy & Petrology Brief Report WG/94/1.Google Scholar
Read, W. A., 1988. Controls on Silesian sedimentation in the Midland Valley of Scotland. In Sedimentation in a Synorogenic Basin Complex: the Upper Carboniferous of Northwest Europe (eds Besly, B. M. and Kelling, G.), pp. 222–41. Glasgow and London: Blackie.Google Scholar
Reading, H. G., 1980. Characteristics and recognition of strikeslip fault systems. In Sedimentation in oblique slip mobile zones (eds Reading, H. G. and Ballance, P. F.), pp. 7–26. Special Publication of the International Association of Sedimentologists no. 4.Google Scholar
Robertson, G., 1989. A palaeoenvironmental interpretation of the Silurian rocks in the Pentland Hills, near Edinburgh. Transactions of the Royal Edinburgh Society, Earth Sciences 80, 127–41.Google Scholar
Rolfe, W. D. I., 1960. The Silurian Inlier of Carmichael, Lanarkshire. Transactions of the Royal Edinburgh Society 64, 245–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rolfe, W. D. I., 1961. The geology of the Hagshaw Hills Silurian inlier, Lanarkshire. Transactions of the Edinburgh Geological Society 18, 240–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rolfe, W. D. I., & Fritz, M. A., 1966. Recent evidence for the age of the Hagshaw Hills inlier, Lanarkshire. Scottish Journal of Geology 2, 159–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sanderson, D. J., & Marchini, W. R. D., 1984. Transpression. Journal of Structural Geology 6, 449–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saunders, A. D., Rodgers, G., Marriner, G. F., Terrell, D. J., & Verma, S. P., 1986. Geochemistry of Cenozoic volcanic rocks, Baja California, Mexico: implications for the petrogenesis of post-subduction magmas. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 32, 223–45.Google Scholar
Smith, R. A., 1993. Explanation for 1:10 000 Sheet NS 72 SE (Auchendaff). British Geological Survey Onshore Technical Report, WA/93/34.Google Scholar
Soper, N. J., 1986. The Newer Granite problem: a geotectonic view. Geological Magazine 123, 227–36.Google Scholar
Soper, N. J., Webb, B. C., & Woodcock, N. H., 1987. Late Caledonian (Acadian) transpression in north-west England: timing, geometry and geotectonic significance. Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society 46, 175–92.Google Scholar
Stedman, C., 1988. Namurian El tectonics and sedimentation in the Midland Valley of Scotland: rifting versus strike-slip influence. In Sedimentation in a Synorogenic Basin Complex: the Upper Carboniferous of Northwest Europe (eds Besly, B. M. and Kelling, G.), pp. 242–54. Glasgow and London: Blackie.Google Scholar
Steel, R., Gjelberg, J., Helland-Hansen, W., Kleinspehn, K., Nottvedt, A., & Rye-Larsen, M., 1985. The Tertiary strike-slip basins and orogenic belt of Spitzbergen. In Strike-Slip Deformation and Sedimentation (eds Biddle, K. T. and Christie-Blick, N.), pp. 339–59. Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists Special Publication no. 37Google Scholar
Thirlwall, M. F., 1981. Implications for Caledonian plate tectonic models of chemical data from volcanic rocks of the British Old Red Sandstone. Journal of the Geological Society, London 138, 123–38.Google Scholar
Thirlwall, M. F., 1982. Systematic variation in chemistry and Nd-Sr isotopes across a Caledonian calc-alkaline volcanic arc: implications for source materials. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 58, 27–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thirlwall, M. F., 1983. Isotope geochemistry and origin of calc-alkaline lavas from a Caledonian continental margin volcanic arc. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research 18, 589–631.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thirlwall, M. F., 1988. Geochronology of British Late Caledonian Magmatism in northern Britain. Journal of the Geological Society, London 145, 951–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thirlwall, M. F., 1989. Short Paper: Movement on proposed terrane boundaries in northern Britain: constraints from Ordovician-Devonian igneous rocks. Journal of the Geological Society, London 146, 373–6.Google Scholar
Upton, B. J. G., Aspen, P., & Chapman, N. A., 1983. The upper mantle and deep crust beneath the British Isles: evidence from inclusions in volcanic rocks. Journal of the Geological Society, London 140, 150–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wellman, C. H., & Richardson, J. B., 1993. Terrestrial plant microfossils from Silurian inliers of the Midland Valley of Scotland. Palaeontology 36, 155–93.Google Scholar
Williams, D. M., & Harper, D. A. T., 1988. A basin model for the Silurian of the Midland Valley of Scotland and Ireland. journal of the Geological Society, London 145, 741–8.Google Scholar
Williams, D. M., & Harper, D. A. T., 1992. End-Silurian modifications of Ordovician terranes in western Ireland. Journal of the Geological Society, London 148, 165–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar