The Midland Valley as a Rift, Seen in Connection with the Late Palaeozoic European Rift System

Francis, E. H.

doi:10.1007/978-94-009-9806-3_13

Cited by 28 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…This is orthogonal to the Hercynian (Variscan) mountain belt (Ziegler 1990). A similar direction of extension during the late Stephanian/Autunian is also recorded by numerous E-W-oriented tholeiitic dykes in Scotland and Scandinavia (Francis 1978) and hydrothermal mineral veins in the Midlands of England (Quirk 1987).…”

Section: The Saalian Eventmentioning

confidence: 74%

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Interpreting the Upper Carboniferous of the Dutch Cleaver Bank High

Quirk¹

1993

PGC

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The Dutch Cleaver Bank High is an area that has undergone a uniform structural and sedimentological history since the Lower Carboniferous. It is characterized by an absence of Upper Triassic and Jurassic sediments, and covers an area of some 8000 km 2 .The basement in this part of the Southern North Sea owes its origin to closure of the Tornquist Sea during the Acadian (late Caledonian) orogeny. NW-SE compressive structures were formed which were subsequently reactivated as normal faults during rifting in the late Devonian-Dinantian. Visean carbonates developed over most of the Dutch Cleaver Bank High but towards the Elbow Spit High, Yoredale facies sediments were deposited. After rifting ceased in the early Namurian, a thermal sag basin evolved which was infilled by marine and deltaic sediments of the Millstone Grit sequence.The Coal Measures sequence of Westphalian to early Stephanian age unconformably or disconformably overlies the Millstone Grit. The Coal Measures sequence consists of fluviatile and associated sediments and is at least 1200 m thick. It contains several regionally correlatable lithological units of remarkably constant thickness. Sedimentation appears to have been uninterrupted during the entire Westphalian in this area. This implies that subsidence was sufficiently rapid to counterbalance the tendency for erosion on the continental plain during periods of sea-level fall. The high rate of subsidence is thought to be due to flexure in the foreland of the Variscan mountain belt. The axis of the basin lies to the south of the Dutch Cleaver Bank High. The source area for the sediment was to the north.From base to top of the Coal Measures sequence there is a change in lithology from lacustro-deltaic to poorly drained continental sediments to well-drained continental sediments, indicative of overall terrestrial progradation. However, within this overall trend, higher frequency fluctuations in base level have had significant impact on lithological variations on a scale of 25-375 m. During periods of rapid base-level rise, thick packages of fluviatile sediment were deposited due to a high rate of accommodation on the continental plain. These fluviatile packages are equivalent to transgressive systems tracts (TST).Mapping reservoir intervals within the Coal Measures sequence is made possible by the uniformity of the strata over the entire Dutch Cleaver Bank High. The most important correlative unit is a TST of Westphalian A/B age which consists of a constant 375 m of poorly drained alluvial plain sediment. It represents a fluvial complex with dimensions greater than the Dutch Cleaver Bank High. The unit is highly reflective on seismic due to constructive interference of the seismic wavelet within fining-upwards parasequences of approximately 25 m thickness.A major rifting event occurred at the end of the Stephanian leading to extension, uplift and igneous activity. In places on the Dutch Cleaver Bank High more than 1000 m of the Coal Measures sequence were removed by erosion. The Elbow Spit High was for...

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Section: The Saalian Eventmentioning

confidence: 74%

“…In fact, widespread igneous activity and high geothermal gradients affected most of Northern Europe at this time (Francis 1978;Quirk 1987). The Upper Rotliegend is interpreted as marking the onset of thermal sagging after active extension had ceased.…”

Section: The Saalian Eventmentioning

confidence: 98%

Interpreting the Upper Carboniferous of the Dutch Cleaver Bank High

Quirk¹

1993

PGC

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“…The dykes, together with related volcanism in southern Scandinavia, have been interpreted previously as a late event in the Hercynian Orogeny (Hjelmqvist 1939;Anderson 1951;Francis 1978a,/?). The east-west average trend of the swarm across northern Britain is far from parallel to the north-south and NE-SW trends of the passive continental margin bounding NW Europe, so to relate the dykes to rifting to the NW of Britain, rather than to the east-west trending Hercynian collision to the south, seems at first glance to be rather implausible.…”

Section: Context Of Emplacementmentioning

confidence: 97%

Intra-continental rifting inferred from the major late Carboniferous quartz-dolerite dyke swarm of NW Europe

Smythe

Russell

Skuce

1995

SJG

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Synopsis The late Carboniferous (Stephanian) quartz-dolerite dyke swarm of northern Britain extends eastwards from the Outer Hebrides on an arcuate trend for up to 200 km from the eastern UK coast, as far as the western margin of the Central Graben. The average trend of the swarm changes by about 45° between its western and eastern extremities. Individual dykes, which are generally up to 30 m wide onshore, attain widths of well over 1 km offshore. Magmatically and spatially, the swarm is closely related to the coeval Oslo Graben volcanic rocks and dykes of southern Norway, which lie on the extrapolation of the arcuate trend. The dyke trends point to a focus of relative tensile stress centred on the West Shetland Shelf region. Finite element modelling of the NW European area corroborates the stress-focusing hypothesis, which we interpret in the context of the major period of intra-continental rifting along the line of the proto North Atlantic (the Rockall Trough, Faeroe–Shetland Trough and eastern Norwegian Sea) at about 300 Ma. The regional distribution of Archaean and Caledonian lithosphere within Pangaea may account for the fact that both the dyke swarm and the Oslo Graben were located in northern Britain and southern Norway, rather than in the Faeroe–Shetland region.

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“…According to Francis (1991) there are three components of tectonism which affected sedimentation in the Midland Valley throughout the Carboniferous. The first is the NE-SW to NNE-SSW orientation of basins from the Dinantian onwards.…”

Section: Larne Basinmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tectonic evolution of the Larne Basin

Shelton¹

1997

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The Lame Basin lies in the Midland Valley terrane between Northern Ireland and SW Scotland. A proportion of the basin lies onshore Northern Ireland, with an offshore continuation into the North Channel seaway. The basin is orientated NE-SW, and the sedimentary basin fill thickens to the west. Extensional faults in the south of the basin dip generally to the east, those in the north to the northwest. Preserved sediments range in age from Carboniferous to Tertiary, but are predominantly Permo-Triassic. Integration of seismic interpretations, well data and outcrop fault and fracture measurements has revealed a number of Mesozoic and Cenozoic tectonic events. Late Carboniferous N-S compression was followed by a major phase of regional early Permian ENE-WSW/NE-SW extension. ENE-WSW extension followed in the late Triassic and early Jurassic with post-

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The Midland Valley as a Rift, Seen in Connection with the Late Palaeozoic European Rift System

Cited by 28 publications

References 28 publications

Interpreting the Upper Carboniferous of the Dutch Cleaver Bank High

Interpreting the Upper Carboniferous of the Dutch Cleaver Bank High

Intra-continental rifting inferred from the major late Carboniferous quartz-dolerite dyke swarm of NW Europe

Tectonic evolution of the Larne Basin

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