Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-zzh7m Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-27T00:01:30.077Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Geochemical contrasts between late Caledonian granitoid plutons of northern, central and southern Scotland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2011

W. E. Stephens  and
A. N. Halliday
W. E. Stephens
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Fife KY16 9ST, Scotland.
A. N. Halliday
Affiliation:
Isotope Geology Unit, Scottish Universities Research and Reactor Centre, East Kilbride, Glasgow G75 0QU, Scotland.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

New major- and trace-element data for granitoid plutons from the Grampian Highlands, the Midland Valley and the Southern Uplands of Scotland are presented and discussed. The study is restricted to ‘late granitoids’ (all younger than 430 Ma); the term ‘granitoid’ is used in a wide sense to encompass all plutonic components of a zoned intrusion of this age, sometimes including diorites and ultrabasic cumulate rocks. The data indicate that as a whole the province is chemically high-K calc-alkalic. Other notable enrichments are in Sr and Ba, and a marked geographical difference in these trace-elements is found between plutons of the SW Grampian Highlands and those of the Southern Highlands, the Midland Valley, and the Southern Uplands. Plutons of the NE Highlands tend to be more geochemically evolved than those further SW and those of the Midland Valley and Southern Uplands.

When petrographical and geochemical data are considered, three plutonic suites are recognised: (1) the Cairngorm suite comprising plutons of the NE Highlands, (2) the Argyll suite comprising plutons from the SW Highlands, and (3) the S of Scotland suite comprising plutons from the Southern Highlands, Midland Valley and the Southern Uplands excluding Criffell and the Cairnsmore of Fleet. It is proposed that the more acidic granitoids are dominantly the products of I-type crustal sources, but certain diorites and the more basic members of zoned plutons have a substantial mantle component. The elevated Sr and Ba levels in granitoids of the Argyll suite may reflect the influence of incompatible-element-rich fluids from the mantle in the petrogenesis of this suite. The relatively anhydrous pyroxene-mica diorites of the S of Scotland suite are richer in Ni and Cr and appear to represent mantle-derived melts. The relationships between these data and already published isotopic data are discussed.

Keywords

A-typecrustgeochemistryisotopic dataI-typemagma sourcemantlepetrogenesisS-typetrace-element
Type
Southern Uplands, granites and synthesis
Information
Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 75 , Issue 2: Deep Geology of the Midland Valley of Scotland and Adjacent Regions. Bicentenary Symposium , 1984 , pp. 259 - 273
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1984

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

Blaxland, A. B., Aftalion, M. & van Breemen, O. 1979. Pb isotopic composition of feldspars from Scottish Caledonian granites and the nature of the underlying crust. SCOTT J GEOL 15, 139–51.Google Scholar
Brown, G. C. & Locke, C. A. 1979. Space-time variations in the British Caledonian granites: some geophysical correlations. EARTH PLANET SCI LETT 45, 69–79.Google Scholar
Chappell, B. W. & White, A. J. R. 1974. Two contrasting granite types. PACIFIC GEOL 8, 173–4.Google Scholar
Clayburn, J. A. P. 1981. Age and petrogenetic studies of some magmatic and metamorphis rocks in the Grampian Highlands. Unpublished D. Phil. Thesis, Oxford University.Google Scholar
Clayburn, J. A. P., Harmon, R. S., Pankhurst, R. J. & Brown, J. F. 1983. Sr, O, and Pb isotope evidence for the origin and evolution of the Etive igneous complex, Scotland. NATURE 303, 492–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collins, W. J., Beams, S. D., White, A. J. R. & Chappell, B. W. 1982. Nature and origin of A-type granites with particular reference to southeastern Australia. CONTRIB MINERAL PETROL 80, 189–200.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, G. L. 1978. Zircons from the upper mantle. CARNEGIE INST WASHINGTON YEARB 77, 895–7.Google Scholar
Elias, P. & Strong, D. F. 1982. Palaeozoic granitoid plutonism of southern Newfoundland: contrasts in timing, tectonic setting and level of emplacement. TRANS R SOC EDINBURGH EARTH SCI 73, 43–57.Google Scholar
Faure, G. 1978. Strontium. In Wedepohl, K. H. (ed.) Handbook of Geochemistry, 38-E-1–38-E-14. Berlin: Springer.Google Scholar
Halliday, A. N. 1981. On the sources of uranium in some Scottish Caledonian granites. MINERAL MAG 44, 437–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Halliday, A. N. 1984. Coupled Sm–Nd and U–Pb (zircon) systematics in the late Caledonian granites and the nature of the basement under northern Britain. NATURE 307, 229–33.Google Scholar
Halliday, A. N., Aftalion, M., van Breemen, O. & Jocelyn, J. 1979. Petrogenetic significance of Rb–Sr and U–Pb isotopic systems in the 400 Ma old British Isles granitoids and their hosts. In Harris, A. L., Holland, C. H. & Leake, B. E. (eds) The Caledonides of the British Isles—reviewed, 653–61. SPEC PUBL GEOL SOC LONDON 8.Google Scholar
Halliday, A. N., Stephens, W. E. & Harmon, R. S. 1980. Rb–Sr and O isotopic relationships in 3 zoned Caledonian granitic plutons, Southern Uplands, Scotland: evidence for varied sources and hybridisation of magmas. J GEOL SOC LONDON 137, 329–48.Google Scholar
Halliday, A. N. & Stephens, W. E. 1984. Crustal controls on the genesis of the 400 Ma old Caledonian granites. PHYS EARTH PLANET INTER 35, 89–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hamilton, P. J., O'Nions, R. K. & Pankhurst, R. J. 1980. Isotopic evidence for the provenance of some Caledonian granites. NATURE 287, 279–84.Google Scholar
Harmon, R. S. & Halliday, A. N. 1980. Oxygen and strontium isotope relationships in the British late Caledonian granites. NATURE 283, 21–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harmon, R. S., Halliday, A. N., Clayburn, J. A. P. & Stephens, W. E. 1984. Chemical and isotopic systematics of the Caledonian intrusions of Scotland and Northern England; a guide to magma source region and magma-crust interaction. In Moorbath, S. (ed.) The relative contributions of mantle, oceanic crust and continental crust to magma genesis, 709–42. PHIL TRANS R SOC LONDON A310.Google Scholar
Hine, R. H., Williams, I. S., Chappell, B. W. & White, A. J. R. 1978. Geochemical contrasts between I- and S-type granitoids of the Kosciusko Batholith. J GEOL SOC AUSTRALIA 25, 219–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Loiselle, M. C. & Wones, D. R. 1979. Characteristics and origin of anorogenic granites. GEOL SOC AM ABSTR PROG 11, 468.Google Scholar
Norrish, K. & Chappell, B. W. 1977. X-ray fluorescence spectrometry. In Zussman, J. (ed.) Physical methods in determinative mineralogy, 2nd edn, 201–72. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Peacock, M. A. 1931. Classification of igneous rock series. J GEOL 39, 54–67.Google Scholar
Peccerillo, A. & Taylor, S. R. 1976. Geochemistry of Eocene calc-alkaline volcanic rocks from the Kastamona area, northern Turkey. CONTRIB MINERAL PETROL 58, 63–81.Google Scholar
Pidgeon, R. T. & Aftalion, M. 1978. Cogenetic and inherited zircon U–Pb systems in granites: Palaeozoic granites of Scotland and England. In Bowes, D. R. & Leake, B. E. (eds) Crustal evolution in northwestern Britain and adjacent regions, 183–248. GEOL J SPEC ISSUE 10.Google Scholar
Stephens, W. E. & Halliday, A. N., 1979. Compositional variations in the Galloway plutons. In Atherton, M. P. & Tarney, J. (eds) Origin of granite batholiths: geochemical evidence, 9–17. Orpington: Shiva.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thirlwall, M. F. 1981. Implications for Caledonian plate tectonic models of chemical data from volcanic rocks of the British Old Red Sandstone. J GEOL SOC LONDON 138, 123–38.CrossRefGoogle 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 PLANET SCI LETT 58, 27–50.Google Scholar
van Breemen, O. & Piasecki, M. A. J. 1983. The Glen Kyllachy granite and its bearing on the nature of the Caledonian orogeny in Scotland. J GEOL SOC LONDON 140, 47–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, A. J. R. & Chappell, B. W. 1983. Granitoid types and their distribution in the Lachlan Fold Belt, southeastern Australia. MEM GEOL SOC AM 159, 21–34.Google Scholar
Wright, A. E. & Bowes, D. R. 1979. Geochemistry of the appinite suite. In Harris, A. L., Holland, C. H. & Leake, B. E. (eds) The Caledonides of the British Isles—Reviewed. 699–703. SPEC PUBL GEOL SOC LONDON 8.Google Scholar
Zaleski, E. 1982. The Geology of Speyside and Lower Findhorn Granitoids. Unpublished M.Sc. Thesis, St Andrews University.Google Scholar