Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-mp689 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T01:47:29.482Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Silurian collision and sediment dispersal patterns in southern Britain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

N. J. Soper  and
N. H. Woodcock
N. J. Soper
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, The University, Leeds, LS2 9JT, U.K.
N. H. Woodcock
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EQ, U.K.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The evidence is reviewed for the timing of collision between the microcontinent of Eastern Avalonia (southern Britain and adjacent areas) and the Laurentian continent. Recent palaeomagnetic results placing Eastern Avalonia in a high (50°) southern latitude in mid Ordovician time are now consistent with faunal evidence for the first time. The resulting apparent polar wander path is evaluated and suggests that Eastern Avalonia detached itself from a southern peri-Gondwanan latitude in the early Ordovician, moved northwards, and approached Laurentia by the late Ordovician. Its western corner probably impinged on Laurentia in the early Silurian and it docked against the Laurentian margin during Silurian and early Devonian time with a component of anticlockwise rotation.

This kinematic history is supported by a compilation of sediment dispersal patterns on Eastern Avalonia. A low-volume Ordovician and earliest Silurian supply from within the microcontinent was overwhelmed in late Llandovery time by a large volume of southwest-derived turbidites, probably from the uplifting impact zone to the west. This source was later augmented by a high-volume clastic supply to the north margin of the microcontinent. Eastward migration of this source through Wenlock and Ludlow time reflects the progressive anticlockwise docking of Eastern Avalonia against the Laurentian margin. The earliest sign of a large-volume supply from Baltica is in the late Wenlock, arguing against any earlier hard collision.

Type
Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 127 , Issue 6 , November 1990 , pp. 527 - 542
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1990

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

Allen, J. R. L. & Crowley, S. F. 1983. Lower Old Red Sandstone fluvial dispersal systems in the British Isles. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 74, 61–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allen, P. M. 1987. The Solway Line is not the Iapetus suture. Geological Magazine 124, 485–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Archer, J. B. 1981. The Lower Palaeozoic rocks of the northwestern part of the Devilsbit-Keeper Hill Inlier and their implications for the postulated course of the Iapetus suture zone in Ireland. Journal of Earth Sciences, Royal Dublin Society 4, 21–38.Google Scholar
Aveline, W. T., Hughes, T. McK. & Strahan, A. 1888. The geology of the country around Kendal, Sedbergh, Bowness and Tebay. Memoir of the Geological Survey of Great Britain. London H.M.S.O.Google Scholar
Barnes, R. P., Lintern, B. C. & Stone, P. 1989. Timing and regional implications of deformation in the Southern Uplands of Scotland. Journal of the Geological Society of London 146, 905–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Branney, M. J. & Soper, N. J. 1988. Ordovician volcano-tectonics in the English Lake District. Journal of the Geological Society of London 38, 481–92.Google Scholar
Briden, J. C., Kent, D. V., Lapointe, P. L., Livermore, R. A., Roy, J. L., Seguin, M. K., Smith, A. G., Van der Voo, R. & Watts, D. R. 1988. Palaeomagnetic constraints on the evolution of the Caledonian-Appalachian orogen. In The Caledonian-Appalachian Orogen (eds.Harris, A. L. and Fettes, D. J.), pp. 35–48. Special Publication of the Geological Society of London no. 38.Google Scholar
Briden, J. C., Robertson, D. J. & Smethurst, M. A. 1989. Terrane rotations in the Irish Caledonides. Journal of the Geological Society of London 146, 909–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Briden, J. C, Turnell, H. B. & Watts, D. R. 1984. British palaeomagnetism, Iapetus Ocean and the Great Glen Fault. Geology 12, 428–31.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brück, P. M. 1972. Stratigraphy and sedimentology of the Lower Palaeozoic greywacke formations in counties Kildare and West Wicklow. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 72, 25–53.Google Scholar
Cave, R. 1979. Sedimentary environments of the basinal Llandovery of mid-Wales. In The Caledonides of the British Isles - Reviewed (eds. Harris, A. L., Holland, C. H. and Leake, B. E.), pp. 517–26. Geological Society of London Special Publication no. 8.Google Scholar
Cave, R. & Haines, B. A. 1986. Geology of the country between Aberystwyth and Machynlleth. British Geological Survey Sheet Memoir 163.Google Scholar
Cocks, L. R. M. & Fortey, R. A. 1982. Faunal evidence for oceanic separations in the Palaeozoic of Britain. Journal of the Geological Society of London 139,467–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cocks, L. R. M. & Fortey, R. A. 1990. Biogeography of Ordovician and Silurian faunas. In Palaeozoic Palaeogeography and Biogeography (eds. McKerrow, W. S. and Scotese, C. R.), pp. 97–104. Memoir of the Geological Society of London no. 12.Google Scholar
Cope, J. C. W. & Bassett, M. G. 1987. Sediment sources and Palaeozoic history of the Bristol Channel area. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association 98, 315–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crimes, T. P. 1970. A facies analysis of the Cambrian in Wales. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 7, 113–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crimes, T. P. & Crossley, J. D. 1968. The stratigraphy, sedimentology, ichnology and structure of the Lower Palaeozoic rocks of part of northeastern County Wexford. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 67B, 185–215.Google Scholar
Dimberline, A. J. & Woodcock, N. H. 1987. The southeast margin of the Wenlock turbidite system, Mid-Wales. Geological Journal 22, 61–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doran, R. J. P. 1974. The Silurian rocks of the southern part of the Slieve Phelim Inlier, County Tipperary. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 74B, 193–202.Google Scholar
Faller, A. M. & Briden, J. C. 1978. Palaeomagnetism of Lake District rocks. In The Geology of the Lake District (ed. Moseley, F.), pp. 17–24. Yorkshire Geological Society Occasional Publication no. 3.Google Scholar
Faller, A. M., Briden, J. C. & Morris, W. A. 1977. Palaeomagnetic results from the Borrowdale Volcanic Group, English Lake District. Geophysical Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society 34, 107–34.Google Scholar
Fitch, T. J. 1972. Plate convergence, transcurrent faults, and internal deformation adjacent to Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific. Journal of Geophysical Research 77, 4432–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fitches, W. R. & Campbell, S. D. G. 1987. Tectonic evolution of the Bala Lineament in the Welsh Basin. Geological Journal 22, 131–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Furness, R. R., Llewellyn, P. G., Norman, T. N. & Rickards, R. B. 1967. A review of Wenlock and Ludlow stratigraphy and sedimentation in N.W. England. Geological Magazine 104, 132–47.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
Hutton, D. H. W. & Murphy, F. C. 1987. The Silurian rocks of the Southern Uplands and Ireland as a successor basin to the end-Ordovician closure of Iapetus. Journal of the Geological Society of London 144, 765–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ingham, J. K., McNamara, K. J. & Rickards, R. B. 1978. The Upper Ordovician and Silurian rocks. In The Geology of the Lake District (ed. Moseley, F.), pp. 121–45. Yorkshire Geological Society Occasional Publication no. 3.Google Scholar
Jackson, A. A. 1978. Stratigraphy, sedimentology and palaeontology of the Silurian rocks of the Galty Mountain area. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 78B, 93–114.Google Scholar
Jackson, D. E. 1961. Stratigraphy of the Skiddaw Group between Buttermere and Mungrisdale, Cumberland. Geological Magazine 98, 515–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
James, D. M. D. 1971. The Nany-y-moch Formation, Plynlimmon inlier, west central Wales. Journal of the Geological Society of London 127, 177–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kelling, G. & Woollands, M. A. 1969. The stratigraphy and sedimentation of the Llandoverian rocks of the Rhyader district. In The Precambrian and Lower Palaeozoic rocks of Wales (ed. Wood, A.), pp. 255–82. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.Google Scholar
Kelling, G., Davies, P. & Holroyd, J. 1987. Style, scale and significance of sand bodies in the Northern and Central Belts, southwest Southern Uplands. Journal of the Geological Society of London 144, 787–805.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leat, P. T. & Thorpe, R. S. 1989. Snowdon basalts and cessation of Caledonian subduction by the Longvillian. Journal of the Geological Society of London 1461, 965–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leggett, J. K. 1980. The sedimentological evolution of a Lower Palaeozoic accretionary fore-arc in the Southern Uplands of Scotland. Sedimentology 27, 401–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leggett, J. K. 1987. The Southern Uplands as an accretionary prism: the importance of analogues in reconstructing palaeogeography. Journal of the Geological Society of London 144, 737–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leggett, J. K., McKerrow, W. S. & Soper, N. J. 1983. A model for the crustal evolution of southern Scotland. Tectonics, 2 187–210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Le Pichon, X., Sibuet, J.-C. & Francheteau, J. 1977. The fit of the continents around the North Atlantic ocean. Tectonophysics 38, 169–209.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lynas, B. D. T. 1988. Evidence for dextral oblique-slip faulting in the Shelve Ordovician inlier, Welsh Borderland: implications for the south British Caledonides. Geological Journal 23, 39–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mackie, A. H. & Smallwood, S. D. 1987. A revised stratigraphy of the Abergwesyn–Pumpsaint area, Mid-Wales. Geological Journal 22, 45–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCabe, C. & Channell, J. E. T. 1990. Palaeomagnetic results from volcanic rocks of the Shelve inlier, Wales: evidence for a wide Late Ordovician Iapetus ocean in Britain. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 96, 458–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCabe, P. J. & Waugh, B. 1973. Wenlock and Ludlow sedimentation in the Austwick and Horton-in-Ribblesdale inlier of north-west Yorkshire. Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society 39, 445–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McKerrow, W. S. 1987. Introduction: The Southern Uplands Controversy. Journal of the Geological Society of London 144, 735–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McKerrow, W. S. 1988. Wenlock to Givetian deformation in the British Isles and the Canadian Appalachians. In The Caledonian–Appalachian Orogen (eds Harris, A. L. and Fettes, D. J.), pp. 437–48. Special Publication of the Geological Society of London no. 38.Google Scholar
McKerrow, W. S. & Cocks, L. R. M. 1986. Oceans, island arcs and olistostromes; the use of fossils in distinguishing sutures, terranes and environments around the Iapetus Ocean. Journal of the Geological Society of London 143, 185–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McKerrow, W. S., Leggett, J. K. & Eales, M. H. 1977. Imbricate thrust model for the Southern Uplands of Scotland. Nature 267, 237–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McKerrow, W. S. & Soper, N. J. 1989. The Iapetus suture in the British Isles. Geological Magazine 126, 1–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morris, J. H. 1987. The Northern Belt of the Longford–Down Inlier, Ireland and Southern Uplands, Scotland: an Ordovician back-arc basin. Journal of the Geological Society of London 144, 773–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murphy, F. C. 1985. Non-axial planar cleavage and Caledonian sinistral transgression in eastern Ireland. Geological Journal 20, 257–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murphy, F. C. 1987. Evidence for late Ordovician amalgamation of volcanogenic terranes in the Iapetus suture zone, eastern Ireland. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences 78, 153–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murphy, F. C. & Hutton, D. W. H. 1986. Is the Southern Uplands of Scotland really an accretionary prism? Geology 14, 354–7.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Orton, G. 1988. A spectrum of middle Ordovician fan deltas and braid plain deltas, North Wales: a consequence of varying fluvial clastic input. In Fan Deltas: Sedimentology and Tectonic Setting (eds Nemec, W. and Steel, R. J.), pp. 23–49. Blackie, Glasgow.Google Scholar
Pharaoh, T. C, Merriman, R. J., Evans, J., Brewer, T. S., Smith, N. J. P. & Webb, P. C. 1990. Early Palaeozoic arc-related volcanism in the concealed Caledonides of southern Britain. Annals of the Geological Society of Belgium (in press).Google Scholar
Pickering, K. T., Bassett, M. G. & Siveter, D. J. 1988. Late Ordovician–Early Silurian destruction of the Iapetus Ocean: Newfoundland, British Isles and Scandinavia – a discussion. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences 79, 361–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Piper, J. D. A. 1978. Palaeomagnetic survey of the (Palaeozoic) Shelve inlier and Berwyn Hills, Welsh borderlands. Geophysical Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society 53, 355–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Piper, J. D. A. 1979. Aspects of Caledonian palaeomagnetism and their tectonic implications. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 44, 176–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schallreuter, R. E. L., & Siveter, D. J. 1985. Ostracodes across the Iapetus Ocean. Palaeontology, 28, 577–98.Google Scholar
Scotese, C. R. & McKerrow, W. S. 1990. Revised World Maps and Introduction. In Palaeozoic Palaeogeography and Biogeography (eds McKerrow, W. S. and Scotese, C. R.), pp. 1–24. Memoir of the Geological Society of London no. 12.Google Scholar
Smith, R. D. A. 1987. The griestoniensis Zone turbidite system, Welsh Basin. In Deep Marine Clastic Sedimentology: Models and Case Histories (eds Leggett, J. K. and Zuffa, G. G.), pp. 89–107. London: Graham & Trotman.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Soper, N.J. 1986. The Newer Granite problem: a geotectonic view. Geological Magazine 123, 227–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Soper, N. J. & Hutton, D. H. W. 1984. Late Caledonian displacements in Britain: implications for a three-plate collision model. Tectonics 3, 781–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Soper, N. J. & Kneller, B. C. 1990. Cleaved microgranite dykes of the Shap swarm in the Silurian of NW England. Geological Journal (in press).CrossRefGoogle 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.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stone, P., Floyd, J. D., Barnes, R. P. & Lintern, B. C. 1986. Comment on: Is the Southern Uplands of Scotland really and accretionary prism? Geology 14, 1046–8.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stone, P., Floyd, J. D., Barnes, R. P. & Lintern, B. C. 1987. A sequential back-arc and foreland basin thrust duplex model for the Southern Uplands of Scotland. Journal of the Geological Society of London 144, 753–64.CrossRefGoogle 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 of London 138, 123–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thirlwall, M. F. 1988. Geochronology of Late Caledonian magmatism in northern Britain. Journal of the Geological Society of London 145, 951–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thirlwall, M. F. 1989. Movement on proposed terrane boundaries in northern Britain: constraints from Ordovician–Devonian igneous rocks. Journal of the Geological Society of London 146, 373–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas, C. & Briden, J. C. 1976. A geomagnetic anomaly during the late Ordovician. Nature 259, 380–2.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thorpe, R. S., Leat, P. T., Bevins, R. E. & Hughes, D. J. 1989. Late-orogenic alkaline/subalkaline Silurian volcanism of the Skomer Volcanic Group in the Caledonides of south Wales. Journal of the Geological Society of London 146, 125–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Torsvik, T. H., Smethurst, M. A., Briden, J. C. & Sturt, B. A. 1990 a. A review of Palaeozoic palaeomagnetic data from Europe and their palaeographical, implications. In Palaeozoic Palaeogeography and Biogeography (eds McKerrow, W. S. and Scotese, C. R.), pp. 25–41. Geological Society of London Memoir no. 12.Google Scholar
Torsvik, T. H., Olesen, O., Ryan, P. D. & Trench, A. 1990 b. On the palaeogeography of Baltica during the Palaeozoic: new palaeomagnetic data from the Scandinavian Caledonides. Geophysical Journal International 103, in press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Traynor, J.-J. 1988. The Arenig in South Wales: sedimentary and volcanic processes during the initiation of a marginal basin. Geological Journal 23, 275–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trench, A. & Torsvik, T. H. (in press). A revised palaeomagnetic apparent polar wander path for southern Britain (Eastern Avalonia). Geophysical Journal International.Google Scholar
Tyler, J. E. & Woodcock, N. H. 1987. Bailey Hill Formation: Ludlow Series turbidites in the Welsh Borderland reinterpreted as distal storm deposits. Geological Journal 22, 73–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van der Voo, R. 1988. Palaeozoic palaeogeography of North America, Gondwana, and intervening displaced terranes: Comparison of palaeomagnetism with palaeoclimatology and biogeographical patterns. Geological Society of America Bulletin 100, 311–34.2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vannier, J. M. C, Siveter, D. J. & Schallreuter, R. E. L. 1989. The composition and palaeogeographical significance of the Ordovician ostracode faunas of southern Britain, Balto-scandia, and Ibero-Armorica. Palaeontology 32, 163–222.Google Scholar
Verniers, J. 1983. The Silurian of the Mehaigne area (Brabant Massif, Belgium): lithostratigraphy and features of the sedimentary basin. Service Géologique de Belgique, Professional Paper no. 203, 1–117.Google Scholar
Warren, P. T., Price, D., Nutt, M. J. C. & Smith, E. G. 1984. Geology of the country around Rhyl and Denbeigh. Memoir of the British Geological Survey.Google Scholar
Watson, J. V. 1984. The ending of the Caledonian orogeny in Scotland. Journal of the Geological Society of London 141, 193–214.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weir, J. A. 1962. Geology of the Lower Palaeozoic inliers of Slieve Bernagh and the Cratloe Hills, County Clare. Scientific Proceedings of the Royal Dublin Society A1, 233–63.Google Scholar
Williams, H. & Hatcher, R. D. 1983. Appalachian suspect terranes. In Contributions to the Tectonics and Geo-physics of Mountain Chains (eds Hatcher, R. D., Williams, H. and Zietz, I.), pp. 33–53. Geological Society of America Memoir no. 158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woodcock, N. H. 1984. Early Palaeozoic sedimentation and tectonics in Wales. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association 95, 323–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woodcock, N. H. 1986. The role of strike-slip fault systems at plate boundaries. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London A317, 13–29.Google Scholar
Woodcock, N. H. 1987. Kinematics of strike-slip faulting; Builth inlier, Mid-Wales. Journal of Structural Geology 9, 353–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woodcock, N. H. 1990. Sequence stratigraphy of the Palaeozoic Welsh Basin. Journal of the Geological Society of London 147, 537–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woodcock, N. H. 1991. The Welsh, Anglian and Belgian Caledonides compared. Annals of the Geological Society of Belgium, in press.Google Scholar
Woodcock, N. H. & Gibbons, W. 1988. Is the Welsh Borderland Fault System a terrane boundary? Journal of the Geological Society of London 145, 915–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zeigler, A. M., Cocks, L. R. M. & McKerrow, W. S. 1968. The Llandovery transgression of the Welsh Borderland. Palaeontology 11, 736–82.Google Scholar