Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-995ml Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T13:31:09.743Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Structure of the Dingle Peninsula, SW Ireland: evidence for the nature and timing of Caledonian, Acadian and Variscan tectonics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 July 2014

S.P. Todd*
Affiliation:
1615 Arlington St, Houston, Texas, 77008, USA
*
Author for correspondence: simontodd64@yahoo.com

Abstract

The Palaeozoic rocks of the Dingle Peninsula provide a record of the evolution of the Caledonides, Acadides and Variscides. The succession ranges from Early Ordovician deep-water sediments, through Silurian shallow marine to non-marine sediments and volcanic rocks to an Old Red Sandstone (ORS) succession topped by Carboniferous marine shales. Comparison of structural styles in the unconformity-bounded groups, together with a detailed analysis of fault zones, allows the tectonic history to be deduced. The older rocks record Caledonian processes on the margin of Avalonia during Early Ordovician time and convergence then soft collision with Laurentia during Silurian time. The Dingle Basin was developed during the late Silurian – Early Devonian transtension in the Iapetus suture zone and was inverted in the latest Emsian Acadian orogenic episode. Post-Dingle Group ORS groups in the north of the peninsula were deposited in a syn-rift footwall block to the main Munster Basin. The Acadian transpressional and Munster Basin extensional structures were reactivated or overprinted in the Variscan deformation such that Acadian folds are transected by Variscan cleavage in both plan and vertical views. After Iapetus closure, changes in the tectonic regime are believed to be a result of adjustments in the geometry of subduction of the Rheic Ocean.

Type
Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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

Anderson, T. B. & Oliver, G. J. H. 1986. The Orlock Bridge Fault: a major Late Caledonian sinistral fault in the Southern Uplands terrane, British Isles. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Science 77, 203–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barr, D. 1987. Lithospheric stretching, detached normal faulting and footwall uplift. In Continental Extensional Tectonics (eds Coward, M. P., Dewey, J. F. & Hancock, P. L.), pp. 337–59. Geological Society of London, Special Publication no. 28.Google Scholar
Boyd, J. D. & Sloan, R. J. 2000. Initiation and early development of the Dingle Basin, SW Ireland, in the context of the closure of the Iapetus Ocean. In New Perspectives on the Old Red Sandstone (eds Friend, P. F. & Williams, B. P. J.), pp. 123–45. Geological Society of London, Special Publication no. 180.Google Scholar
Brown, P. E., Ryan, P. D., Soper, N. J. & Woodcock, N. H. 2008. The Newer Granite problem revisited: a transtensional origin for the Early Devonian Trans-Suture Suite. Geological Magazine 145, 235–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Capewell, J. G. 1951. Old Red Sandstone of the Inch and Annascaul district, Co. Kerry. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 58B, 167–83.Google Scholar
Capewell, J. G. 1965. The Old Red Sandstone of Slieve Mish, Co. Kerry. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 64B, 165–74.Google Scholar
Capewell, J. G. 1975. The Old Red Sandstone of Iveragh, Co. Kerry. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 75B, 155–72.Google Scholar
Chester, F. M., Friedman, M. & Logan, J. M. 1985. Foliated cataclasites. Tectonophysics 111, 139–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooper, M. A., Collins, D., Ford, M., Murphy, F. X. & Trayner, P. M. 1984. Structural style, shortening estimates and the thrust front of the Irish Variscides. In Variscan Tectonics in the North Atlantic Region (eds Hutton, D. H. W. & Sanderson, D. J.), pp. 167–76. Geological Society of London, Special Publication no. 14.Google Scholar
Cooper, M. A., Collins, D., Ford, M., Murphy, F. X., Trayner, P. M. & O’Sullivan, M. J. 1986. Structural evolution of the Irish Variscides. Journal of the Geological Society of London 143, 5362.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dewey, J. F. 2002. Transtension in arcs and orogens. International Geological Reviews 44, 402–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dewey, J. F., Holdsworth, R. E. & Strachan, R. A. 1998. Transpression and transtension zones. In Continental Transpressional and Transtensional Tectonics (eds Holdsworth, R. E., Strachan, R. A. & Dewey, J. F.), pp. 114. Geological Society of London, Special Publication no. 135.Google Scholar
Dewey, J. F. & Strachan, R. A. 2003. Changing Silurian–Devonian relative plate motion in the Caledonides: sinistral transpression to sinistral transtension. Journal of the Geological Society of London 160, 219–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elliott, R. G. & Williams, P. F. 1988. Sediment slump structures: a review or diagnostic criteria and application to an example from Newfoundland. Journal of Structural Geology 10, 171–82.Google Scholar
Ford, M. 1987. Practical application of the sequential balancing technique: an example from the Irish Variscides. Journal of the Geological Society of London 144, 885–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gradstein, F. M., Ogg, J. G. & Schmitz, M. D. (eds) 2012. The Geologic Timescale. Boston, USA: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Graham, J. R. 2001. Chapter 12: Variscan structures. In The Geology of Ireland (ed. Holland, C. H.), pp. 313330. Edinburgh: Dunedin Academic Press.Google Scholar
Harding, T. P. 1985. Seismic characteristics and identification of negative flower structures, positive flower structures and positive structural inversion. Bulletin of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists 69, 582600.Google Scholar
Higgs, K. T. 1999. Early Devonian spore assemblages from the Dingle Group, Co. Kerry, Ireland. Bollettino della Societa Palaeontologica Italiana 38, 187–96.Google Scholar
Higgs, K. T., Clayton, G. & Keegan, J. B. 1988. Stratigraphic and Systematic Palynology of the Tournasian Rocks of Ireland. Geological Survey of Ireland, Special Paper 7, 89 pp.Google Scholar
Higgs, K. T. & Russell, K. J. 1981. Upper Devonian faunas and floras from Iveragh, Co. Kerry, Ireland. Geological Survey of Ireland, Bulletin 3, 1750.Google Scholar
Higgs, K. T. & Williams, B. P. J. 2011. Palynology and palaeoenvironments of the Silurian Coosglass Slate and Ferriter's Cove formations in the Dunquin Inlier (Dingle Peninsula, Ireland). Polish Geological Institute, Geological Quarterly 55 (2), 95108.Google Scholar
Holland, C. H. 1969. Irish counterpart of the Silurian of Newfoundland. In North Atlantic Geology and Continental Drift (ed. Kay, M.), pp. 298308. Association of Petroleum Geologists, Memoir no. 12.Google Scholar
Holland, C. H. 1987. Stratigraphical and structural relationships of the Dingle Group (Silurian), County Kerry, Ireland. Geological Magazine 124, 3342.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holland, C. H. 1988. The fossiliferous Silurian rocks of the Dunquin inlier, Dingle Peninsula, County Kerry, Ireland. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Science 79, 347–60.Google Scholar
Horne, R. R. 1970. A preliminary reinterpretation of the palaeogeography of western County Kerry. Geological Survey of Ireland, Bulletin 1, 5360.Google Scholar
Horne, R. R. 1974. The lithostratigraphy of the late Silurian to early Carboniferous of the Dingle Peninsula, Co. Kerry. Geological Survey of Ireland, Bulletin 1, 395428.Google Scholar
Horne, R. R. 1977. A tectonic re-interpretation of a supposed “Devonian cliff line” in Slieve Mish, County Kerry and the Galty Mountains, Co. Tipperary. Geological Survey of Ireland, Bulletin 2, 8597.Google Scholar
Jackson, J. A. & McKenzie, D. P. 1983. The geometrical evolution of normal fault systems. Journal of Structural Geology 5, 471–82.Google Scholar
Leeder, M. R. 1982. Upper Palaeozoic basins in the British Isles – Caledonide inheritance versus Hercynian plate margin processes. Journal of the Geological Society of London 139, 479–91.Google Scholar
Lister, G. S. & Snoke, A. W. 1984. S-C mylonites. Journal of Structural Geology 6, 617–38.Google Scholar
Lister, G. S. & Williams, P. F. 1979. Fabric development in shear zones: theoretical controls and observed phenomena. Journal of Structural Geology 1, 283–98.Google Scholar
Meere, P. A. & Mulchrone, K. F. 2006. Timing of deformation within Old Red Sandstone lithologies from the Dingle Peninsula, SW Ireland. Journal of the Geological Society of London 163, 461–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morrissey, L. B., Braddy, S., Dodd, C., Higgs, K. T. & Williams, B. P. J. 2011. Trace fossils and palaeoenvironments of the Middle Devonian Caherbla Group, Dingle Peninsula, southwest Ireland. Geological Journal 47, 129.Google Scholar
Murphy, F. C. 1987. Evidence of late Ordovician amalgamation of volcanogenic terranes in the Iapetus suture zone, eastern Ireland. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Science 78, 153–67.Google Scholar
Murphy, F. C. 1990. Basement-cover relationships of a reactivated Cadomian mylonite zone: Rosslare Complex, S.E. Ireland. In The Cadomian Orogeny (eds D’Lemos, R. S., Srtachan, R. A. & Topley, C. G.), pp. 329–39. Geological Society of London, Special Publication no. 51.Google Scholar
Parkin, J. 1976. Silurian rocks of the Bull's Head, Annascaul and Derrymore Glen inliers, Co. Kerry. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 76B, 577606.Google Scholar
Powell, C. McA. & Rickard, M. J. 1985. Significance of early foliation at Bermagui, N.S.W., Australia. Journal of Structural Geology 7, 385400.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pracht, M. 1996. Geology of Dingle Bay. A Geological Description to Accompany the Bedrock Geology 1:100,000 Series, Sheet 20, Dingle Bay. Dublin: Geological Survey of Ireland.Google Scholar
Price, C. A. & Todd, S. P. 1988. A model for the development of the Irish Variscides. Journal of the Geological Society of London 145, 935–9.Google Scholar
Prigmore, J. K., Butler, A. J. & Woodcock, N. H. 1997. Rifting separation of Eastern Avalonia from Gondwana: evidence from subsidence analysis. Geology, 25, 203–6.2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richmond, L. K. & Williams, B. P. J. 2000. A new terrane in the Old Red Sandstone of the Dingle Peninsula, SW Ireland. In New Perspectives on the Old Red Sandstone (eds Friend, P. F. & Williams, B. P. J.), pp. 147183. Geological Society of London, Special Publication no. 180.Google Scholar
Russell, K. J. 1978. Vertebrate fossils from the Iveragh Peninsula and the age of the Old Red Sandstone. Irish Journal of Earth Sciences 1, 151–62.Google Scholar
Sanderson, D. J. 1984. Structural variation across the northern margin of the Variscides in NW Europe. In Variscan Tectonics in the North Atlantic Region (eds Hutton, D. H. W. & Sanderson, D. J.), pp. 149166. Geological Society of London, Special Publication no. 14.Google Scholar
Sanderson, D. J. & Marchini, W. R. D. 1984. Transpression. Journal of Structural Geology 6, 449–58.Google Scholar
Shackleton, R. M. 1940. The succession of rocks in the Dingle Peninsula, Co. Kerry. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 46B, 1–12.Google Scholar
Shannon, P. M. 1979. The tectonic evolution of the lower Palaeozoic rocks of extreme SE Ireland. In The Caledonides of the British Isles – Reviewed (eds Harris, A. L., Holland, C. H. & Leake, B. E.), pp. 281–5. Geological Society of London, Special Publication no. 8.Google Scholar
Sibson, R. H. 1977. Fault rocks and fault mechanisms. Journal of the Geological Society of London, 133, 191213.Google Scholar
Sloan, R. J. & Bennett, M. C. 1990. Geochemical character of Silurian volcanism in SW Ireland. Journal of the Geological Society of London 147, 1051–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sloan, R. J. & Williams, B. P. J. 1991. Volcano-tectonic control of offshore to tidal flat regressive cycles from the Dunquin Group (Silurian) of Dingle, SW Ireland. In Sea Level Changes in Active Plate Margins: Process and Product (ed. MacDonald, D. I. M.), pp. 105–19. International Association of Sedimentologists, Special Publication no. 12.Google Scholar
Soper, N. J. & Hutton, D. H. W. 1984. Late Caledonian sinistral displacements in Britain: implications for a three-plate collision. Tectonics 3, 781–94.Google Scholar
Soper, N. J., Webb, B. C. & Woodcock, N. H. 1987. Late Caledonian (Acadian) transpression in northwest England: timing, geometry and geotectonic significance. Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society 46, 175–92.Google Scholar
Soper, N. J. & Woodcock, N. H. 2003. The lost Lower Old Red Sandstone of England and Wales: a record of post-Iapetan flexure or Early Devonian transtension? Geological Magazine 140, 627–47.Google Scholar
Todd, S. P. 1989. Role of the Dingle Bay Lineament in the evolution of the Old Red Sandstone of southwest Ireland. In Role of Tectonics in Devonian and Carboniferous Sedimentation in the British Isles (eds Arthurton, R. S., Gutteridge, P. & Nolan, S. C.), pp. 3554. Yorkshire Geological Society, Special Publication no. 6.Google Scholar
Todd, S. P. 1991. The Silurian rocks of Inishnabro, Blasket Islands, County Kerry and their regional significance. Irish Journal of Earth Sciences 11, 91–8.Google Scholar
Todd, S. P. 2000. Taking the roof off a suture zone: basin setting and provenance of conglomerates in the ORS Dingle Basin of SW Ireland. In New Perspectives on the Old Red Sandstone (eds Friend, P. F. & Williams, B. P. J.), pp. 185222. Geological Society of London, Special Publication no. 180.Google Scholar
Todd, S. P., Boyd, J. D. & Dodd, C. D. 1988. Old Red Sandstone sedimentation and basin development in the Dingle Peninsula, southwest Ireland. In The Devonian of the World (eds McMillan, N. J., Embry, A. F. & Glass, D. J.), pp. 251–68. Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists, Memoir no. 14 (II).Google Scholar
Todd, S. P., Connery, C., Higgs, K. T. & Murphy, F. C. 2000. An Early Ordovician age for the Annascaul Formation of the SE Dingle Peninsula, SW Ireland. Journal of the Geological Society of London 157, 823–33.Google Scholar
Todd, S. P., Murphy, F. C. & Kennan, P. S. 1991. On the trace of the Iapetus Suture in Ireland and Britiain. Journal of the Geological Society of London 148, 869–80.Google Scholar
Todd, S. P. & Went, D. J. 1991. Lateral migration of sand-bed rivers: examples from the Devonian Glashabeg Formation, SW Ireland and the Cambrian Alderney Sandstone Formation, Channel Islands. Sedimentology 38, 9971020.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Todd, S. P., Williams, B. P. J. & Hancock, P. L. 1988. Lithostratigraphy and structure of the Old Red Sandstone of the northern Dingle Peninsula, Co. Kerry, southwest Ireland. Geological Journal 23, 107–20.Google Scholar
Treagus, J. E., Treagus, S. H. & Woodcock, N. H. 2011. Major folds affecting the Lower Old Red Sandstone Group at Lligwy, Anglesey, North Wales, and their regional significance. Geological Magazine, 148, 644–54.Google Scholar
Watts, M. J. & Williams, G. D. 1979. Fault rocks as indicators of progressive shear deformation in the Guingamp region, Britanny. Journal of Structural Geology 1, 323–32.Google Scholar
Williams, E. A. 2000. Flexural cantilever models of extensional subsidence in the Munster Basin (SW Ireland) and Old Red Sandstone fluvial dispersal systems. In New Perspectives on the Old Red Sandstone (eds Friend, P. F. & Williams, B. P. J.), pp. 239–68. Geological Society of London, Special Publication no. 180.Google Scholar
Williams, E. A., Bamford, M. L. F., Cooper, M.A., Edwards, H.E., Ford, M., Grant, G.G., Maccarthy, I.A.J., Mcafee, A.M. & O'sullivan, M.J. 1989. Tectonic controls and sedimentary response in the Devonian-Carboniferous Munster and South Munster basins, south-west Ireland. In Role of Tectonics in Devonian and Carboniferous Sedimentation in the British Isles (eds Arthurton, R. S., Gutteridge, P. & Nolan, S. C.), pp. 123–41. Yorkshire Geological Society, Special Publication no. 6.Google Scholar
Williams, E. A., Sergeev, S. A., Stössel, I. & Ford, M. 1997. An Eifelian U-Pb zircon date for the Enagh Tuff bed from the Old Red Sandstone of the Munster Basin in NW Iveragh, SW Ireland. Journal of the Geological Society of London 154, 189–93.Google Scholar
Williams, E. A., Sergeev, S. A., Stössel, I., Ford, M. & Higgs, K. T. 2000. U-Pb zircon geochronology of silicic tuffs and chronostratigraphy of the earliest Old Red Sandstone in the Munster Basin, SW Ireland. In New Perspectives on the Old Red Sandstone (eds Friend, P. F. & Williams, B. P. J.), pp. 269302. Geological Society of London, Special Publication no. 180.Google Scholar
Wise, D. U., Dunn, D. E., Engelder, J. T., Geiser, P. A., Hatcher, R. D., Kish, S. A., Odom, A. L. & Schamel, S. 1984. Fault-related rocks: suggestions for terminology. Geology 12, 391–4.Google Scholar
Woodcock, N. H. & Fischer, M. 1986. Strike-slip duplexes. Journal of Structural Geology 8, 725–35.Google Scholar
Woodcock, N. H., Soper, N. J. & Strachan, R. A. 2007. A Rheic cause for the Acadian deformation in Europe. Journal of the Geological Society of London 164, 1023–36.Google Scholar