Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T00:15:58.588Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Age, evolution and tectonic history of the Highland Border Complex, Scotland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2011

Gordon B. Curry ,
B. J. Bluck ,
C. J. Burton ,
J. K. Ingham ,
David J. Siveter  and
Alwyn Williams
Gordon B. Curry
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, Scotland.
B. J. Bluck
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, Scotland.
C. J. Burton
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, Scotland.
J. K. Ingham
Affiliation:
Hunterian Museum, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, Scotland.
David J. Siveter
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Leicester, Leicester LEI 7RH, England.
Alwyn Williams
Affiliation:
The Principal's Office, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, Scotland.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

I. ABSTRACT: Research interest in the Highland Border Complex has been pursued sporadically during the past 150 years. The results and conclusions have emphasised the problems of dealing with a lithologically disparate association which crops out in isolated, fault-bounded slivers along the line of the Highland Boundary fault. For much of the present century, the debate has centred on whether the rocks of the complex have affinities with the Dalradian Supergroup to the N, or are a discrete group. Recent fossil discoveries in a wide variety of Highland Border rocks have confirmed that many are of Ordovician age, and hence cannot have been involved in at least the early Grampian deformational events (now accurately dated as pre-Ordovician) which affect the Dalradian Supergroup. Such palaeontological discoveries form the basis for a viable biostratigraphical synthesis. On a regional scale, it is apparent that the geological history of the Highland Border rocks must be viewed in the context of plate boundary tectonism along the entire northwestern margin of Iapetus during Palaeozoic times.

II. ABSTRACT: Silicified articulate brachiopods from the Lower Ordovician (Arenig) Dounans Limestone are extremely rare but the stratigraphically diagnostic genera Archaeorthis Schuchert and Cooper, and Orthidium Hall and Clarke, have been identified. In addition, three specimens with characteristic syntrophiid morphology have been recovered. Inarticulate brachiopods are known from Stonehaven and Bofrishlie Burn near Aberfoyle, and have also been previously recorded from Arran.

III. ABSTRACT: Micropalaeontological investigation of the Highland Border Complex has produced a range of microfossils including chitinozoans, coleolids, calcispheres and other more enigmatic objects. The stratigraphical ranges of the species lie almost entirely within the Ordovician and reveal a scatter of ages for different lithologies from the Arenig through to the Caradoc or Ashgill, with a pronounced erosional break between the Llandeilo and the Caradoc.

IV. ABSTRACT: A Lower Ordovician (Arenig Series) silicified ostracode fauna from the Highland Border Dounans Limestone at Lime Craig Quarry, Aberfoyle, Central Scotland, represents the earliest record of this group of Crustacea from the British part of the early Palaeozoic ‘North American’ plate.

V. ABSTRACT: Palaeontological age determinations for a variety of Highland Border rocks are presented. The data are based on the results of recent prospecting which has demonstrated that macro- and microfossils are present in a much greater range of Highland Border lithologies than previously realised. Data from other studies are also incorporated, as are modern taxonomie re-assessments of older palaeontological discoveries, in a comprehensive survey of Highland Border biostratigraphy. These accumulated data demonstrate that all fossiliferous Highland Border rocks so far discovered are of Ordovician age, with the exception of the Lower Cambrian Leny Limestone.

VI. ABSTRACT: The Highland Border Complex consists of at least four rock assemblages: a serpentinite and possibly other ophiolitic rocks of Early or pre-Arenig age; a sequence of limestones and conglomerates of Early Arenig age; a succession of dark shales, cherts, quartz wackes, basic lavas and associated volcanogenic sediments of Llanvirn and ? earlier age; and an assemblage of limestones, breccias, conglomerates and arenites with subordinate shales of Caradoc or Ashgill age. At least three assemblages are divided by unconformities and in theirmost general aspect have similarities with coeval rocks in western Ireland.

The Highland Border Complex probably formed N of the Midland Valley arc massif in a marginal sea comparable with the Sunda shelf adjacent to Sumatra–Java. Strike-slip and thrust emplacement of the whole Complex in at least four episodes followed the probable generation of all or part of its rocks by pull-apart mechanisms.

Keywords

acritarchArenigAshgillbiostratigraphybrachiopodbryozoancalcisphereCaradocchitinozoancoleolidDounans LimestonegastropodHighland Boundary faultLlanvirnmarginal basinOrdovicianostracodeserpentinitesilicificationSunda shelftrilobiteunconformity
Type
Highland Border and Dalradian terranes
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. 113 - 133
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

Adamczak, F. 1976. Middle Devonian Podocopida (Ostracoda) from Poland; their morphology, systematics and occurrence. SENCKENBERG LETHAEA 57, 265–67.Google Scholar
Allan, D. A. 1940. The geology of the Highland Border from Glen Almond to Glen Artney. TRANS R SOC EDINBURGH 60, 171–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, F. W. 1963. Palaeontology; Section III, 1, In SUMMPROG GEOL SURV G B (1962).Google Scholar
Anderson, J. G. C. 1947. The geology of the Highland Border: Stonehaven to Arran. TRANS R SOC EDINBURGH 61, 479–515.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, J. G. C. & Pringle, J. 1944. The Arenig rocks of Arran and their relationship to the Dalradian Series. GEOL MAG 81, 81–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barrow, G. 1901. On the occurrence of Silurian (?) rocks in Forfarshire and Kincardinshire along the eastern border of the Highlands. Q J GEOL SOC LONDON, 57, 328–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bluck, B. J. 1983. Role of the Midland Valley of Scotland in the Caledonian orogeny. TRANS R SOC EDINBURGH EARTH SCI 74, 119–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bluck, B. J. 1984. Pre-Carboniferous history of the Midland Valley of Scotland. TRANS R SOC EDINBURGH EARTH SCI 75, 275–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bluck, B. J., Halliday, A. N., Aftalion, M. & Maclntyre, R. M. 1980. Age and origin of the Ballantrae ophiolite and its significance to the Caledonian orogeny and Ordovician time scale. GEOLOGY 8, 492–5.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bockelie, J. F. 1984. The Diploporita of the Oslo region, Norway. PALAEONTOLOGY 27, 1–68.Google Scholar
Brown, P. E., Miller, J. A., Soper, N. J. & York, D. 1965. Potassium-argon age pattern of the British Caledonides. PROC YORKSHIRE GEOL SOC 35, 103–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burton, C. J., Hocken, C., MacCallum, D. & Young, M. E. 1984. Chitinozoa and the age of the Margie Limestone of the North Esk. PROC GEOL SOC GLASGOW 124/125, 27–32.Google Scholar
Campbell, R. 1911. Preliminary note on the geology of south-eastern Kincardineshire GEOL MAG 48, 63–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell, R. 1913. The geology of south-eastern Kincardineshire. TRANS R SOC EDINBURGH 48, 923–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Curry, G. B., Ingham, J. K., Bluck, B. J. & Williams, A. 1982. The significance of a reliable Ordovician age for some Highland Border rocks in Central Scotland. J. GEOL SOC LONDON 139, 451–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dempster, T. J. 1984. Localized uplift in the Scottish Dalradian. NATURE 307, 156–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dewey, J. F. 1982. Plate tectonics and the evolution of the British Isles J GEOL SOC LONDON 139, 371–412.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Downie, C., Lister, T. R., Harris, A. L. & Fettes, D. J. 1971. A palynological investigation of the Dalradian of Scotland. REP INST GEOL SCI LONDON 71/9.Google Scholar
Gregory, J. W. 1910. Problems of the South-western Highlands. TRANS GEOL SOC GLASGOW 14, 1–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harland, W. B., Cox, A. V., Llewellyn, P. G., Pickton, C. A. G., Smith, A. G. & Walters, R. 1982. A geologic timescale. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Harper, C. T. 1967. The geological interpretation of potassium-argon ages of metamorphic rocks from the Scottish Caledonides. SCOTT J GEOL 3, 46–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harris, A. L. 1969. The relationship of the Leny Limestone to the Dalradian. SCOTT J GEOL 5, 187–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hedberg, H. D. 1976. International Stratigraphic Guide: A guide to Stratigraphic Classification, Terminology, and Procedure. New York: John Wiley.Google Scholar
Henderson, W. G. & Fortey, N. J. 1982. Highland Border rocks at Loch Lomond and Aberfoyle. SCOTT J GEOL 18, 227–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henderson, W. G. & Robertson, A. H. F. 1982. The Highland Border rocks and their relation to marginal basin development in the Scottish Caledonides. J GEOL SOC LONDON 139, 433–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henningsmoen, G. 1954. Lower Ordovician ostracods from the Oslo Region, Norway. NORSK GEOL TIDSSKR 33, 41–68.Google Scholar
Hessland, I. 1949. Investigations of the Lower Ordovician of the Siljan district, Sweden. I. Lower Ordovician ostracods of the Siljan district, Sweden. BULL GEOL INST UNIV UPPSALA 33, 97–408.Google Scholar
Jehu, T. J. 1912. Discovery of fossils in the Boundary Fault Series, near Aberfoyle. GEOL MAG 49, 469–70.Google Scholar
Jehu, T. J. & Campbell, R. 1917. The Highland Border rocks of the Aberfoyle district. TRANS R SOC EDINBURGH 52, 175–212.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jenkins, W. A. M. 1967. Ordovician Chitinozoa from Shropshire. PALAEONTOLOGY 10, 436–88.Google Scholar
Johnson, M. R. W. & Harris, A. L. 1967. Dalradian-? Arenig relations in part of the Highland Border, Scotland, and their significance in the chronology of the Caledonian orogeny. SCOTT J GEOL 3, 1–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, D. L., Cox, A., Coney, P. & Beck, M. 1982. The growth of eastern North America. SCI AM 247, 50–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, T. R. 1879. In Nicholson, A. A. & Etheridge, R.A Monograph of the Silurian fossils of Girvan in Ayrshire with special reference to those contained in the ‘Gray Collection’, Vol. 1 (2), 136–236Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Kelling, G. 1962. The petrology and sedimentation of Upper Ordovician rocks in the Rhinns of Galloway, south-west Scotland. TRANS R SOC EDINBURGH 65, 107–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leake, B. E., Tanner, P. W. G., Macintyre, R. M. & Elias, E. 1984. Tectonic position of the Dalradian rocks of Connemara and its bearing on the evolution of the Midland Valley of Scotland, TRANS R SOC EDINBURGH: EARTH SCI 75, 165–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Longman, C. D., Bluck, B. J. & van Breemen, O. 1979. Ordovician conglomerates and the evolution of the Midland Valley. NATURE 280, 578–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lyell, C. 1825. On a dike of serpentine, cutting through sandstone, in the County of Forfar. EDINBURGH J SCI 1, 112–8.Google Scholar
MacCulloch, J. 1824. On the limestone of Clunie, in Perthshire, with remarks on Trap and Serpentine. EDINBURGH J SCI 1, 1–15.Google Scholar
Nicol, J. 1850. Observations on the Silurian strata of the south-east of Scotland. Q J GEOL SOC LONDON 6, 53–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Odin, G. S. 1982. The Phanerozoic timescale revisited. EPISODES 1982, 3–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pankhurst, R. J. 1970. The geochronology of the basic igneous complexes. SCOTT J GEOL 6, 83–107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pringle, J. 1939. The discovery of Cambrian trilobites in the Highland Border rocks near Callander, Perthshire. REPT BR ASS ADVMT SCI, p. 252.Google Scholar
Pringle, K. 1942. On the relationship of the green conglomerate to the Margie Series in the North Esk, near Edzell; and on the probable age of the Margie limestone. TRANS GEOL SOC GLASGOW 20, 136–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rushton, A. W. A. 1978. Fossils from the Middle-Upper Cambrian Transition in the Nuneaton district. PALAEONTOLOGY 21, 245–83.Google Scholar
Rushton, A. W. A. & Tripp, R. P. 1979. A fossiliferous lower Canadian (Tremadoc) boulder from the Benan Conglomerate of the Girvan district. SCOTT J GEOL 15, 321–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sarv, L. 1959. Ordovician ostracods of the Estonian SSR. EESTI NSV TEAD AKAD.Google Scholar
Shackleton, R. M. 1958. Downward facing structures of the Highland Border. Q J GEOL SOC LONDON 113, 361–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Siveter, D. J. 1978. The Ordovician. In Bates, R. & Robinson, E. (eds) A Stratigraphie Index of British Ostracodes, 41–56. GEOL J SPEC ISSUE 8.Google Scholar
Tappan, H. 1980. The paleobiology of plant protists. San Francisco: Freeman.Google Scholar
Taugourdeau, P. 1961. Chitinozoaires du Silurien d'Aquitaine. REV MICROPALEONTOL 4, 135–54.Google Scholar
Ulrich, E. O. & Cooper, G. A. 1938. Ozarkian and Canadian Brachiopoda. GEOL SOC SPEC PAPER 13.Google Scholar
van Breemen, O. & Bluck, B. J. 1981. Episodic granite plutonism in the Scottish Caledonides. NATURE 291, 113–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, A. 1969. Ordovician faunal provinces with reference to brachiopod distribution. In Wood, A. (ed.) The Pre-Cambrian and Lower Palaeozoic Rocks of Wales, 117–54. Cardiff University of Wales Press.Google Scholar
Williams, A. & Curry, G. B. 1984. Lower Ordovician Brachiopods from the Tourmakeady Limestone, Co. Mayo, Eire. BULL BR MUS (NAT HIST) GEOL, 38, 5.Google Scholar
Williams, A., Strachan, I., Bassett, D. A., Dean, W. T., Ingham, J. K., Wright, A. D. & Whittington, H. B. 1972. A correlation of Ordovician rocks in the British Isles. GEOL SOC LONDON SPEC REP 3.Google Scholar
Yardley, B. W. D., Vine, F. J. & Baldwin, C. T. 1982. The plate tectonic setting of NW Britain and Ireland in late Cambrian and early Ordovician times. J GEOL SOC LONDON 139, 455–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar