Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-15T19:18:51.740Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The geological setting of the southern Bathgate Hills, West Lothian, Scotland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2011

R. A. Smith ,
D. Stephenson  and
S. K. Monro
R. A. Smith
Affiliation:
British Geological Survey, Murchison House, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3LA, U.K.
D. Stephenson
Affiliation:
British Geological Survey, Murchison House, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3LA, U.K.
S. K. Monro
Affiliation:
British Geological Survey, Murchison House, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3LA, U.K.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The southern Bathgate Hills, in the eastern part of the Midland Valley basin of Scotland, were the site of a volcanic rise during late Dinantian to early Silesian times and a sequence of basaltic lavas and tuffs up to 600 m thick accumulated. The volcanic pile interrupted the regional sedimentary deposition, which involved a cyclical sequence of marine limestones and mudstones followed by estuarine, lagoonal and deltaic clastic deposits. During the Brigantian Stage of the Dinantian, freshwater terrestrial environments developed locally on the volcanic rise between eruptive phases, but later in the Brigantian the rise was transgressed by marine limestones. Intermittent basaltic eruptions continued into the Amsbergian Stage of the Silesian, accompanied by intrusion of high-level alkaline doleritic sills and associated with strata-bound Zn—Pb mineralisation. Folding later in the Silesian was followed by the intrusion of a suite of quartz-dolerite sills and dykes. These latter were commonly intruded along penecontemporaneous E—W trending faults. The intrusion of the quartz-dolerites may have resulted in remobilisation of earlier strata-bound mineralisation into epigenetic veins.

Keywords

Midland ValleyScotlandDinantianSilesianstratigraphypalaeoenvironmentsvolcanismmineralisation
Type
Research Article
Information
Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 84 , Issue 3-4: Volcanism and early terrestrial biotas , 1993 , pp. 189 - 196
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1993

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

Brand, P. J. 1993. In McAdam, A. D., Smith, R. A. & Ross, D. L. (Eds) Geology for land use planning: Livingston. BR GEOL SUR TECH REP WA/92/37.Google Scholar
Cadell, H. M. 1925. The rocks of West Lothian. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd.Google Scholar
Cameron, I. B. & McAdam, A. D. 1978. The oil-shales of the Lothians, Scotland: present resources and former workings. INST GEOL SCI REP 78/28.Google Scholar
Chisholm, J. I., McAdam, A. D. & Brand, P. J. 1989. Lithostratigraphical classification of Upper Devonian and Lower Carboniferous rocks in the Lothians. BR GEOL SURV TECH REP WA/89/26.Google Scholar
Davison, K. A. S., Sola, M., Powell, D. W. & Hall, J. 1985. Geophysical model for the Midland Valley of Scotland. TRANS R SOC EDINBURGH: EARTH SCI 75, 175–81.Google Scholar
Day, T. C. 1932. Chemical analyses of white trap from Dalmeny, Granton, Weak Law and North Berwick. TRANS GEOL SOC EDINBURGH 12, 189–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, C. J., Kimbell, G. & Rollin, K. E. 1988. Hot dry rock potential in urban areas. BR GEOL SURV. Investigation of the geothermal potential of the U.K. 12, 121.Google Scholar
Francis, E. H. 1982. Magma and sediment. 1. Emplacement mechanism of late Carboniferous tholeiite sills in Northern Britain. J GEOL SOC LONDON 139, 1–20.Google Scholar
Geikie, A. 1861. In Howell, H. H. & Geikie, A.The geology of the neighbourhood of Edinburgh. MEM GEOL SURV GR BRIT. Explanation for sheet 32 p. 47–62.Google Scholar
Jameson, J. 1987. Carbonate Sedimentation on a Mid-Basin High: the Petershill Formation, Midland Valley of Scotland. In Miller, J., Adams, A. E. & Wright, V. P. (Eds) European Dinantian environments, 309–27. Chichester: John Wiley and Sons Ltd.Google Scholar
Loftus, G. W. F. & Greensmith, J. T. 1988. The lacustrine Burdiehouse Limestone Formation—a key to the deposition of the Dinantian Oil Shales of Scotland. In Fleet, A., Kelts, K. & Talbot, M. R. (Eds) Lacustrine petroleum source rocks, 219–34. GEOL SOC SPEC PUBL 40.Google Scholar
Macdonald, R., Thomas, J. E. & Rizzello, S. A. 1977. Variations in basalt chemistry with time in the Midland Valley province during the Carboniferous and Permian. SCOTT J GEOL 13, 11–22.Google Scholar
Macdonald, R., Gottfried, D., Farrington, M. T., Brown, F. W. & Skinner, N. G. 1981. The geochemistry of a continental tholeiitic suite: late Palaeozoic quartz-dolerite dykes of Scotland. TRANS R SOC EDINBURGH: EARTH SCI 72, 57–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mitchell, G. H. & Mykura, W. 1962. The geology of the neighbourhood of Edinburgh (3rd edn). MEM GEOL SURV GR BRIT. HMSO.Google Scholar
Muir, R. O. & Walton, E. K. 1957. The East Kirkton Limestone. TRANS GEOL SOC GLASGOW 22, 157–68.Google Scholar
Parnell, J. 1988. Lacustrine petroleum source rocks in the Dinantian Oil Shale Group, Scotland: a review. In Fleet, A., Kelts, K. & Talbot, M. R. (Eds) Lacustrine petroleum source rocks, 235–46. GEOL SOC SPEC PUBL 40.Google Scholar
Rolfe, W. D. I., Durant, G. P., Fallick, A. E., Hall, A. J., Large, D. J., Scott, A. C., Smithson, T. R. & Walkden, G. M. 1990. An early terrestrial biota preserved by Viséan vulcanicity in Scotland. In Lockley, M. G. & Rice, A. (Eds) Volcanism and fossil biotas, 13–24. GEOL SOC AM SPEC PAP 244.Google Scholar
Stephenson, D. 1983. Polymetallic mineralisation in Carboniferous rocks at Hilderston, near Bathgate, central Scotland. MIN REC PROG REP INST GEOL SCI 67.Google Scholar
Walker, F. 1935. The late Palaeozoic quartz-dolerites and tholeiites of Scotland. MINERAL MAG 24, 131–59.Google Scholar
Wilson, R. B. 1989. A study of the Dinantian marine macrofossils of Central Scotland. TRANS R SOC EDINBURGH: EARTH SCI 80, 91–126.Google Scholar