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Microdiorite sheet intrusions as incompetent time- and strain-markers in the Moine assemblage NW of the Great Glen fault, Scotland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2011

C. J. Talbot
C. J. Talbot
Affiliation:
University of Uppsala, Institute of Geology, Department of Mineralogy and Petrology, Box 555, S-751 22 Uppsala, Sweden.
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Abstract

Radiometrie evidence suggests a complex evolution for some parts of the Moine assemblage NW of the Great Glen fault in Scotland. Four generations of microdiorite sheet intrusions are distinguished and used as time- and strain-markers in this region. Two are found to record different tectonic episodes in the Morar and Glenfinnan divisions and their Loch Eil division cover during the c 750 Ma Knoydartian orogeny. These demonstrate that F1 and F2 (of the Grenvillian orogeny) and F3 folds (of the Knoydartian orogeny) in the Morar and Glenfinnan divisions are absent from the Loch Eil division. Two later generations of microdiorites record successive episodes (F4 and F5) of the c. 455 Ma Caledonian orogeny.

The tectonic history of the region is considered after a discussion of the use of microdiorite sheet intrusions as strain-markers. This is because, rather than fold or boudinage, they deformed as incompetent single layers and foliated, mullioned or thinned uniformly instead. The attitudes of different elements of the microdiorites and their internal foliation are used to construct strain ellipsoids for four tectonic episodes on scales of 4–400 m and >4000 m. Three of these episodes are found empirically to have involved irrotational plane strain and all are close to coaxial even though the principal axes of strain appear to have swapped one for another in space as well as time.

Keywords

apparent structural movement pathCaledoniancounter-foldsGrenvillianKnoydartiansingle layerswapping strain axestectonic overprinting.
Type
Research Article
Information
Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 74 , Issue 3 , 1983 , pp. 137 - 152
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1983

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