Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T07:28:48.975Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Palaeodrainage of the southern margin of the Caledonian mountain chain in the northern British Isles

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2011

J. B. Simon  and
B. J. Bluck
J. B. Simon
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Eire
B. J. Bluck
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QO, Scotland
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Lower Old Red Sandstone drainage of the Caledonian mountain chain in the northern British Isles converged in the region of the present North Channel between Scotland and Ireland. Calculations of possible catchment area of this drainage network suggest a major river system c. 530 km in length comparable to parts of the present day drainage network of the Himalayas. Evidence from the Lower Old Red Sandstone sedimentary assemblages in Northern Ireland and Scotland indicates that tributaries flowed NE and SW parallel to the Caledonian mountain front. These tributaries joined a trunk stream which flowed southward from present western Scotland through the southern part of the present Inner Hebrides region, and on through the region of the present North Channel and terminated in the contemporaneous Devonian sea. The coastline of this sea stretched E-W across southern Britain.

The essential drainage system established in Lower Old Red Sandstone times became re- established in Upper Old Red Sandstone times, but with a channel network with palaeoflow to the NE in Scotland. This probably joined a southerly flowing trunk stream in the North Sea region, possibly parallel with the western Scotland-Irish Sea drainage.

Keywords

Antrimcatchment areaconglomeratefaultHimalayasprovenance
Type
Research Article
Information
Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 73 , Issue 1 , 1982 , pp. 11 - 15
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1982

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. 1974a. The Devonian rocks of Wales and the Welsh Borderlands. In Owen, T. R. (ed.) The Upper Palaeozoic and Post-Palaeozoic rocks of Wales, 47–84. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.Google Scholar
Allen, J. R. L. 1974b. Sedimentology of the Old Red Sandstone (Silurian-Devonian) of the Clee Hills area, Shropshire, England. Sediment Geol 12, 73–167.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Allen, J. R. L. 1974c. Source rocks of the Lower Old Red Sand-stone: exotic pebbles from the Brownstones, Ross-on-Wye, Hereford and Worcester. Proc Geol Assoc London 85, 493–510.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bluck, B. J. 1967. Deposition of some Upper Old Red Sandstone conglomerates in the Clyde area: A study in the significance of bedding. Scott J Geol 3, 139–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bluck, B. J. 1978. Sedimentation in a late orogenic basin: the Old Red Sandstone of the Midland Valley of Scotland. In Bowes, D. R. and Leake, B. E. (eds) Crustal evolution in northwestern Britain and adjacent regions, 249–78. GEOL J SPEC ISSUE 10.Google Scholar
Bluck, B. J. 1979. Structure of coarse grained braided stream alluvium. Trans R Soc Edinburgh 70, 181–221.Google Scholar
Bluck, B. J. 1980. Evolution of a strike-slip fault-controlled basin, Upper Old Red Sandstone, Scotland. In Reading, H. G. and Ballance, P. F. (eds) Sedimentation in oblique slip mobile zones, 63–78. SPEC PUBL INT ASSOC SEDIMENTOL 4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bluck, B. J. 1982. Some Old Red Sandstone channel floodbasin deposits, Western Scotland. SEDIMENTOLOGY (in press).Google Scholar
Bowes, D. R. 1976. Tectonics of the Baltic Shield area in the period 2000–1500 million years ago. Acta Geol Pol 26, 354–76.Google Scholar
Braithwaite, C. J. R. & Jawad Ali, A. 1978. Heavy mineral distribution in the Old Red Sandstone of northwestern Midland Valley of Scotland. Scott J Geol 14, 273–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bull, W. B. 1972. Recognition of alluvial-fan deposits in the stratigraphic record. In Rigby, K. J. and Hamblin, W. K. (eds) Recognition of ancient sedimentary environments, 68–83. Soc Econ Palaeontol Mineral Spec Publ 16.Google Scholar
Colthrust, J. R. J. 1978. Old Red Sandstone rocks surrounding the Slivenaman inlier, Counties Tipperary and Kilkenny. J Earth Sci R Dublin Soc 1, 77–103.Google Scholar
Eisbacher, G. H., Carrigy, M. A., & Campbell, R. B. 1974. Palaeodrainage patterns and late-orogenic basins of the Cana- dian Cordillera. In Dickinson, W. R. (ed.) Tectonics and Sedimentation, 143–66. Soc Econ Palaeontol Mineral Spec Publ 22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heard, A., & Davies, R. 1924. The Old Red Sandstone of the Cardiff district. Q J Geol Soc London 80, 489–519.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hooke, R. Le B. 1968. Steady-state relationships on arid regions alluvial fans in closed basins. Am J Sci 266, 609–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hull, E. 1886. In Symes, R. G. and M'Henry, A. Sheet 14. MEM GEOL SURV IREL.Google Scholar
Kent, P. E. 1980. The Structural Framework and History of subsi- dence of the North Sea Basin. In Cogne, J. & Slansky, M. (eds) Geology of Eurpoe from Precambrian to the post-Hercynian sedimentary basins, 281–8. Colloq 26Th Int Geol Congr C6.Google Scholar
Leopold, L. B., Walman, G. M. and Miller, J. P. 1964. Fluvial processes in geomorphology. San Francisco: Freeman.Google Scholar
McKee, E. D., Crosby, E. J. & Berryhill, J. R. 1967. Flood deposits, Bijou Creek, Colorado. J Sediment Petrol 37, 829–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McLean, A. C. & Deegan, C. E. 1978. A synthesis of the geology of the Firth of Clyde region. In McLean, A. C. and Deegan, C. E. (eds) The solid geology of the Clyde sheet, 95–114. Rep Inst Geol Sci London 78/9.Google Scholar
Morton, D. J. 1979. Palaeogeographical evolution of the Lower Old Red Sandstone basin in the Western Midland Valley. Scott J Geol 15, 97–116.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simon, B. J. 1981. Old Red Sandstone sedimentation in the North-east of Ireland. Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, Glasgow University.Google Scholar
Van Houten, F. B. 1969. Molasse facies: Records of worldwide crustal stresses. Science 166, 1506–8.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Van Houten, F. B. 1974. Northern Alpine molasse and similar Cenozoic sequences of southern Europe. In Dott, R. H. and Shaver, R. H. (eds) Modern and ancient geosynclinal sedimentation, 260–73. Soc Econ Palaeontol Mineral Spec Publ 19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, A. C. 1980. The Devonian sedimentation and tectonism of a rapidly subsiding semi-arid fluvial basin in the Midland Valley of Scotland. Scott J Geol 16, 291–313.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, H. E. 1953. The petrography of the Old Red Sandstone rocks of the north of Ireland. Proc R Ir Acad 55, 283–320.Google Scholar