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.

Field, microstructural and anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS) data from the Palaeozoic Mandi-Karsog pluton in the Lesser Himalayan region reveal a concordant relationship between fabric of the Proterozoic host rock and the granite. The pluton displays a prominent arcuate shape on the geological map. The margin-parallel mesoscopic and magnetic fabrics of the granite and warping of the host rock fabric around the pluton indicate that this regional curvature is either synchronous or pre-dates the emplacement of the granite body. Mesoscopic fabric, magnetic fabric and microstructures indicate that the northern part of the pluton preserves its pre-Himalayan magmatic fabric while the central and southern part shows tectonic fabric related to the Tertiary Himalayan orogeny. The presence of NW–SE-trending aplitic veins within the granite indicates a post-emplacement stretching in the NE–SW direction. Shear-sense indicators in the mylonites along the margin of the pluton suggest top-to-the-SW shearing related to the Himalayan orogeny. Based on these observations, it is envisaged that the extension that gave rise to this rift-related magmatism had a NE–SW trend, that is, normal to the trend of the aplite veins. Subsequently, during the Himalayan orogeny, compression occurred along this same NE–SW orientation. These findings imply that the regional curvature present in the Himachal Lesser Himalaya is in fact a pre-Himalayan feature and the pluton has formed by filling a major pre-Himalayan arcuate extension fracture.

Ring complex granites of the Peruvian Batholith are tabular bodies with flat roofs emplaced by cauldron subsidence. Marginal precursory ring dykes extend upwards above roof level and a typical intrusion is “H”-shaped in cross-section. Advance of magma by repeated subsidence would give a ladder-shaped profile for such intrusions above the brittle-ductile transition. Close relationships exist between intrusion geometry, emplacement process and petrogenetic evolution. Initially a granodioritic magma chamber lay beneath the present erosion level, trapping a rising mass of dioritic magma. Expansion of granodioritic liquid resulted in the injection of microgranite and tuffisite cone sheets accompanied by roof uplift within a ring fault. Next, during subsidence within the ring fault, liquids from deeper levels in the underlying chamber rose by stoping along the outer margin of the fault to form a ring dyke. Prior to intrusion, this liquid was vertically zoned from rhyodacite downwards to diorite and these liquids became partially mixed during emplacement. Finally, granodioritic magma rose to the present level by subsidence of a roof slab bounded by the ring fault. The precursory ring structures preserve evidence of significant but transient events in the underlying chamber. Liquid differentiation may be significant in the evolution of many large plutons.