A global perspective on the Scottish Caledonides
ABSTRACT The Scottish Caledonides constitute less than 10% of the length of the Caledonian-Appalachian orogen, the rocks of which define one major margin of the Laurentian craton in Neoproterozoic-Palaeozoic times. Scotland was located, however, in a critical position at the tip of a major cratonic...
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0263593300008269 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0263593300008269 |
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crcambridgeupr:10.1017/s0263593300008269 2024-09-15T18:10:05+00:00 A global perspective on the Scottish Caledonides Dalziel, Ian W. D. 2000 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0263593300008269 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0263593300008269 en eng Cambridge University Press (CUP) https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh volume 91, issue 3-4, page 405-420 ISSN 1755-6910 1755-6929 journal-article 2000 crcambridgeupr https://doi.org/10.1017/s0263593300008269 2024-07-31T04:03:23Z ABSTRACT The Scottish Caledonides constitute less than 10% of the length of the Caledonian-Appalachian orogen, the rocks of which define one major margin of the Laurentian craton in Neoproterozoic-Palaeozoic times. Scotland was located, however, in a critical position at the tip of a major cratonic promontory bounded by the Caledonian and Appalachian segments of that margin. Isotopic dates from minerals and rocks collected in the Scottish Highlands have been regarded for 40 years as indicating a Neoproterozoic history of compressive orogenesis that is absent in N America and Greenland. They have therefore been taken by some authors to indicate an origin exotic to Laurentia for rocks of the Northern and Grampian Highlands S and E of the Moine thrust belt. An alternative explanation is that the Neoproterozoic rocks in the Scottish Highlands are all related to the two-stage ‘breakout’ of a discrete rift-bounded Laurentian continent from the core of the Rodinian supercontinent, believed to have assembled at the end of the Mesoproterozoic. Traditional reconstructions of the late Neoproterozoic–Early Palaeozoic Earth oppose the proto-Caledonian/Appalachian margin of Laurentia and the W African craton of the newly assembled Gondwanaland. However, consideration of the global inventory of late Precambrian rifted margins, their relation to Grenvillian orogenic belts and of scale, leads to the hypothesis that the conjugate was the proto-Andean margin of S America. Recent recognition that the Cambrian and Lower Ordovician strata of the northwestern Argentine Precordillera and their underlying Grenvillian basement are unquestionably of Laurentian derivation, while not definitive, does point in this direction. If correct, this means that even the presence of Neoproterozoic orogenesis need not imply an exotic origin, as Neoproterozoic orogens are widespread in S America. Traditional models show an Early Ordovician lapetus ocean basin approximately 4500 km wide, but the remarkably synchronous Ordovician collision of arcs and ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Greenland Cambridge University Press Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 91 3-4 405 420 |
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Cambridge University Press |
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English |
description |
ABSTRACT The Scottish Caledonides constitute less than 10% of the length of the Caledonian-Appalachian orogen, the rocks of which define one major margin of the Laurentian craton in Neoproterozoic-Palaeozoic times. Scotland was located, however, in a critical position at the tip of a major cratonic promontory bounded by the Caledonian and Appalachian segments of that margin. Isotopic dates from minerals and rocks collected in the Scottish Highlands have been regarded for 40 years as indicating a Neoproterozoic history of compressive orogenesis that is absent in N America and Greenland. They have therefore been taken by some authors to indicate an origin exotic to Laurentia for rocks of the Northern and Grampian Highlands S and E of the Moine thrust belt. An alternative explanation is that the Neoproterozoic rocks in the Scottish Highlands are all related to the two-stage ‘breakout’ of a discrete rift-bounded Laurentian continent from the core of the Rodinian supercontinent, believed to have assembled at the end of the Mesoproterozoic. Traditional reconstructions of the late Neoproterozoic–Early Palaeozoic Earth oppose the proto-Caledonian/Appalachian margin of Laurentia and the W African craton of the newly assembled Gondwanaland. However, consideration of the global inventory of late Precambrian rifted margins, their relation to Grenvillian orogenic belts and of scale, leads to the hypothesis that the conjugate was the proto-Andean margin of S America. Recent recognition that the Cambrian and Lower Ordovician strata of the northwestern Argentine Precordillera and their underlying Grenvillian basement are unquestionably of Laurentian derivation, while not definitive, does point in this direction. If correct, this means that even the presence of Neoproterozoic orogenesis need not imply an exotic origin, as Neoproterozoic orogens are widespread in S America. Traditional models show an Early Ordovician lapetus ocean basin approximately 4500 km wide, but the remarkably synchronous Ordovician collision of arcs and ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Dalziel, Ian W. D. |
spellingShingle |
Dalziel, Ian W. D. A global perspective on the Scottish Caledonides |
author_facet |
Dalziel, Ian W. D. |
author_sort |
Dalziel, Ian W. D. |
title |
A global perspective on the Scottish Caledonides |
title_short |
A global perspective on the Scottish Caledonides |
title_full |
A global perspective on the Scottish Caledonides |
title_fullStr |
A global perspective on the Scottish Caledonides |
title_full_unstemmed |
A global perspective on the Scottish Caledonides |
title_sort |
global perspective on the scottish caledonides |
publisher |
Cambridge University Press (CUP) |
publishDate |
2000 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0263593300008269 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0263593300008269 |
genre |
Greenland |
genre_facet |
Greenland |
op_source |
Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh volume 91, issue 3-4, page 405-420 ISSN 1755-6910 1755-6929 |
op_rights |
https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1017/s0263593300008269 |
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Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh |
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91 |
container_issue |
3-4 |
container_start_page |
405 |
op_container_end_page |
420 |
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