The Moine Supergroup of NW Scotland: insights into the analysis of polyorogenic supracrustal sequences

Rob Strachan, R. Holdsworth, M. Krabbendam, G. Alsop

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter (peer-reviewed)peer-review

    Abstract

    The Moine Supergroup of NW Scotland is a thick sequence of early Neoproterozoic sedimentary rocks, with minor igneous intrusions, that display evidence for multiple phases of regional deformation and metamorphism. The descriptions and interpretations of the ‘Moine Schists’ provided by the 1907 memoir (Peach et al. 1907) have been proved to be essentially correct and have laid the groundwork for a century of distinguished and influential research that has reached far beyond the confines of NW Scotland. The Survey workers recognized the sedimentary protoliths of these rocks, realized that they had been deposited unconformably on inliers of reworked basement gneisses that now occupy the cores of major folds, and understood the likely complexity of folding and the kinematic significance of mineral lineations. Further advances in understanding of the Moine rocks were mainly achieved through two techniques that were not available to the Survey workers of 100 years ago – geochronology and palaeomagnetism. Isotopic studies have confirmed the view of the Survey workers that the Moine rocks are of Precambrian age, and furthermore have demonstrated a complex, polyorogenic history.
    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationContinental tectonics and mountain building – the legacy of Peach and Horne
    EditorsR. Law, R. Butler, R. Holdsworth, M. Krabbendam, Rob Strachan
    Place of PublicationLondon
    PublisherGeological Society of London
    Pages233-254
    Number of pages22
    Edition335
    ISBN (Print)9781862393004
    Publication statusPublished - 2010

    Publication series

    NameGeological Society of London Special Publications
    PublisherGeological Society, London
    Number335

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