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Geological Society, London, Special Publications; 1988; v. 38; p. 405-412;
DOI: 10.1144/GSL.SP.1988.038.01.24
© 1988 Geological Society of London

Arenig-Wenlock Activity in the Caledonian-Appalachian Orogen

The development of the Iapetus Ocean from the Arenig to the Wenlock

W. S. McKerrow

Department of Earth Sciences, Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PR, UK

In addition to the large continents of N America, Scandinavia and Gondwana, the regions around the early Palaeozoic Iapetus Ocean contained several small terranes. These included an island arc, which collided with various parts of N America to produce, in succession, the Grampian, Humberian and Taconic orogenies. They also included the terrane of Avalonia, a later Precambrian arc which had rifted off a margin of Gondwana by the middle Ordovician. Large sinistral strike-slip faults in Scotland suggest a total displacement of around 1500 km, so that by the Silurian an elongate Scotland lay to the W of Norway. Continental collisions took place in three stages: a Llandovery stage, perhaps related to eastward subduction below Svalbard, when W-verging nappes were emplaced in E Greenland, a later Silurian (Scandian) stage when westward subduction below Scotland can be related to E-verging nappes in Norway, and an early Devonian stage when Avalonia collided with N America (Acadian orogeny).