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Geological Society, London, Special Publications; 1988; v. 38; p. 481-492;
DOI: 10.1144/GSL.SP.1988.038.01.31
© 1988 Geological Society of London

Wenlock to Mid-Devonian Activity in the Caledonian-Appalachian Orogen

Timing and geometry of collision, terrane accretion and sinistral strike-slip events in the British Caledonides

N. J. Soper

Department of Geology, Mappin Street, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S1 3JD, UK

Recent geotectonic interpretations of the British Caledonides invoked E-W closure between two plates, Laurentia and ‘Europe’, to produce the N-S striking N Atlantic Caledonides and dextral strike-slip along the NE-SW-oriented British sector of the Iapetus suture. However, this model does not satisfy the following important new lines of evidence: the provinciality of Cambro-Ordovician shelf fauna, which indicates oceanic separation between Laurentia, Baltica and a third plate or terrane (‘Cadomia’) of which S Britain forms a part; the Y-shaped configuration of the orogen comprising the Appalachians, N Atlantic Caledonides and the N German-Polish zone which marks collision sutures between three plates rather than two; the evidence of sinistral, not dextral, transpressive displacements in both the orthotectonic Caledonides and the slate belts of Britain.

The ‘three-plate’ model for the British Caledonides which was proposed to accommodate these lines of evidence is developed further in terms of terrane accretion: Ordovician to mid-Silurian accretion events affected the Laurentian margin before the closure of Iapetus and produced the orthotectonic Caledonides of Scotland and Ireland; the Laurentia-Baltica collision closed the northern arm of Iapetus in the late Silurian and produced the Scandian orogeny; early Devonian northward accretion of a Gondwana-derived terrane induced sinistral transpression across the British slate belts and segmented the Scottish Highlands by sinistral strike-slip.





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