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Geological Society, London, Special Publications; 1992; v. 62; p. 203-215;
DOI: 10.1144/GSL.SP.1992.062.01.18
© 1992 Geological Society of London

Onshore and Offshore North of Ireland

Evolution of the Carboniferous Lough Allen Basin, Northwest Ireland

M. E. Philcox, H. Baily, G. Clayton & G. D. Sevastopulo

Department of Geology, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland

The Lough Allen Basin contains approximately 2.9 km of Dinantian (Courceyan) to Silesian (Arnsbergian) limestone, mudstone and sandstone, mostly of marine origin. The basin was initiated during the Courceyan Stage as a result of movement of the basin margin fault complex along the southeast side of the Ox Mountains inlier. The main rifting phase, during the late Courceyan, resulted in the deposition of a southeasterly thinning, initially non-marine, clastic wedge. The intrabasinal Dowra—Macnean High and Slisgarrow Trough developed during the Chadian Stage. Movement on the Curlew fault, which bounds the basin to the south, may have begun in the Courceyan but culminated in the Arundian. There is little direct evidence of fault-controlled sedimentation in the Holkerian and much of the Asbian, although the distribution of carbonate mudmounds of Asbian age in part coincides with earlier structural elements. During the late Asbian, there appears to have been renewed tectonic activity, which led to substantial regional differences of thickness of the lower formations of the Leitrim Group. There is little evidence of tectonic control on sedimentation from the Brigantian to the Arnsbergian.

Vitrinite reflectance determinations show that the Carboniferous rocks in the basin are supra-mature for the generation of oil but are mature with respect to the generation of gas. The maturation values for the youngest preserved rocks suggest that they have been buried under 3–5 km of Upper Palaeozoic cover.





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