Lyell Collection
Geological Society, London, Special Publications
Lyell Centre  |   Lyell Collection  |   Subscriptions   |   Geological Society  |   Email alerts  |   Online bookshop  |   Help

Keywords:
Author:
Advanced search>>
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Parnell, J.
Right arrow Articles by Buckman, J.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Geological Society, London, Special Publications; 1992; v. 62; p. 449-464;
DOI: 10.1144/GSL.SP.1992.062.01.32
© 1992 Geological Society of London

Excursion Guide

Excursion Guide: Basins and petroleum geology in the north of Ireland

John Parnell, Bryan Monson & Jim Buckman

Department of Geology, Queen’s University of Belfast, Belfast BT7 1NN, UK

Introduction to basins in the north of Ireland

The pre-Devonian terranes of the north of Ireland consist, from northwest to southeast, of Dalradian and Moinian rocks forming the upland regions of Cos. Donegal, Londonderry and Tyrone, an Ordovician volcanic terrane which crops out in Co. Tyrone, and the Ordovician-Silurian Longford-Down Massif. The volcanic terrane is related to an ophiolite complex (Hutton et al. 1985), equivalent to the Highland Border Group in Scotland, while the Longford-Down outcrop is a continuation of the Southern Uplands of Scotland. Also, as in Scotland there are small outcrops of Ordovician and Silurian strata between these terranes which are relatively unmetamorphosed (Pomeroy and Lisbel-law inliers). These occur in the ‘Midland Valley’, unconformably overlain by Devonian (Old Red Sandstone) sediments which constitute the Fintona Block in Co. Tyrone.

The outcrop of Carboniferous rocks (Fig. 1) includes the North West Basin, which is contiguous with the Omagh and Slieve Beagh Basins, and thick sequences in East Tyrone and North Antrim. Permo-Triassic rocks accumulated in two major basins, the Magee or Larne-Lough Neagh Basin and the Rathlin Trough, separated by the ‘Highland Border Ridge’, a partly fault-bound high of Dalradian rocks. Triassic continental rocks are succeeded by Rhaetic- Lower Jurassic and subsequently Upper Cretaceous marine sediments which transgressed across the entire region. The northeast of Ireland was flooded by Palaeocene basalt lavas, while the Mourne plutonic complex intruded the crust of Co. Down. The youngest sedimentary basin is the Oligocene Lough Neagh Basin, a fault-bounded complex which developed on

...

This 250-word extract was created in the absence of an abstract.





This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Geological Society, London, Special PublicationsHome page
S. R. Schutter
Occurrences of hydrocarbons in and around igneous rocks
Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 2003; 214: 35 - 68.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Geological Society, London, Special PublicationsHome page
I. C. Scotchman
Petroleum geochemistry of the Lower and Middle Jurassic in Atlantic margin basins of Ireland and the UK
Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 2001; 188: 31 - 60.
[Abstract] [PDF]