Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T14:08:02.478Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Southern Uplands Terrane: a stratigraphical review

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2011

James D. Floyd
James D. Floyd
Affiliation:
James D. Floyd, British Geological Survey, Murchison House, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3LA,U.K.; e-mail: jdf@bgs.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

ABSTRACT

The Southern Uplands is a major Ordovician-Silurian accretionary terrane which developed as a marine basin over a period of c.75 Ma (495-420 Ma). The terrane extends to c. 10,000 km2 in Scotland alone and correlates with the similar-scale Longford–Down terrane in Ireland. Despite tectonic complexity, a detailed lithostratigraphy has been erected. The oldest strata are mudstones, cherts and lavas of mid-Arenig age known only in the Leadhills Imbricate Zone. The next youngest rocks are of similar lithology but of late Llanvirn-early Caradoc age. These oceanic sediments are succeeded by black shales of the Moffat Shale Group which are, in turn, diachronously overlain by huge volumes of turbiditic sandstones, siltstones, mudstones and minor conglomerates (greywackes) of Caradoc to Wenlock age. Overall, the terrane is sandstone-dominated, with other components such as lavas, volcaniclastics and cherts representing only a tiny proportion of the total volume. The conglomerates have a broadly northerly provenance, whereas the sandstones exhibit both marginal (NW and SE), and axial (NE and SW) derivation. During the Ordovician, strongly contrasting sources alternated through time. The youngest sandstones (Hawick and Riccarton groups), are notably rich in detrital biogenic carbonate, a rare component in the Leadhills Supergroup and Gala Group.

Keywords

Crawford GpGala GpGreywackeHawick GpLeadhills SupergroupMoffat Shale GpOrdovicianRiccarton GpSilurian
Type
Research Article
Information
Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 91 , Issue 3-4: The Southern Uplands Terrane: Tectonics and Biostratigraphy within the Caledonian Orogen , 2000 , pp. 349 - 362
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 2000

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Akhurst, M. C., McMillan, A. A., Kimbell, G. S., Stone, P. & Merriman, R. J. 2001. Silurian subduction-related assembly of fault-defined tracts at the Laurieston Fault, Southern Uplands accretionary terrane, Scotland, U.K. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences 91 (for 2000), 435–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, T. B. & Rickards, R. B. 2000. The stratigraphy and graptolite faunas of the Moffat Shales at Tieveshilly, County Down, Northern Ireland, and their implications for modelling the Southern Uplands–Down–Longford terrane. Irish Journal of Earth Sciences 18, 69–88.Google Scholar
Armstrong, H. A. 1997. Conodonts from the Ordovician Shinnel Formation, Southern Uplands, Scotland. Palaeontology 40, 763–97.Google Scholar
Armstrong, H. A., Clarkson, E. N. K. & Owen, A. W. 1990. A new Lower Ordovician conodont faunule from the Northern Belt of the Southern Uplands. Scottish Journal of Geology 26, 47–52.Google Scholar
Armstrong, H. A., Rushton, A. W. A., Owen, A. W. & Floyd, J. D. 1998. Biostratigraphy of the Currarie Formation on the northwestern edge of the Southern Uplands: implications for the cessation of basic volcanism. Scottish Journal of Geology 34, 119–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Armstrong, H. A., Owen, A. W. & Floyd, J. D. 1999. Rare Earth geochemistry of Arenig cherts from the Ballantrae Ophiolite and Leadhills Imbricate Zone, southern Scotland: implications for origin and significance to the Caledonian Orogeny. Journal of the Geological Society, London 156, 549–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barnes, R. P. 1989. Geology of the Whithorn district. Memoir of the British Geological Survey, Sheet 2 (Scotland). Keyworth: Nottingham: British Geological Survey.Google Scholar
British Geological Survey 1993. Regional geochemistry of southern Scotland and part of northern England. Keyworth: Nottingham: British Geological Survey.Google Scholar
Barnes, R. P. (in press) Geology of the Kirkcowan, Wigtown and Whithorn districts. Memoir of the British Geological Survey, Sheets 4W, 4E and 2 (Scotland). KeyworthNottingham: British Geological Survey.Google Scholar
Clarkson, C. M., Craig, G. Y. & Walton, E. K. 1975. The Silurian rocks bordering Kirkcudbright Bay, South Scotland. Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 69, 313–25.Google Scholar
Clarkson, E. N. K., Harper, D. A. T., Owen, A. W. & Taylor, C. M. 1992. Ordovician faunas in mass-flow deposits, Southern Scotland. Terra Nova 4, 245–53.Google Scholar
Danelian, T. & Floyd, J. D. 2001. Progress in describing Ordovician siliceous biodiversity from the Southern Uplands (Scotland, U.K.). Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences 91 (for 2000), 489–98.Google Scholar
Duller, P. R. & Floyd, J. D. 1995. Turbidite geochemistry and provenance studies in the Southern Uplands of Scotland. Geological Magazine 132, 557–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elders, C. F. 1987. The provenance of granite boulders in conglomerates of the Northern and Central Belts of the Southern Uplands of Scotland. Journal of the Geological Society, London 144, 853–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, J. A., Stone, P. & Floyd, J. D. 1991. Isotopic characteristics of Ordovician greywacke provenance in the Southern Uplands of Scotland. In Morton, A.C., Todd, S. P. & Haughton, P. D. W. (eds) Developments in Sedimentary Provenance Studies, Geological Society, London, Special Publication 57, 161–72. London: Geological Society.Google Scholar
Floyd, J. D. 1982. Stratigraphy of a flysch succession: the Ordovician of W Nithsdale, SW Scotland. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences 73, 1–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Floyd, J. D. 1994. The derivation and definition of the ‘Southern Upland Fault’: a review of the Midland Valley–Southern Uplands terrane boundary. Scottish Journal of Geology 30, 51–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Floyd, J. D. 1996. Lithostratigraphy of the Ordovician rocks in the Southern Uplands: Crawford Group, Moffat Shale Group, Leadhills Supergroup. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences 86, 153–65.Google Scholar
Floyd, J. D. 1999. Geology of the Carrick–Loch Doon district. Memoir of the British Geological Survey, Sheets SW and 8E. (Scotland). London: The Stationery Office.Google Scholar
Floyd, J. D. & Kimbell, G. S. 1995. Magnetic and tectonostratigraphic correlation at a terrane boundary: the Tappins Group of the Southern Uplands. Geological Magazine 132, 515–21.Google Scholar
Floyd, J. D. & Rushton, A. W. A. 1993. Ashgill greywackes in the Southern Uplands of Scotland: an extension of the Ordovician succession in the Northern Belt. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences 84, 79–85.Google Scholar
Greig, D. C. 1988. Geology of the Eyemouth district. Memoir of the British Geological Survey, Sheet 34, Scotland. Keyworth, Nottingham: British Geological Survey.Google Scholar
Holroyd, J. 1978. The sedimentological and geotectonic significance of Lower Palaeozoic flysch rudites (Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, University of Wales).Google Scholar
Hughes, R. A. & Boland, M. 1995. The Ordovician and Silurian rocks of Scottish Sheet 24E (Peebles). British Geological Survey Technical Report WA/95/14. Nottingham: British Geological Survey.Google Scholar
Kelling, G. 1961. The stratigraphy and structure of the Ordovician rocks of the Rhinns of Galloway. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London 117 37–75.Google Scholar
Kelling, G. 1962. The petrology and sedimentation of Upper Ordovician rocks in the Rhins of Galloway, south-west Scotland. Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 65, 107–37.Google Scholar
Kelling, G. 2001. Southern Uplands geology: an historical perspective. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences 91 (for 2000), 323–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kelling, G., Davies, P. & Holroyd, J. 1987. Style, scale and significance of sand bodies in the Northern and Central Belts, southwest Southern Uplands. Journal of the Geological Society, London 144, 787–805.Google Scholar
Kelling, G. & Holroyd, J. 1978. Clast-size, shape and composition in some ancient and modern fan gravels. In Stanley, D. J. & Kelling, G. (eds) Sedimentation in Submarine Canyons, Fans and Trenches, 138–59. Stroudburg, Pa.: Dowden, Hutchinson and Ross.Google Scholar
Kemp, A. E. S. 1985. The later (Silurian) sedimentary and tectonic evolution of the Southern Uplands accretionary terrain (Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, University of Edinburgh).Google Scholar
Kemp, A. E. S. 1986. Tectonostratigraphy of the Southern Belt of the Southern Uplands. Scottish Journal of Geology 22, 241–56.Google Scholar
Kemp, A. E. S. 1987. Evolution of Silurian Depositional Systems in the Southern Uplands, Scotland. In Leggett, J. K. & Zuffa, G. G. (eds) Marine Clastic Sedimentology, 124–55. London: Graham and Trotman.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lapworth, C. 1878. The Moffat Series. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London 34, 240–346.Google Scholar
Lapworth, C. & Wilson, J. 1871. On the Silurian rocks of the counties of Roxburgh and Selkirk. Geological Magazine 8, 456–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leggett, J. K. 1979. Oceanic sediments from the Ordovician of the Southern Uplands. In Harris, A. L., Holland, C. H. & Leake, B. E. (eds) The Caledonides of the British Isles reviewed, Geological Society, London, Special Publication 8, 495–8. London: Geological Society.Google Scholar
Leggett, J. K. 1980a. The sedimentological evolution of a Lower Palaeozoic accretionary fore-arc in the Southern Uplands of Scotland. Sedimentology 27, 401–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leggett, J. K. 1980b. Palaeogeographic setting of the Wrae Limestone: an Ordovician submarine-slide deposit in Tweeddale. Scottish Journal of Geology 16, 91–104.Google Scholar
Leggett, J. K., McKerrow, W. S. & Eales, M. H. 1979. The Southern Uplands of Scotland: a Lower Palaeozoic accretionary prism. Journal of the Geological Society, London 136, 755–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lintern, B. C. & Floyd, J. D. 2000. Geology of the Kirkcudbright-Dalbeattie district. Memoir of the British Geological Survey, Sheets 5W, 5E and part of 6W, Scotland. Keyworth: Nottingham: British Geological Survey.Google Scholar
Loydell, D. K. 1991. The biostratigraphy and formational relationships of the upper Aeronian and lower Telychian (Llandovery, Silurian) formations of western mid-Wales. Geological Journal 26, 209–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Loydell, D. K. 1992. Upper Aeronian and lower Telychian (Llandovery) graptolites from western mid-Wales, Part 1. Palaeontographical Society Monograph 146 (589) 1–55, pl 1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCurry, J. A. 1990. The geology of the Rhins of Galloway south of the Portayew area. British Geological Survey Technical Report WA/90/66. Keyworth: Nottingham: British Geological Survey.Google Scholar
McKerrow, W. S., Lambert, R. St J. & Cocks, L. R. M. 1985. The Ordovician, Silurian and Devonian periods 73–80. In Snelling, N. J. (ed.) The Chronology of the Geological Record, Geological Society, London, Memoir 10. London: Geological Society.Google Scholar
Merriman, R. J. & Roberts, B. 1990. Metabentonites in the Moffat Shale Group, Southern Uplands of Scotland: geochemical evidence of ensialic marginal basin volcanism. Geological Magazine 127, 259–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mitchell, A. H. G. & McKerrow, W. S. 1975. Analogous evolution of the Burma Orogen and Scottish Caledonides. Bulletin of the Geological Society of America 86, 305–15.Google Scholar
Molyneux, S. G. 1987. Probably early Wenlock acritarchs from the Linkim Beds of the Southern Uplands. Scottish Journal of Geology 23, 301–13.Google Scholar
Oliver, G. J. H., Smellie, J. L., Thomas, L. J., Casey, D. M., Kemp, A. E. S., Evans, L. J., Baldwin, J. R. & Hepworth, B. C. 1984. Early Palaeozoic metamorphic history of the Midland Valley, Southern Uplands—Longford Down massif and the Lake District, British Isles. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences 75, 245–58.Google Scholar
Owen, A. W., Harper, D. A. T. & Clarkson, E. N. K. 1996. The trilobites and brachiopods of the Wrae Limestone, an Ordovician limestone conglomerate in the Southern Uplands. Scottish Journal of Geology 32, 133–19.Google Scholar
Peach, B. N. & Horne, J. 1899. The Silurian Rocks of Britain, Volume 1: Scotland. Memoirs of the Geological Survey of the United Kingdom. Glasgow: HMSO.Google Scholar
Phillips, E. R., Barnes, R. P., Merriman, R. J. & Floyd, J. D. 1995a. The tectonic significance of Ordovician basic igneous rocks in the Southern Uplands, southwest Scotland. Geological Magazine 132, 549–56.Google Scholar
Phillips, E. R., Barnes, R. P., Boland, M. P., Fortey, N. J. & McMillan, A. A. 1995b. The Moniaive Shear Zone: a major zone of sinistral strike-slip deformation in the Southern Uplands of Scotland. Scottish Journal of Geology 31, 139–49.Google Scholar
Phillips, E. R., Smith, R. A. & Floyd, J. D. 1999. The Bail Hill Volcanic Group: alkaline within-plate volcanism during Ordovician sedimentation in the Southern Uplands, Scotland. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences 89, 233–47.Google Scholar
Phillips, E. R. & Floyd, J. D. 1999. The mineralogy, petrology and provenance of lithic clasts from Ordovician and Silurian conglomerates from the Southern Uplands, Scotland. British Geological Survey Technical Report WG/99/5. Keyworth, Nottingham: British Geological Survey.Google Scholar
Rushton, A. W. A. 2001. The use of graptolites in the stratigraphy of the Southern Uplands: Peach's Legacy. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences 91 (for 2000), 341–47.Google Scholar
Rushton, A. W. A., Stone, P. & Hughes, R. A. 1996. Biostratigraphical controls of thrust models for the Southern Uplands of Scotland. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences 86, 137–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rushton, A. W. A. & Stone, P. 1991. Terrigenous input to the Moffat Shale sequence, Southern Uplands. Scottish Journal of Geology 27, 167–9.Google Scholar
Rust, B. R. 1965. The stratigraphy and structure of the Whithorn area of Wigtownshire, Scotland. Scottish Journal of Geology, 1, 101–33.Google Scholar
Shiells, K. A. G. & Dearman, W. R. 1963. Tectonics of the Coldingham Bay area of Berwickshire, in the Southern Uplands of Scotland. Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society 34, 209–34.Google Scholar
Smith, R. A. 1999. The geology of the New Cumnock district. British Geological Survey Technical Report WA/99/11. Keyworth: Nottingham: British Geological Survey.Google Scholar
Stone, P. 1995. Geology of the Rhins of Galloway district. Sheets 1 & 3. (Scotland). Memoir of the British Geological Survey. London: HMSO for British Geological Survey.Google Scholar
Stone, P., Floyd, J. D., Barnes, R. P. & Lintern, B. C. 1987. A sequential back-arc and foreland basin thrust duplex model for the Southern Uplands of Scotland. Journal of the Geological Society, London 144, 753–64.Google Scholar
Styles, M. T., Perez-Alvarez, M., Floyd, J. D. 1995. Pyroxenous greywackes in the Southern Uplands and their petrotectonic implications. Geological Magazine 132, 539–47.Google Scholar
Styles, M. T., Stone, P. & Floyd, J. D. 1989. Arc detritus in the Southern Uplands: mineralogical characterisation of a ‘missing’ terrane. Journal of the Geological Society, London 146, 397–400.Google Scholar
Thirlwall, M. F. & Bluck, B. J. 1984. Sr-Nd isotope and geological evidence that the Ballantrae “ophiolite”, SW Scotland, is polygenetic. In Gass, I. G., Lippard, S. J. & Shelton, A. W. (eds) Ophiolites and oceanic lithosphere, Geological Society, London, Special Publication 13, 215–30. London: Geological Society.Google Scholar
Walton, E. K. 1955. Silurian greywackes in Peeblesshire. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Sect. B 65, 327–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Warren, P. T. 1963. The Petrography, Sedimentation and Provenance of the Wenlock Rocks near Hawick, Roxburghshire. Transactions of the Geological Society of Edinburgh 19, 225–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Warren, P. T. 1964. The stratigraphy and structure of the Silurian rocks southeast of Hawick, Roxburghshire. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London 120, 193–218.Google Scholar
Webb, B., Rushton, A. W. A. & White, D. E. 1993. Moffatdale and the upper Ettrick Valley: a description of the solid geology of parts of 1:25 000 sheets NT 10, 11, 20 and 21. Classical areas of British Geology. London: HMSO for British Geological Survey.Google Scholar
White, D. E., Barron, H. F., Barnes, R. P. & Lintern, B. C. 1991. Biostratigraphy of late Llandovery (Telychian) and Wenlock turbiditic sequences in the SW Southern Uplands, Scotland. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences 82, 297–322.Google Scholar
Williams, S. H. 1982. The Late Ordovician graptolitic fauna of the Anceps Bands at Dob's Linn, southern Scotland. Geologica et Palaeontologica 16, 29–56.Google Scholar
Zalasiewicz, J. A., Rushton, A. W. A. & Owen, A. W. 1995. Late Caradoc graptolite faunal gradients across the Iapetus Ocean. Geological Magazine 132, 611–18.Google Scholar