Multiple post-Caledonian exhumation episodes across NW Scotland revealed by apatite fission-track analysis

Journal of the Geological Society

Volumn 167, Issue 4, 2010, Pages 675-694

  Holford, Simon P ^a   Green, Paul F ^b   Hillis, Richard R ^a   Underhill, John R ^c   Stoker, Martyn S ^d   Duddy, Ian R ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE   (Australia)

^b Pty Ltd   (Australia)

^c UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH   (United Kingdom)

^d BRITISH GEOLOGICAL SURVEY   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

APATITE; CALEDONIAN OROGENY; CRETACEOUS; EXHUMATION; FISSION TRACK DATING; PALEOCENE; PERMIAN; PRECAMBRIAN; SEQUENCE STRATIGRAPHY; TRIASSIC;

SCOTLAND; UNITED KINGDOM;

CALLUNA VULGARIS;

EID: 77954246864     PISSN: 00167649     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1144/0016-76492009-167     Document Type: Article

References (67)

1. Allen, M.B. & Davies, C.E. 2007. Unstable Asia: active deformation of Siberia revealed by drainage shifts. Basin Research, 19, 379-392.
2. Bell, B.R. & Williamson, I.T. 2002. Tertiary igneous activity. In: Trewin, N.H. (ed.) The Geology of Scotland, 4th edn. Geological Society, London, 371-408.
3. Bott, M.H.P. 1993. Modelling the plate-driving mechanism. Journal of the Geological Society, London, 150, 941-951.
4. Brodie, J. & White, N. 1994. Sedimentary basin inversion caused by igneous underplating. Geology, 22, 147-150.
5. Brown, D.J., Holohan, E.P. & Bell, B.R. 2009. Sedimentary and volcanotectonic processes in the British Paleocene Igneous Province: a review. Geological Magazine, 146, 326-352.
6. Burnham, A.K. & Sweeney, J.J. 1989. A chemical kinetic model of vitrinite reflectance and maturation. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 53, 2649-2657.
7. Chadwick, R.A. & Pharoah, T.C. 1998. The seismic reflection Moho beneath the United Kingdom and adjacent areas. Tectonophysics, 299, 255-279.
8. Dempster, T.J. & Persano, C. 2006. Low-temperature thermochronology: Resolving geotherm shapes or denudation histories? Geology, 34, 73-76.
9. Dewey, J.F. 2000. Cenozoic tectonics of western Ireland. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, 111, 291-306.
10. Doré, A.G., Cartwright, J.A., Stoker, M.S., Turner, J.P. & White, N.J. 2002. Exhumation of the North Atlantic margin: introduction and background. In: Doré, A.G., Cartwright, J.A., Stoker, M.S., Turner, J.P. & White, N. (eds) Exhumation of the North Atlantic Margin: Timing, Mechanisms and Implications for Petroleum Exploration. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 196, 1-12.
11. Doré, A.G., Lundin, E.R., Kusznir, N.J. & Pascal, C. 2008. Potential mechanisms for the genesis of Cenozoic domal structures on the NE Atlantic margin: pros, cons and some new ideas. In: Johnson, H., Doré, A.G., Gatliff, R.W., Holdsworth, R., Lundin, E. & Ritchie, J.D. (eds) The Nature and Origin of Compression in Passive Margins. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 306, 1-26.
12. Emeleus, C.H. & Bell, B.R. 2005. The Palaeogene volcanic districts of Scotland, 4th edn. British Geological Survey, Keyworth, Nottingham.
13. England, R.W. 1994. The structure of the Skye lava field. Scottish Journal of Geology, 30, 33-37.
14. Evans, D.J. 1997. Estimates of the eroded overburden and the Permian-Quaternary subsidence history of the area west of Orkney. Scottish Journal of Geology, 33, 169-182.
15. Farley, K.A. 2000. Helium diffusion from apatite: General behaviour as illustrated by Durango fluorapatite. Journal of Geophysical Research, 105B, 2903-2914.
16. Flowers, R.M., Shuster, D.L., Wernicke, B.P. & Farley, K.A. 2007. Radiation damage control on apatite (U-Th)/He dates from the Grand Canyon region, Colorado Plateau. Geology, 35, 447-450.
17. Fyfe, J.A., Long, D. & Evans, D. 1993. United Kingdom Offshore Regional Report: The Geology of the Malin-Hebrides Sea Area. British Geological Survey. HMSO, London.
18. Galbraith, R.F. & Laslett, G.M. 1993. Statistical methods for mixed fission track ages. Nuclear Tracks, 21, 459-470.
19. Gallagher, K. 1995. Evolving temperature histories from apatite fission-track data. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 136, 421-435.
20. Geikie, A. 1901. The Scenery of Scotland. Macmillan, London.
21. George, T.N. 1966. Geomorphic evolution in Hebridean Scotland. Scottish Journal of Geology, 2, 1-34.
22. Gölke, M. & Coblentz, D. 1996. Origins of the European regional stress field. Tectonophysics, 266, 11-24.
23. Green, P.F. 1986. On the thermo-tectonic evolution of Northern England: evidence from fission track analysis. Geological Magazine, 123, 493-506.
24. Green, P.F. & Duddy, I.R. 2007. Discussion on 'Apatite (U-Th)/He age constraints on the Mesozoic and Cenozoic evolution of the Bathurst Region, New South Wales: evidence for antiquity of the continental drainage divide along a passive margin'. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences, 54, 1009-1011.
25. Green, P.F., Thomson, K. & Hudson, J.D. 2001. Recognizing tectonic events in undeformed regions: contrasting results from the Midland Platform and East Midlands Shelf, Central England. Journal of the Geological Society, London, 158, 59-73.
26. Green, P.F., Duddy, I.R. & Hegary, K.A. 2002. Quantifying exhumation in sedimentary basins of the UK from apatite fission track analysis and vitrinite reflectance data: precision, accuracy and latest results. In: Doré, A.G., Cartwright, J.A., Stoker, M.S., Turner, J.P. & White, N. (eds) Exhumation of the North Atlantic Margin: Timing, Mechanisms and Implications for Petroleum Exploration. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 196, 331-354.
27. Green, P.F., Crowhurst, P.V., Duddy, I.R., Japsen, P. & Holford, S.P. 2006. Conflicting (U-Th)/He and fission track ages in apatite: Enhanced He retention, not anomalous annealing behaviour. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 250, 407-427.
28. Hall, A.M. 1991. Pre-Quaternary landscape evolution in the Scottish Highlands. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences, 82, 1-26.
29. Hallam, A. 1983. Jurassic, Cretaceous and Tertiary sediments. In: Craig, G.Y. (ed.) Geology of Scotland, 2nd edn. Scottish Academic Press, Edinburgh, 343-356.
30. Hillier, S. & Marshall, J.E.A. 1992. Organic maturation, thermal history and hydrocarbon generation in the Orcadian Basin, Scotland. Journal of the Geological Society, London, 149, 491-502.
31. Hillis, R.R., Holford, S.P., Green, P.F., et al. 2008. Cenozoic exhumation of the southern British Isles. Geology, 36, 371-374.
32. Holford, S.P., Green, P.F. & Turner, J.P. 2005. Palaeothermal and compaction studies in the Mochras borehole (NW Wales) reveal early Cretaceous and Neogene exhumation and argue against regional Palaeogene uplift in the southern Irish Sea. Journal of the Geological Society, London, 162, 829-840.
33. Holford, S.P., Green, P.F., Duddy, I.R., Turner, J.P., Hillis, R.R. & Stoker, M.S. 2009a. Regional intraplate exhumation episodes related to plate boundary deformation. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 121, 1611-1628, doi:10.1130/B26481.1
34. Holford, S.P., Green, P.F., Hillis, R.R., Turner, J.P. & Stevenson, C.T.E. 2009b. Mesozoic-Cenozoic exhumation and volcanism in Northern Ireland constrained by AFTA and compaction data from the Larne No. 2 borehole. Petroleum Geoscience, 15, 239-257.
35. Hudson, J.D. & Andrews, J.E. 1987. The diagenesis of the Great Estuarine Group, Middle Jurassic, Inner Hebrides, Scotland. In: Marshall, J.D. (ed.) Diagenesis of Sedimentary Sequences. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 36, 259-276.
36. Hurford, A.J. & Green, P.F. 1983. The zeta age calibration of fission-track dating. Chemical Geology, 1, 285-317.
37. Japsen, P. 2000. Investigation of multi-phase erosion using reconstructed shale trends based on sonic data, Sole Pit axis, North Sea. Global and Planetary Change, 24, 189-210.
38. Japsen, P., Bidstrup, T. & Lidmar-Bergström, K. 2002. Neogene uplift and erosion of southern Scandinavia induced by the rise of the South Swedish Dome. In: Doré, A.G., Cartwright, J.A., Stoker, M.S., Turner, J.P. & White, N. (eds) Exhumation of the North Atlantic Margin: Timing, Mechanisms and Implications for Petroleum Exploration. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 196, 183-207.
39. Japsen, P., Green, P.F., Henrik Nielsen, L., Rasmussen, E.S. & Bidstrup, T. 2007. Mesozoic-Cenozoic exhumation events in the eastern North Sea Basin: a multi-disciplinary study based on paleothermal, palaeoburial, stratigraphic and seismic data. Basin Research, 19, 451-490.
40. Jolivet, M. 2007. Histoire de la denudation dans le corridor du loch Ness (É cosse): mouvements verticaux différentiels le long de la Great Glen Fault. Comptes Rendus Géoscience, 339, 121-131.
41. Jones, S.M., White, N., Clarke, B.J., Rowley, E. & Gallagher, K. 2002. Present and past influence of the Iceland Plume on sedimentation. In: Doré, A.G., Cartwright, J.A., Stoker, M.S., Turner, J.P. & White, N. (eds) Exhumation of the North Atlantic Margin: Timing, Mechanisms and Implications for Petroleum Exploration. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 196, 13-25.
42. Laubach, S.E. & Diaz-Tushman, K. 2009. Laurentian palaeostress trajectories and ephemeral fracture permeability, Cambrian Eriboll Formation sandstones west of the Moine Thrust Zone, NW Scotland. Journal of the Geological Society, London, 166, 349-362.
43. Lewis, C.L.E., Carter, A. & Hurford, A.J. 1992. Low temperature effects of the Skye Tertiary intrusions on Mesozoic sediments in the Sea of Hebrides Basin. In: Parnell, J. (ed.) Basins on the Atlantic Seaboard: Petroleum Geology, Sedimentology and Basin Evolution. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 62, 64-77.
44. Lowden, B., Braley, S., Hurst, A. & Lewis, J. 1992. Sedimentological studies of the Cretaceous Lochaline Sandstone, NW Scotland. In: Parnell, J. (ed.) Basins on the Atlantic Seaboard: Petroleum Geology, Sedimentology and Basin Evolution. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 62, 159-162.
45. Macdonald, D.I.M., Archer, B., Murray, S., Smith, K. & Bates, A. 2007. Modelling and comparing the Caledonian and Permo-Triassic erosion surfaces across Highland Scotland: implications for landscape inheritance. In: Nichols, G., Williams, E. & Paola, C. (eds) Sedimentary Processes, Environments and Basins: A Tribute to Peter Friend. International Association of Sedimentologists, Special Publications, 38, 283-299.
46. Magara, K. 1976. Thickness of removed sedimentary rocks, palaeopore pressure and palaeotemperature, south-western part of Western Canada Basin. AAPG Bulletin, 60, 554-565.
47. Marie, J.P.P. 1975. Rotliegendes stratigraphy and diagenesis. In: Woodland, A.W. (ed.) Petroleum and the Continental Shelf of North-west Europe, Volume 1, Geology. Applied Science, Barking, 205-211.
48. Morton, N. 1987. Jurassic subsidence history in the Hebrides, N.W. Scotland. Marine and Petroleum Geology, 4, 226-241.
49. Nielsen, S.B., Gallagher, K., Leighton, C., et al. 2009. The evolution of western Scandinavian topography: a review of Neogene uplift versus the ICE (isostasy-climate-erosion) hypothesis. Journal of Geodynamics, 47, 72-95.
50. Persano, C., Barford, D.N., Stuart, F.M. & Bishop, P. 2007. Constraints on early Cenozoic underplating-driven uplift and denudation of western Scotland from low temperature thermochronometry. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 263, 404-419.
51. Praeg, D., Stoker, M.S., Shannon, P.M., Ceramicola, S., Hjelstun, B., Laberg, J.S. & Mathiesen, A. 2005. Episodic Cenozoic tectonism and the development of the NW European 'passive' continental margin. Marine and Petroleum Geology, 22, 1007-1030.
52. Roberts, A.M. & Holdsworth, R.E. 1999. Linking onshore and offshore structures: Mesozoic extension in the Scottish Highlands. Journal of the Geological Society, London, 156, 1061-1064.
53. Roberts, A.M. & Yielding, G. 1991. Deformation around basin-margin faults in the North Sea/mid-Norway rift. In: Roberts, A.M., Yielding, G. & Freeman, B. (eds) The Geometry of Normal Faults. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 56, 61-78.
54. Sandiford, M., Wallace, M. & Coblentz, D. 2004. Origin of the in situ stress field in south-eastern Australia. Basin Research, 16, 325-338.
55. Shaw Champion, M.E., White, N.J., Jones, S.M. & Lovell, J.P.B. 2008. Quantifying transient mantle convective uplift: an example from the Faroe-Shetland basin. Tectonics, 27, TC1002, doi:10.1029/2007TC002106.
56. Shuster, D.L., Flowers, R.M. & Farley, K.A. 2006. The influence of natural radiation damage on helium diffusion kinetics in apatite. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 249, 148-161.
57. Stoker, M.S., Hitchen, K. & Graham, C.G. 1993. United Kingdom Offshore Regional Report: the Geology of the Hebrides and West Shetland Shelves, and Adjacent Deep-Water Areas. British Geological Survey. HMSO, London.
58. Stoker, M.S., Holford, S.P., Hillis, R.R., Green, P.F. & Duddy, I.R. 2010. Cenozoic post-rift sedimentation off Northwest Britain: Recording the detritus of episodic uplift on a passive continental margin. Geology, 38, 595-598.
59. Thomson, K., Underhill, J.R., Green, P.F., Bray, R.J. & Gibson, H.J. 1999. Evidence from apatite fission-track analysis for the post-Devonian burial and exhumation history of the northern Highlands, Scotland. Marine and Petroleum Geology, 16, 27-39.
60. Turner, J.P., Green, P.F., Holford, S.P. & Lawrence, S. 2008. Thermal history of the obliquely divergent Rio Muni (West Africa)-NE Brazil margins during continental breakup. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 270, 354-367.
61. Underhill, J. R. 1991. Implications of Mesozoic Recent basin development in the western Inner Moray Firth, UK. Marine and Petroleum Geology, 8, 359-369.
62. Underhill, J.R. 2001. Controls on the genesis and prospectivity of Paleogene palaeogeomorphic traps, East Shetland Platform, UK North Sea. Marine and Petroleum Geology, 18, 259-281.
63. Underhill, J.R. & Partington, M.A. 1993. Jurassic thermal doming and deflation in the North Sea: implications of the sequence stratigraphic evidence. In: Parker, J.R. (ed.) Petroleum Geology of Northwest Europe: Proceedings of the 4th Conference. Geological Society, London, 337-345.
64. Underhill, J.R., Monaghan, A.A. & Browne, M.A.E. 2008. Controls on structural styles, basin development and petroleum prospectivity in the Midland Valley of Scotland. Marine and Petroleum Geology, 15, 1000-1022.
65. Walker, G.P.L. 1971. The distribution of amygdale minerals in Mull and Morven (Western Scotland). In: Murty, T.V.V.G.G.R.K. & Roa, S.S. (eds) Studies in Earth Sciences (W. D. West Commemoration Volume). University of Saugur, India, 181-194.
66. Watson, J. 1985. Northern Scotland as an Atlantic-North Sea divide. Journal of the Geological Society, London, 142, 221-243.
67. White, N. & Lovell, B. 1997. Measuring the pulse of a plume with the sedimentary record. Nature, 387, 888-891.