Reprint 2007. The land between the Great Glen Fault to the northwest and the Highland Boundary Fault to the southeast is known to geologists as the Grampian Terrane. GAPs often include an audit of the The geology of the area is characterised by the Dalradian Supergoup which was produced by intensive metamorphism and deformation arising from 'mountain building', caused by continental collision. those of Tomintoul, Cabrach and Rhynie) or on the periphery (e.g. It involved early recumbent nappe folding, probably directed towards the north-west overall but with at least one major SE-facing fold, the Tay Nappe, which dominates the Southern Highlands. Over much of the area there is evidence of considerable glacial erosion, but deposits are mostly confined to those of the last (Late Devensian) glaciation; these include tills, various fluvioglacial deposits and, near Inverness, glaciomarine sands and gravels. Summary of the geology. Slates and gneiss are also evidence of the high pressure and temperatures that caused the clay to metamorphose as mountains were formed. The Dalradian sedimentary rocks, many kilometres thick, are mostly of shallow-water origin, although deeper-water turbidite deposition became predominant in late Dalradian times. The mountains are composed of granite, gneiss, marble, schists and quartzite. Black is oceanic crust, yellow stippled is sediment3.Let’s start from the left. http://earthwise.bgs.ac.uk/index.php?title=Summary_of_the_geology_of_the_Grampian_Highlands&oldid=34545. There is no unequivocal evidence of Cretaceous rocks in situ in the Grampian Highlands but they occur offshore to the north and east and may have encroached on land; indeed the present river system has been interpreted as having developed initially on a Cretaceous cover, and angular flints are common in some Quaternary gravels. Grampian Highlands: geological foundations, How Scotland's geological foundations came together, Rocks formed since the foundations joined, Northern Highlands: geological foundations, North-west Seaboard: geological foundations, Great Glen Fault (and the Walls Boundary Fault in Shetland) to the north-west, Highland Boundary Fault to the south-east, sandstone and quartzites – from shallow water and coastal sands, limestone – from lime chemically precipitated in coastal lagoons, siltstones, mudstones, slate and shales – from silts, muds and clays in deeper water, Moine-like rocks occur near the Cairngorms National Park’s northern edge. Generally, the metamorphism reflects the stratigraphy with the highest grade (upper amphibolite facies) being in the older rocks of the north-west and the lowest grade, greenschist facies, in the youngest Southern Highland Group rocks along the Highland Border. Examples include the Grampian mountains in Scotland and the Cumbrian mountains in the Lake District. 1998). The mountains are composed of granite, gneiss, marble, schists and quartzite. As it sinks, it is squashed and heated, starting a complex process that ends with molten rock reaching the surface. the Monadhliath Mountains immediately to the east of the main north-south ice divide of the Scottish ice sheet, and north of a subsidiary west-east divide, centred over the East Grampian and Cairngorm mountains. This general pattern is, however, modified in the North-east Highlands where there is extensive development of migmatite in the Argyll Group rocks of Angus and southern Aberdeenshire, and in northern Aberdeenshire where there are lower pressure–high temperature andalusite- and sillimanite-bearing assemblages. The Grampian Terrane – a record of sediment accumulation in long lost oceans, extreme ice ages and Himalayan-sized mountains, by Alex G. Neches. England's Lake District is, as its name suggests, known for its many scenic lakes. Inland from the Moray Firth and North Sea coasts, however, there are various isolated occurrences of older interglacial peats and glacial tills and gravels. Scotland: The Creation of its Natural Landscape. The rocks are mostly clastic— scree breccias, conglomerates, sandstones and siltstones. The Rhinns rocks are overlain by the low-grade Colonsay Group metasedimentary rocks, whose correlation across a splay of the Great Glen Fault with the rocks on the mainland of Scotland is still uncertain, although a late Precambrian age for the Colonsay Group seems most likely. But this is likely to have been hundreds of kilometres away from the Moine and Lewisian-like rocks that now form the foundations of the Northern Highlands. Thick dykes of quartz-dolerite, the northern edge of a swarm which is centred in the Midland Valley, occur in the Southern Highlands from Loch Awe to Aberdeenshire and are of late Carboniferous to earliest Permian age. The Dalradian rocks, which formed from this sediment, include: Later, the Dalradian rocks were heated and compressed by the continental collisions that brought together Scotland’s foundations. Geomorphological evidence for ice streaming in the Great Glen and Spey Valley to the northeast and southwest of the Geology; 47 (8): 734–738. Scotland’s geodiversity reveals how. Magmatism culminated, however, during and after the late stages of the Caledonian deformation and metamorphism; in the Ordovician the layered basic masses and granites of the north-east referred to above, and then large plutons of granitic rocks and associated volcanics and dyke swarms in the late Silurian and early Devonian (P915452) were intruded. Scotland - The Northwest Highlands, the Cairngorm Mountains, the Grampian Mountains and the Southern Uplands. Scotland’s five foundation blocks came together in a series of continental collisions that ended 425 million years ago. The older nappes carry the youngest sedimentary rocks that were deposited further away downstream from the Grenville mountains. Soc Edin., vi, 3 – 19. Using a tourist guide-book, she goes on a journey through the Grampian mountain range. Stephenson, D, and Gould, D. 1995. During Quaternary times it is probable that an ice cap was centred on the Northern Highlands and South-west Highlands during several glacial episodes. But the national park also has a rich, multi-layered geologic history dating back half a billion years. In Britain, the mountains have a NE – SW trend. Roy. Apart from two other small occurrences in the South-west Highlands the only other Carboniferous sedimentary rocks occur in the Machrihanish Coalfield on the Kintyre peninsula. Along the Highland Border near Loch Lomond, Old Red Sandstone facies rocks of Devonian age pass up generally conformably into cornstone-bearing sandstones of Lower Carboniferous age. are home to a wide variety of environments, and this explains its unique geologic location. These occurrences suggest that the Dalradian sediments were deposited on a landscape of eroded Moine and Lewisian-like rocks. These suggest that up to three periods of glaciation occurred between 800 million and 500 million years ago. Stable shallow-marine deposition followed, resulting in deposition of quartzite-shale-limestone sequences of the Appin Group, in which some stratigraphical units maintain a constancy of character across the Grampians from north-east to south-west, and even into Ireland. Numerous thin dykes and small vents of alkaline lamprophyre occur in parts of the South-west and Central Highlands; they are younger than the quartz-dolerites, but have yielded some older radiometric ages. The area is generally sparsely populated, habitation limited to farmsteads and isolated villages in the glens, with some larger villages in the mountain passes or holiday resorts. It is evident that the post-orogenic plutonic rocks were intruded during a phase of very active uplift and erosion so that by early Devonian time the area of the Grampian Highlands was one of considerable relief in which the full range of Dalradian metasedimentary rocks and Caledonian igneous rocks was exposed at the surface. This review of the Grampian Orogeny in Ireland con- Discover grand and rugged mountain ranges, spectacular wildflower displays, a wide range of outdoor recreational opportunities, and a wealth of Aboriginal rock art sites in the Grampians National Park. British regional geology: the Grampian Highlands. Differential erosion between the softer rocks of the Midland Valley and the more resistant metamorphic rocks of the Highlands on opposite sides of the Highland Boundary Fault has resulted in an abrupt fault-line scarp which can be traced from Stonehaven in the north-east to Loch Lomond in the south-west. Grampian Highlands: geological foundations. formed the Dalradian rocks – through the burial, heating and compression of sedimentary rocks that had built up at the ocean edge. Notice that the edge of the continent is thin and tapering – it was stretched out when the ocean basin formed. Most of this deposition remains offshore but on the Moray coast around Lossiemouth there are small outcrops of Permo-Triassic and Jurassic rocks, mainly continental facies sandstones which have yielded a rich reptile fauna. Whether you're a wine taster, outdoor explorer or food lover, the Grampians has an adventure waiting for you. A U–Pb age for the Late Caledonian Sperrin Mountains minor intrusions suite in the north of Ireland: timing of slab break-off in the Grampian terrane and the significance of deep-seated, crustal lineaments. The feature is especially obvious when viewed across the low-lying ground b… Since Devonian times, however, the area has been mainly one of erosion. This downbend was probably associated with uplift prior to the obduction on to the margin of the Highlands of the Cambro-Ordovician rocks and ophiolite suite which together constitute the Highland Border Complex and which are preserved as a number of separate slivers within the Highland Boundary Fault Zone. Although north-west of the Highland Boundary Fault, this has stratigraphical affinities with the Midland Valley, and includes a condensed sequence of Carboniferous strata extending up to the Coal Measures. Lyell was born at Kinnordy, the stately family home at the foot of the Grampian Mountains in eastern Scotland. 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