The Ancient Volcanoes of Great Britain, Volume 1 (of 2)Geikie, Archibald
History
The Ancient Volcanoes of Great Britain, Volume 1 (of 2)
Geikie, Archibald
Volcanoes -- Great Britain
Besides the obviously eruptive masses there is another abundant
group of rocks which, I believe, furnishes important evidence as
to contemporaneous volcanic action during the accumulation of the
Dalradian series. Throughout the Central and South-Western Highlands
certain zones of "green schist" have long occupied the attention of
the officers of the Geological Survey. They occur more especially on
two horizons between the Loch Tay Limestone and a much lower series
of grits and fine conglomerates, which run through the Trossachs and
form the craggy ridges of Ben Ledi, Ben Voirlich and other mountains
near the Highland border. In the lower group of "green schists," thick
hornblendic sills begin to make their appearance, increasing in number
upwards. The upper group of "green schists" lies between two bands of
garnetiferous mica-schist, above the higher of which comes the Loch
Tay Limestone. The peculiar greenish tint and corresponding mineral
constituents of these schists, however, are likewise found diffused
through higher parts of the series.
So much do the "green schists" vary in structure and composition that
no single definition of them is always applicable. At one extreme
are dull green chlorite-schists, passing into a "potstone," which,
like that of Trondhjem, can be cut into blocks for architectural
purposes.[62] At the other extreme lie grits and quartzites, with a
slight admixture of the same greenish-coloured constituent. Between
these limits almost every stage may be met with, the proportion of
chlorite or hornblende and of granular or pebbly quartz varying
continually, not only vertically, but even in the extension of the same
bed. The quartz-pebbles are sometimes opalescent, and occasionally
larger than peas. An average specimen from one of the zones of "green
schists" is found, on closer examination, to be a thoroughly schistose
rock, composed of a matrix of granular quartz, through which acicular
hornblende and biotite crystals, or actinolite and chlorite, are ranged
along the planes of foliation.
[Footnote 62: From such a rock, which crosses the upper part of Loch
Fyne, the Duke of Argyll's residence at Inveraray has been built.]
That these rocks are essentially of detrital origin admits of no
doubt. They differ, however, from the other sedimentary members of the
Dalradian series in the persistence and abundance of the magnesian
silicates diffused through them. The idea which they suggested to my
mind some years ago was that the green colouring-matter represents fine
basic volcanic dust, which was showered out during the accumulation of
ordinary quartzose, argillaceous and calcareous sediments, and that,
under the influence of the metamorphism which has so greatly affected
all the rocks of the region, the original pyroxenes and felspars
suffered the usual conversion into hornblendes, chlorites and micas.
This view has occurred also to my colleagues on the Survey, and is now
generally adopted by them.
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