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
Not only are these "green schists" traceable all through the Central
and South-Western Highlands, rocks of similar character, and not
improbably on the same horizons, reappear in the north-west of Ireland,
and run thence south-westward as far as the Dalradian rocks extend.
If we are justified in regarding them as metamorphosed tuffs and
ashy sediments, they mark a widespread and long-continued volcanic
period during the time when the later half of the Dalradian series was
deposited.
Besides the extensive development of basic sills which, though probably
in great part later than the "green schists," may belong to the same
prolonged period of subterranean activity, numerous acid protrusions
are to be observed in the Dalradian series of Scotland and Ireland.
That these masses were erupted at several widely-separated intervals
is well shown by their relation to the schists among which they occur.
Some of the great bosses and sills of granite were undoubtedly injected
before the metamorphism of the schists was completed, for they have
shared in the foliation of the region. Others have certainly appeared
after the metamorphism was complete, for they show no trace of having
suffered from its effects. Thus some of the vast tracts of newer
granite in the Grampian chain, which cover many square miles of ground,
must be among the newest rocks of that area. They have recently been
found by Mr. G. Barrow, of the Geological Survey, to send veins into
the belt of probably Lower Silurian strata which flanks the Highland
schists. They are thus later than the Arenig period. Not impossibly
they may be referable to the great granite intrusions which formed so
striking a feature in the history of the Lower Old Red Sandstone.
iii. THE GNEISSES AND SCHISTS OF ANGLESEY
In the island of Anglesey an interesting series of schists and
quartzites presents many points of resemblance to the Dalradian or
younger schists of the Highlands. At present the geologist possesses
no means of determining whether these Welsh rocks are the equivalents
of the Scottish in stratigraphical position, but their remarkable
similarity justifies a brief allusion to them in this place. Much
controversy has arisen regarding the geology of Anglesey, but into
this dispute it is not necessary for my present purpose to enter.[63]
I will content myself with expressing what seems to me, after several
traverses, to be the geological structure of the ground.
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