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Foreland basin development and tectonics on the northwest margin of eastern Avalonia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

B. C. Kneller ,
L. M. King  and
A. M. Bell
B. C. Kneller
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, The University, Leeds LS2 9JT, U.K.
L. M. King
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, The University, Downing St., Cambridge CB2 3EQ, U.K.
A. M. Bell
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, U.K.
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Abstract

The early Palaeozoic convergence of Avalonia and Laurentia created a foreland basin at the suture zone of the former lapetus Ocean. Sedimentological and stratigraphic evidence of shallowing and contemporaneous shortening suggests that the southern part of the basin (the Windermere Group) became detached from its basement in the late Ludlow, and began to invert. The detachment beneath the basin rooted into a northwest-dipping mid-crustal thrust system. Contemporaneous uplift to the north of the late Silurian basin involved shortening of the Avalonian foreland basement by thrusting. Basin inversion occurred ahead of a southeastward-advancing mountain front. We postulate a foreland (southeast) prograding sequence of thrusting through the Ludlow in the Lake District. The basin continued to migrate onto the Avalonian foreland through the early Devonian, ahead of an advancing orogenic wedge, finally coming to a stop in the Emsian.

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Articles
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Geological Magazine , Volume 130 , Issue 5 , September 1993 , pp. 691 - 697
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

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