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The Torridonian Stac Fada Member: an extrusion of fluidised peperite?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2011

I. S. Sanders
Affiliation:
I. S. Sanders and J. D. Johnston, Department of Geology, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland.
J. D. Johnston
Affiliation:
I. S. Sanders and J. D. Johnston, Department of Geology, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland.

Abstract

Contact relations and petrography of the volcanic breccia known as the Stac Fada Member, near Stoer, show that it is not a simple sediment-gravity flow, but was generated lower in the sedimentary succession by phreatomagmatic activity and rose to the surface as buoyant peperitic slurry. A previously undescribed part of the member, 9 m below the intrusive base of the main ‘flow’, has an intrusive top. Vesicle trains within the breccia matrix suggest that the slurry was boiling at a temperature of at least 160°C.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1989

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