Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T14:36:59.623Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Mull Palaeogene dyke swarm: insights into the evolution of the Mull igneous centre and dyke-emplacement mechanisms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2018

R. MacDonald*
Affiliation:
IGMiP Faculty of Geology, University of Warsaw, al. Żwirki i Wigury 93, 02-089 Warszawa, Poland Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YQ, UK
B. Bagiński
Affiliation:
IGMiP Faculty of Geology, University of Warsaw, al. Żwirki i Wigury 93, 02-089 Warszawa, Poland
B. G. J. Upton
Affiliation:
School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JW, UK
H. Pinkerton
Affiliation:
Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YQ, UK
D. A. MacInnes
Affiliation:
3 Stirling Road, Kilsyth, Glasgow G65 0JF, UK
J. C. MacGillivray
Affiliation:
Hollandbush, 4 Meadowbank Avenue, Strathaven, Lanarkshire ML10 6JS, UK
*

Abstract

Geochemical data are presented for five large Palaeogene dykes, members of the Mull swarm in southern Scotland and northern England (the Moneyacres, Hawick-Acklington, Barrmill, Muirkirk- Hartfell and Dalraith-Linburn dykes). The rock types range from basalt through andesite to dacite, although the range in individual intrusions is more restricted. The dykes are divisible into two groups; those where the compositional variation was generated by fractional crystallization of basaltic magmas, and those where it resulted from variable degrees of mixing of basaltic and silicic magmas. Several dykes are composite; the marginal facies can be more or less evolved than the central facies. The dyke magmas are thought to have originated from stratified magma chambers beneath the Mull centre and models are presented to show how the different components were derived from the chambers. Some dykes appear to have been terminated at or near the Southern Upland Fault, perhaps as a result of the chilling of early magma pulses by water in the fault. The Palaeogene dyke swarm is considerably more complex than previously recognized and has a significant input to models of the evolution of the Mull magmatic system.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bagiński, B., Dzierżanowski, P., Macdonald, R. and Upton, B.G.J. (2009) Complex relationships among coexisting pyroxenes: the Palaeogene Eskdalemuir dyke, Scotland. Mineralogical Magazine, 73, 929942.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bailey, E.B., Clough, C.T., Wright, W.B., Richey, J.E. and Wilson, G.V. (1924) The Tertiary and post-Tertiary geology of Mull, Loch Aline and Oban. Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Great Britain. Google Scholar
Bell, B.R. and Williamson, I.T. (2002) Tertiary Igneous Activity. Pp. 371407 in: The Geology of Scotland (Trewin, N.H., editor). The Geological Society, London.Google Scholar
Bott, M.H.P. and Tantrigoda, D.A. (1987) Interpretation of the gravity and magnetic anomalies over the Mull Tertiary intrusive complex, NW Scotland. Journal of the Geological Society, London, 144, 1728.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
British Geological Survey (2007) Bedrock Geology of the UK: North and South Maps, 1:625,000. British Geological Survey, Keyworth, Nottingham, UK.Google Scholar
Bruce, P.M.H. and Huppert, H.E. (1990) Solidification and melting along dykes by the laminar flow of basaltic magma. Pp. 87101 in: Magma Storage and Transport (Ryan, M.P., editor). Wiley, Chichester, UK.Google Scholar
Busby, I.P., Akhurst, M.C. and Walker, A.S.D. (2009) A new high-resolution aeromagnetic dataset over central Ayrshire; insights into the concealed geology. Scottish Journal of Geology, 45, 112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carmichael, I.S.E. (1964) The petrology of Thingmuli, a Tertiary volcano in Eastern Iceland. Journal of Petrology, 5, 435460.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carmichael, I.S.E., Turner, F.J. and Verhoogen, J. (1974) Igneous Petrology. McGraw-Hill, New York, 739 pp.Google Scholar
Chambers, I.M. and Pringle, M.S. (2001) Age and duration of activity at the Isle of Mull Tertiary igneous centre, Scotland, and confirmation of the existence of subchrons during Anomaly 26r. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 193, 333345.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dagley, P., Skelhorn, R.R., Mussett, A.E., James, S. and Walsh, J.N. (2008) The Cleveland Dyke in southern Scotland. Scottish Journal of Geology, 44, 123138.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Earp, J.R. (1955) The geology of the Bowland Forest Tunnel, Lancashire. Bulletin of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, no. 7, 1—12.Google Scholar
Einarsson, P. (1991) The Krafla rifting episode 1975-1989. Pp. 97139 in: Ndttra M'yvatns (Gardarsson, A. and Einarsson, A., editors). Icelandic Natural Sciences Society, Reykjavik.Google Scholar
Emeleus, C.H. and Bell, B.R. (2005) British Regional Geology: the Palaeogene Volcanic Districts of Scotland (4th edition). British Geological Survey, Keyworth, Nottingham, UK.Google Scholar
Emeleus, C.H. and Gyopari, M.C. (1992) British Tertiary Igneous Province. Geological Conservation Review, 4. Joint Nature Conservation Committee, Peterborough, UK.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ernst, R.E., Head, J.W., Parfitt, E., Grosfils, E. and Wilson, L. (1995) Giant radiating dyke swarms on Earth and Venus. Earth-Science Reviews, 39, 158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Floyd, J.D. and Stiven, G. (1991) Rare temporary exposure of the Southern Upland Fault near Abington, Strathclyde. Scottish Journal of Geology, 27, 7580.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geikie, A. (1897) Ancient Volcanoes of Great Britain. Vol. II. MacMillan, London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geshi, N., Shimano, T., Chiba, T. and Nakada, S. (2005) Caldera collapse during the 2000 eruption of Miyakejima Volcano, Japan. Bulletin of Volcanology, 64, 5568.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holmes, A. and Harwood, H.F. (1929) The tholeiites of the north of England. Mineralogical Magazine, 22, 152.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hornung, G., Al-Ani, A. and Stewart, R.M. (1966) The composition and emplacement of the Cleveland Dyke. Transactions of the Leeds Geological Association, 7, 232249.Google Scholar
Jolly, R.J.H. and Sanderson, D.J. (1995) Variation in the form and distribution of dykes in the Mull swarm, Scotland. Journal of Structural Geology, 17, 15431557.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaneko, T., Yasuda, A., Shimano, T., Nakada, S., Fujii, T., Kanazawa, T., Nishizawa, A. and Matsumoto, Y. (2005) Submarine flank eruption preceding caldera subsidence during the 2000 eruption of Miyakejima Volcano, Japan. Bulletin of Volcanology, 67, 243253.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kerr, A.C., Kent, R.W., Thomson, B.A., Seedhouse, J.K. and Donaldson, C.H. (1999) Geochemical evolution of the Tertiary Mull volcano, western Scotland. Journal of Petrology, 40, 873908.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kirton, S.R. and Donate, J.A. (1985) Some buried Tertiary dykes of Britain and surrounding waters deduced by magnetic modelling and seismic reflection methods. Journal of the Geological Society, London, 142, 10471057.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Le Bas, M.J., Le Maitre, R.W., Streckeisen, A. and Zanettin, B. (1986) A chemical classification of volcanic rocks based on the total alkali-silica diagram. Journal of Petrology, 27, 745750.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Macdonald, R., Gottfried, D., Farrington, M.J., Brown, F.W. and Skinner, N.G. (1981) Geochemistry of a continental tholeiite suite: late Palaeozoic quartz dolerite dykes of Scotland. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences, 72, 5774.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Macdonald, R., Wilson, L., Thorpe, R.S. and Martin, A. (1988) Emplacement of the Cleveland Dyke: evidence from geochemistry, mineralogy and physical modelling. Journal of Petrology, 29, 559583.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Macdonald, R., Bagiński, B., Upton, B.G.J., Dzierżanowski, P. and Marshall-Roberts, W. (2009) The Palaeogene Eskdalemuir dyke, Scotland: longdistance lateral transport of rhyolitic magma in a mixed magma intrusion. Mineralogical Magazine, 73, 285300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MacGregor, A.G. (1930) Dykes of post-Carboniferous age. Pp. 289-315 in: The Geology of North Ayrshire (Richey, J.E., Anderson, E.M. and MacGregor, A.G.). Explanation of one inch sheet 22. Memoir of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, Edinburgh, Scotland.Google Scholar
MacGregor, A.G. (1949) Dykes of post-Carboniferous age. Pp. 118123 in: The Geology of Central Ayrshire (Eyles, V.A., Simpson, J.B. and MacGregor, A.G., editors). Explanation of one inch sheet 14. Memoir of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, Edinburgh, Scotland.Google Scholar
MacGregor, M. and MacGregor, A.G. (1936) The Midland Valley of Scotland. British Regional Geology.Google Scholar
Mitchell, J.G., Rands, P.N. and Ineson, P.R. (1989) Perturbation of the K-Ar age system in the Cleveland dyke, U.K.: Evidence of an Early Eocene age for barite mineralisation in the Magnesian Limestone of County Durham. Chemical Geology (Isotope Geoscience Section), 79, 4964.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Monaghan, A.A. and Parrish, R.R. (2006) Geochronology of Carboniferous-Permian magmatism in the Midland Valley of Scotland: implications for regional tectonomagmatic evolution and the numerical time scale. Journal of the Geological Society, London, 163, 1528.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moorbath, S. and Thompson, R.N. (1980) Strontium isotope geochemistry and petrogenesis of the early Tertiary lava pile of the Isle of Skye, Scotland, and other basic rocks of the British Tertiary Province: an example of crust-mantle interaction. Journal of Petrology, 21, 295321.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O'Driscoll, B., Troll, V.R., Reavy, RJ. and Turner, P. (2006) The Great Eucrite intrusion of Ardnamurchan, Scotland: Reevaluating the ring-dike concept. Geology, 34, 189192.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oliver, G.J.H., Stone, P. and Bluck, B.J. (2002) The Ballantrae Complex and Southern Uplands terrane. Pp. 167200 in: The Geology of Scotland, 4th edition (Trewin, N.H., editor). The Geological Society, London.Google Scholar
Pinel, V. and Jaupart, C. (2004) Magma storage and horizontal dyke injection beneath a volcanic edifice. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 221, 245262.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pollard, D.D. (1987) Elementary fracture mechanics applied to the structural interpretation of dykes. Pp. 524 in: Mafic Dyke Swarms (Halls, H.C. and Fahrig, W.H., editors). Geological Association of Canada Special Papers, 34.Google Scholar
Price, N.J. and Cosgrove, J.W. (1990) Analysis of Geological Structures. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK.Google Scholar
Richey, J.E. (1939) The dykes of Scotland. Transactions of the Edinburgh Geological Society, 13, 393435.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rubin, A.M. (1995) Propagation of magma-filled cracks. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences, 23, 287336.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saemundsson, K. (1979) Fissure swarms and central volcanoes of the neovolcanic zones of Iceland. Geological Journal, 19, 415432.Google Scholar
Saunders, A.D., Fitton, J.G., Kerr, A.C., MJ., Norry and Kent, R.W. (1997) The North Atlantic Igneous Province. Pp. 45—93 in: Large Igneous Provinces (Mahoney, J.J. and Coffin, M.F., editors). American Geophysical Union Monograph, 100. American Geophysical Union, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Sigmundsson, F. (2006) Iceland Geodynamics: Crustal Deformation and Divergent Plate Tectonics. Springer-Praxis, Winchester, UK.Google Scholar
Skelhorn, R.R. (1969) The Tertiary Igneous Geology of the Isle of Mull. Geologists’ Association Guide, 20, 36 pp.Google Scholar
Skelhorn, R.R., Henderson, P., Walsh, J.N. and Longland, P.J.N. (1979) The chilled margin of the Ben Buie layered gabbro, Isle of Mull. Scottish Journal of Geology, 15, 161167.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sparks, R.S.J. (1988) Petrology and geochemistry of the Loch Ba ring-dyke, Mull (NW Scotland): an example of the extreme differentiation of tholeiitic magmas. Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology, 100, 446461.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Speight, J.M., Skelhorn, R.R., Sloan, T. and Knapp, RJ. (1982) The dyke swarms of Scotland. Pp. 449459 in: Igneous Rocks of the British Isles (Sutherland, D.S., editor). John Wiley and Sons, Chichester, UK.Google Scholar
Stevenson, C.T.E., Owens, W.H., Hutton, D.H.W., Hood, D.N. and Meighan, I.G. (2007) Laccolithic, as opposed to cauldron subsidence, emplacement of the eastern Mourne pluton, N. Ireland: evidence from anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility. Journal of the Geological Society, London, 164, 99110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stevenson, C.T.E., O'Driscoll, B., Holohan, E.P., Couchman, R., Reavy, R.J. and Andrews, G.D.M. (2008) The structure, fabrics and AMS of the Slieve Gullion ring-complex, Northern Ireland: testing the ring-dyke emplacement model. Pp. 159184 in: Structure and Emplacement of High-level Magmatic Systems (Thomas, K. and Petford, N., editors). Special Publications, 302, The Geological Society, London.Google Scholar
Sun, S.S. and McDonough, W.F. (1989) Chemical and isotopic systematics of oceanic basalts: implications for mantle composition and processes. Pp. 313345 in: Magmatism in the Ocean Basins (Saunders, A.D. and Norry, MJ., editors). Special Publications, 42, The Geological Society, London.Google Scholar
Teall, J.J.H. (1884) Petrological notes on some north-of-England dykes. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, 40, 209247.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thompson, R.N., Gibson, I.X. and Harmon, R.S. (1986) Two contrasting styles of interaction between basic magmas and continental crust in the British Tertiary Volcanic Province. Journal of Geophysical Research, 91, 59855997.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Titman, C.W., Wilkinson, I., Mitchell, J.G. and Ineson, P.R. (1989) Magnetic, chemical, petrographic and isotopic age studies of the Windy Knowe Tertiary dyke, Borders Region, Scotland. Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society, 47, 199205.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tyrrell, G.W. (1917) Some Tertiary dykes of the Clyde area. Geological Magazine, 4, 305315.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Underhill, J.R. (2009) Role of intrusion-induced salt mobility in controlling the formation of the enigmatic ‘Silverpit Crater', UK Southern North Sea. Petroleum Geoscience, 15, 197216.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Upton, B.G.J. (2004) Volcanoes and the Making of Scotland. Dunedin Academic Press, Edinburgh, 247 pp.Google Scholar
Walker, G.P.L. (1970) The distribution of amygdale minerals in Mull and Morvern, Western Scotland. Pp. 181194 in: Studies in Earth Sciences. West Commemoration Volume (Murty, T.V.V.G.R.K. and Rao, S.S., editors). University of Saugar, India.Google Scholar
Wright, T.J., Ebinger, C., Biggs, J., Ayele, A., Yirgu, G., Keir, D. and Stork, A. (2006) Magma-maintained rift segmentation at continental rupture in the 2005 Afar dyking episode. Nature, 442, 291294.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wright, T.L. and Peck, D.L. (1978) Crystallization and differentiation of the Alae magma, Alae lava lake, Hawaii. U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper, 935-C.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: File

MacDonald et al. supplementary material

Supplementary table

Download MacDonald et al. supplementary material(File)
File 54.8 KB
Supplementary material: PDF

MacDonald et al. supplementary material

Supplementary document

Download MacDonald et al. supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 216.8 KB