Quick Search:    advanced search

GSW Home   GeoRef Home   My GSW Alerts   Contact GSW   About GSW   Journals List   Help

Journal of the Geological Society

This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Search for Related Content GeoRef GeoRef Citation

Discussion on the correlation of Rhenohercynian Variscides

Dr I. P. Tunbridge writes: In a recent paper, M. T. Holder & B. T. Leveridge (1986) proposed that the Rhenohercynian Variscides of Belgium, Germany and Cornwall were in tectonic continuity prior to late Carboniferous offset along the Bristol Channel–Bray Fault. They further proposed that a subduction zone extended along the line of the present English Channel and continued eastwards to the south of the Ardennes and Rheinisches Schiefergebirge. On two major points this interpretation is at variance with published evidence.

Firstly, Holder & Leveridge state that the Bristol Channel Landmass can be regarded as a westward extension of the Ardennes Massif of N France, and that this belt acted as a source for the Hangman Sandstone Group in N Devon. On the basis that this assumption is valid, they develop the proposal that the Gramscatho Group of S Cornwall represents part of a continuous flysch belt extending 800 km along strike. However, Tunbridge (1986) has clearly demonstrated that the Bristol Channel Landmass cannot be regarded as a continual ridge active throughout Devonian times and that it did not source the main part of the Hangman Sandstones. The sources in the Bristol Channel were localized and short lived, activated by strike-slip movements along the Bristol Channel Fault Zone. Furthermore, it is hard to see from Holder & Leveridges’ own reconstruction how the Ardennes Massif and sources associated with the Bristol Channel Fault Zone can be matched if the Bristol Channel Fault is continued into the Bray Fault of north

...

This 250-word extract was created in the absence of an abstract.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				D. WILSON, J. R. DAVIES, M. SMITH, and R. A. WATERS Structural controls on Upper Palaeozoic sedimentation in south-east Wales Journal of the Geological Society, December 1, 1988; 145(6): 901 - 914. [Abstract] [PDF]