Deformation of Pebbles in Lower Old Red Sandstone Conglomerates Adjacent to the Highland Boundary Fault

Abstract

AbstractThe deformation produced by the pre-Upper Old Red Sandstone movements on the Highland Boundary Fault in a zone close to the fault was sufficiently intense to rupture the pebbles in conglomerates. The patterns of pebble fracturing are similar in type and orientation over a wide area and are comparable with the patterns obtained in the experimental deformation of brittle materials. In experimental deformation a direct relationship has been established between the fractures and the causal stresses and so from a statistical orientation of the fractures in the pebbles the directions of the principal stresses can be deduced.The principal compression in the vicinity of the Highland Boundary Fault acted N.W.–S.E. varying in places to N.N.W.–S.S.E., normal to the trend of the fault, while the least principal stress acted parallel to the strike of the fault.The orientation of the least principal stress parallel to the direction of the fault in the conglomerates arises through increased stress in a vertical direction due to the nature of the downbuckling of the rocks on the southern side of the fault.The orientation of the maximum compression confirms the Highland Boundary Fault as a reverse fault of late Caledonian age rather than a Proto-Armorican wrench fault produced by N.N.E.-S.S.W. compression.