Palaeomagnetic re-examination of the basal Caithness Old Red Sandstone; aspects of local and regional tectonics

Abstract

A palaeomagnetic re-examination of the basal strata of the Caithness Old Red Sandstone has given results that are fully compatible with previous palaeomagnetic findings in this region. After structural correction the dominant remanence component has D = 205°, I = +3°, α 95 = 6.4° ( N = 27). The existence of this shallow inclined magnetization in the Middle Devonian strata of Caithness invalidates the model, proposed by Van der Voo and Scotese (1981), involving a ca. 2000 km sinistral offset along the Great Glen Fault in the Carboniferous. However, the available data are in favour of a few hundred kilometres sinistral movement along this fracture zone. However, the possibility of there having been a much larger transcurrent shift between Europe and North America in late/post-Devonian times, accumulated along various fracture zones within the Caledonian fold belt, is discussed. On the basis of an inferred overprinted magnetization, it is tentatively concluded that the tectonic deformation of the Old Red Sandstone of Caithness has a mid-Jurassic or younger age.