The Carboniferous and Permian volcanoes of Scotland

Abstract

We have now reviewed in the briefest fashion the main facts relating to Scottish Carboniferous and Permian volcanicity. For a more detailed summary the reader is referred to two recently published Geological Survey handbooks of the British Regional Geology series (see ≪References≫, below). One of these, dealing with the Midland Valley of Scotland, gives petrological details regarding the most important and most intensively studied volcanic district. The other summarizes our less extensive knowledge of the volcanicity of the south of Scotland (Southern Uplands). Both volumes contain comprehensive bibliographies. Information regarding the Carboniferous and Permian rocks of Arran is best obtained from the Geological Survey memoir on that island. The Carboniferous volcanic rocks of Kintyre are dealt with in two papers referred to below. The Arran and Kintyre references are of purely local interest, but are included for the sake of completeness; the localities concerned are not dealt with ia the two Regional handbooks. A reference is also given below to a paper byJ. S. Turner. This useful summary of Carboniferous volcanicity in north-western and central Europe deals with the igneous rocks of (i) the Variscan Geosyncline and (ii) the Variscan Foreland, including Scotland. Up-to-date exhibits comprising specimens, maps, diagrams, and photographs, and specially designed to illustrate the geology and volcanicity of the areas described in the two Regional handbooks, are to be seen in the new Museum of Practical Geology opened in London in 1935. Numerous maps, models, and specimens, illustrative of Scottish volcanicity, are also displayed in the Royal Scotish Museum, Edinburgh. A large scale model of Arthur’rs Seat volcano is a noteworthy exhibit.