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Original Article |
1 Swedish Museum of Natural History, Box 50007, SE-104 05 Stockholm, Sweden (e-mail: chris.kirkland{at}nrm.se)
2 School of Geography and Geosciences, University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews KY16 9AL, UK
NE–SW-trending sinistral strike-slip deformation is widespread throughout the Highlands of Scotland and NW Ireland and has been interpreted as a response to the subduction of Iapetus and continental collision. The southwestern continuation of the Great Glen Fault zone is marked in NW Ireland by the Leannan Fault. Field evidence derived from the Tullagh Point Granite indicates its intrusion along the fault during ductile sinistral shearing. U–Th–Pb zircon geochronology yields a crystallization age of 422 ± 2 Ma for this granite. Detailed analysis of fracture patterns throughout the Malin Head region demonstrates that sinistral fractures (F1) developed at an acute angle to the main fault strands. These fractures display oblique internal alignment of K-feldspar and are overprinted by dilatational quartz-filled joints at a similar orientation. The trend of these joints is consistent with c. 90° rotation of the
1 axes relative to F1 as a result of intrusion of the Malin Head Granite dated at 412 ± 3 Ma. Subsequent sinistral fractures developed after dissipation of granite-related forces. They define an anticlockwise rotation of the regional 1 and moved under a different stress tensor from F1. It is concluded that the Leannan Fault moved sinistrally at c. 422 Ma and after c. 412 Ma, and that granite emplacement had pronounced effects on the fault kinematics.
