North-south geofractures in Scotland and Ireland

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Abstract
Synopsis: The suggestion is advanced that north-south trending faults and Carboniferous synclinal troughs, as well as a crustal inhomogeneity in central Scotland, were formed in response to a stress field in which the direction of relative tension was oriented east and west relative to the present pole. These structures are considered to be higher homologues of three major extension failures (geofractures) at the base of the Upper Crust which are separated by distances of 45 and 55 km. In Ireland (like Scotland, situated close to the continental margin) north-south geofractures have previously been postulated to explain the distribution of major ore deposits (Russell 1968, 1969). Sparse stratigraphical evidence points to a late Tournaisian or Viséan age for the initiation of the postulated geofractures. They are considered to constitute the earliest evidence for the stress field that eventually caused lithosphere separation at Rockall Trough. This separation is inferred to have taken place at the end of Carboniferous times.