Caledonide volcanism in Britain and Ireland

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Abstract
Summary: This paper reviews the state of knowledge of the volcanic activity which accompanied the development of the Caledonide orogen in Britain and Ireland. Unlike the relative abundance of stratigraphical data, geochemical information is scarce in earlier accounts, but in the last decade or so there has been a surge of interest coincident with the introduction of rapid analytical techniques and with the development of methods for distinguishing primary petrographical and chemical characteristics from those of subsequent alteration. Many of the Caledonide volcanic rocks were erupted into or beneath water, interbedded with sediments and then affected by orogenic deformation and metamorphism, yet this has apparently had less effect than might be expected on the gross geochemistry of the volcanic rocks. In the paratectonic Caledonides, submarine weathering and low-grade hydrous metamorphism have been the principal causes of element mobility, and the effects produced are, in many cases, remarkably similar to those which affect present-day eruptives in oceanic environments.