A model for the development of the Irish Variscides

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Abstract
A clear correlation exists in the southern Irish Variscides between extensional structures which controlled late Palaeozoic sedimentation in the Munster Basin, and contractional thrusts and folds of end-Carboniferous age. This correlation is interpreted to indicate that the extensional structural framework of the basin, including a basal low-angle detachment and an array of superjacent normal faults, was reused during transpressive inversion of the basin to produce the fold-thrust belt. The extensional framework, which in turn was to some extent derived by reactivation of Caledonian structures, therefore, exerted a fundamental control on the geometry and style of contractional deformation. It is not evident that the detachment had a discrete link to the fold belt in south Wales or the main Variscan orogen in Europe.