A Dynamic Stratigraphy of the British Isles: A Study in Crustal Evolution

Stratigraphy is a topic of central importance in any scheme of geological studies, but it has long been regarded as being dull and overburdened with tedious detail. This book draws on the latest findings from offshore exploration and on the contributions of the various Earth sciences in an attempt to break the traditional mould. It presents the geological evolution of a part of the Earth's crust as an illustrated description of events - a truly fascinating story.
The general aim is to present an up-to-date summary of data and hypotheses for the evolution of the British Isles and offshore areas. The book ranges from the oldest rocks present in the Scottish Archaean through the development of the Caledonian and Hercynian orogenic cycles to the evolution of NW Europe on the margin of the opening Atlantic Ocean. It presents for the first time a full synthesis of geological and geophysical evidence leading to plate tectonic models for the orogenies that have affected NW Europe. The treatment also draws on the contributions of geochemistry, igneous and metamorphic petrology, paleobiology, sedimentology and structural geology, thereby avoiding a narrow stratigraphical approach. The presentation assumes a background knowledge equivalent to a first-year degree course in geology. In view of the continuing outflow of data from offshore exploration and the numerous hypotheses arising out of the theory of plate tectonics, the arguments advanced in this book must be treated with due caution, and the authors have presented much of the essential data in the form of diagrams and tables in order to facilitate comparison between fact and interpretation. The text is fully referenced and thebibliography containsover 500 entries, the most important of which are pointed out to the reader.