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1.
A three-dimensional gravity modelling of the Carpatho-Pannonian region was carried out to get a better image of the Moho boundary
and the most prominent intra-crustal density heterogeneities. At first, only the major density boundaries were considered:
the bottom of the Tertiary basin fill, the Moho discontinuity and the lithosphere to asthenosphere boundary. Density contrasts
were represented by relative densities. The improved density model shows a transitional unit of high density at the base of
the crust along the Teisseyre-Tornquist Zone. In the Western Carpathians, an extensive, relatively low-density unit was inferred
in mid-crustal levels. The border zone between the Southern Carpathians and the Transylvanian basin is characterized by a
sharp, step-like contact of the two crustal units. The Moho configuration reveals important information on the tectonic evolution
of the region. Zones of continental collision are represented by thick Moho roots (Eastern Alps, Eastern Carpathians). Transpressional
orogenic segments, however, are different: in the Western Carpathians, the Moho is a flat surface; in the Dinarides, a medium
Moho root is observed; the Southern Carpathians are characterized by a thick crustal root. The differences are explained with
the presence or absence of “subductible” oceanic crust along the Carpathians during the extrusion of Pannonian blocks. 相似文献
2.
S. Corrado L. Aldega P. Di Leo C. Giampaolo C. Invernizzi S. Mazzoli M. Zattin 《地学学报》2005,17(1):56-65
The reconstruction of the thermal history of folded and thrust units is crucial to define the pattern of tectonic loading and the time-space evolution of an orogen where tectonic exhumation processes occurred at shallow crustal levels. In the present study, a well-constrained reconstruction of the thermal maturity in the axial zone of the southern Apennines has been achieved by the combined use of different thermal indicators in diagenesis. The major results are: (i) documentation of a jump in thermal maturity from the Apenninic Platform derived tectonic unit (from immature to early mature stages of hydrocarbon maturation) to the Lagonegro Basin derived tectonic units (late diagenetic zone); (ii) documentation of along-strike slighter variations in the Lagonegro units, concerning thermal maturity (thus maximum burial temperatures). This can be related to changes in amounts of tectonic burial and erosion/exhumation because of the lack of cylindricity of contractional structures; (iii) recognition of an independent thermal evolution of the allochthonous chain compared with the Apulian Platform tectonic unit with Mt Alpi area (in the late mature stage of hydrocarbon generation) interpreted as a sector of localized, intense exhumation within the External Zone of the orogen. 相似文献
3.
Extensive deposition of marine evaporites occurred during the Early–Middle Eocene in the South‐eastern Pyrenean basin (north‐east Spain). This study integrates stratigraphic and geochemical analyses of subsurface data (oil wells, seismic profiles and gravity data) together with field surveys to characterize this sedimentation in the foredeep and adjacent platform. Four major evaporite units were identified. The oldest was the Serrat Evaporites unit, with a platform‐slope‐basin configuration. Thick salina and sabkha sulphates accumulated on the platform, whereas resedimented and gravity‐derived sulphates were deposited on the slope, and salt and sulphates were deposited in the deep basin. In the subsequent unit (Vallfogona evaporites), thin sulphates formed on the platform, whereas very thick siliciclastic turbidites accumulated in the foredeep. However, some clastic gypsum coming from the platform (gypsarenites and gypsum olistoliths) was intercalated in these turbidites. The following unit, the Beuda Gypsum Formation developed in a sulphate platform‐basin configuration, where the topography of the depositional surface had become smooth. The youngest unit, the Besalú Gypsum, formed in a shallow setting. This small unit provides the last evidence of marine influence in a residual basin. Sulphur and oxygen isotope compositions are consistent with a marine origin for all evaporites. However, δ34S and δ18O values also suggest that, except for the oldest unit (Serrat Evaporites), there was some sulphate recycling from the older into the younger units. The South‐eastern Pyrenean basin constitutes a fine example of a foreland basin that underwent multiepisodic evaporitic sedimentation. In the basin, depositional factors evolved with time under a structural control. Decreasing complexity is observed in the lithofacies, as well as in the depositional models, together with a diminishing thickness of the evaporite units. 相似文献
4.
Recognition of palaeokarst in the oldest exposed Devonian (Givetian ‐ lower Frasnian) platform successions of the Canning Basin reef complexes has eluded investigators for over forty years. The first evidence for palaeokarst, developed on microbial mud‐mounds in a single stratigraphic horizon, is documented and records an episode of exposure during early carbonate platform development. Surface palaeokarst features are scalloped surfaces, solution pits and a pipe, underlain by fenestral limestone with sediment‐filled fossil moulds and vugs. The platform succession has variably developed metre‐scale cycles which are composed predominantly of shallowing‐upward subtidal facies, with some cycles having fenestral peloidal mudstone caps. Changes in facies type and stratigraphic arrangement up the succession define two deepening‐upward units (～70 and 180 m thick), with the palaeokarst surface representing emergence following rapid shallowing at the top of the lower unit. The stratigraphic position of the palaeokarst between these two units suggests it may represent a sequence boundary. This may have been caused by a low‐magnitude eustatic fall or footwall‐uplift event superimposed on a rapidly subsiding basin margin. 相似文献
5.
G. Aiello A. Ascione D. Barra R. Munno P. Petrosino E. Russo Ermolli F. Villani 《第四纪科学杂志》2007,22(3):233-245
The Pantano di San Gregorio Magno is a 4.7 km2 large tectono‐karstic basin located in the axial belt of the Southern Apennines, an area affected by intense seismicity. The basin was formed in the Middle Pleistocene and is presently undissected. It is filled by lacustrine sediments (clays, silts and pyroclastic sands) passing laterally into alluvial fan deposits. Geomorphological investigations were integrated with tephrostratigraphical, palynological and palaeoecological analyses of a 61 m thick core (not reaching the bedrock). The multiproxy analysis of the S. Gregorio Magno record shows that, over the last 200k yr, the basin hosted a freshwater lake with an oscillating level. Age constraints provided by the tephrostratigraphic record allowed estimation of the sedimentation rate, which varied strongly through time. Evolution of the basin resulted from the complex combination of tectonic subsidence, karst processes and changing amounts of sedimentary inputs. The latter was influenced by allogenic contributions related both to primary and reworked volcanoclastic inputs and was climate‐driven. The overall evidence, which indicates that in the long‐term the accumulation rate substantially counterbalanced the accommodation space created by faulting, suggests that the basin evolution was also modulated by changing subsidence rates. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 相似文献
6.
FABRIZIO BERRA 《Sedimentology》2007,54(4):721-735
In the Concarena‐Pizzo Camino Massif (Lombardy Basin, Southern Alps, Italy) the lateral transition from Ladinian‐Carnian carbonate platforms to coeval intraplatform basins is preserved. The succession records the sedimentological evidence of a sea‐level fall on a flat‐topped platform with a narrow marginal reef rim and its effects in the adjacent deeper‐water basin. Repeated high‐frequency exposures of the platform top are recorded by a peritidal–supratidal succession that overlies subtidal inner platform facies of the former highstand system tract (HST). On the slope and in the basin, the sea‐level fall is recorded by a few metre thick succession of bioclastic packstones. These facies directly lie on coarse clinostratified breccia bodies (slope facies of the former HST) or on resedimented, well‐bedded, dark laminated limestones (basinal facies of the HST). This facies distribution indicates that during the sea‐level fall carbonate production on the platform top decreased rapidly and that sedimentation in the basin was mainly represented by condensed facies. Microfacies record an enrichment, during low stand, in pelagic biota (packstones with radiolarians and spiculae), whereas the occurrence of platform‐derived, shallow‐water materials is limited to thin lenses of reworked and micritized Fe‐rich oolites and bioclasts (mainly pelecypods and echinoderms). The facies association in the Concarena‐Pizzo Camino Massif demonstrates that a highly‐productive carbonate factory was almost completely turned off during the emergence of the platform top at a sequence boundary, leading to low‐stand starvation in the basin. The reconstruction of the stratigraphic evolution of the Concarena‐Pizzo Camino carbonate platform therefore represents a significant case history for the study of the behaviour of ancient carbonate systems during a fall in sea‐level, independent of its origin (eustatic or tectonic). 相似文献
7.
New data on ophiolite-bearing terranes of the Liguride Complex, together with some information on the terranes of the Sicilide Complex, result in a better understanding of the role and tectonic significance of these units in the construction of the Southern Apennines orogenic belt. The Liguride Complex is composed of two main tectonic units overlain by a thick turbiditic sequence of Late Oligocene-Middle Miocene age. The uppermost one (Frido Unit) is a polydeformed and polymetamorphosed sequence, composed of two tectonic subunits of shales and calc-schists, respectively, containing blocks of ophiolite, garnet gneiss, amphibolites and granitoids. This unit is thrust over the un-metamorphosed terranes (Calabro–Lucano Flysch Unit) consisting of a broken formation with blocks of Late Jurassic ophiolite and their sedimentary cover, Cretaceous-Eocene pelagic sediments and Late Oligocene volcaniclastic deposits. The Frido Unit underwent HP/LT metamorphism (P= 8–10 Kb; T= 400–500 °C) resulting in glaucophane and lawsonite assemblages in the ophiolitic rocks and aragonite in the meta-limestones and calc-schists, followed by greenschist fades metamorphism (P= 4 Kb; T= 300–350 °C). From a structural point of view units of the Liguride Complex comprise structures developed at different structural levels, indicating progressive non-coaxial deformation in response to tectonic transport towards the N-NE. The ophiolite-bearing terranes of the Liguride Complex can be considered as a remnant of an accretionary complex in which the Calabro Lucano Flysch Unit represents the toe of the wedge where frontal accretion processes occur and the Frido Unit is a deeper portion. Emplacement of the Frido Unit is explained as being due to formation of a deep duplex structure during the early stage of continental collision processes. The polarity of tectonic transport provides new evidence that the Liguride Complex represents a suture zone between the Apulian and the Calabrian blocks. The age of collision appears to be not older than late Oligocene. The allochtonous terranes of the Liguride and Sicilide Complexes, therefore, represent a complete accretionary wedge which records, first, subduction of the Neotethys ocean beneath the Calabrian (Europe) continental margin and, later, continental collision with the African block. 相似文献
8.
《Sedimentary Geology》2006,183(1-2):71-97
Large NW–SE oriented, Neogene–Quaternary structural depressions, up to about 200 km long and 25 km wide, have developed on the western side (hinterland) of the Northern Apennines over thrust substrate. The depressions are now, for the most part, laterally bounded by normal faults and are longitudinally separated into basins by transfer zones. A debate exists in the literature as to whether these basins have developed as half-graben under a predominantly extensional regime since late Miocene, or as thrust-top basins under a predominantly compressional regime that has continued until the Pleistocene. The Radicofani Basin is one of the best-preserved basins. It developed mainly during the late Miocene–Early Pliocene in the southern half of the Siena–Radicofani structural depression, and is now bounded on the east by normal faults that transect a thrust anticline “nose“ in the substrate, to the north by a substrate high or transfer zone, and to the south and west by Quaternary igneous/volcanic edifices. The basin experienced variable differential tectonic and associated sedimentation along linking, normal boundary faults. Along its eastern margin it shows the development of thick (∼600 m) alluvial fans that developed in relay areas between boundary faults and transverse faults and transfer zones. Well-exposed sections generally show upward transitions from conglomeratic alluvial fans, to shoreface sandstone, to offshore mudstones. Locally, the transition is marked by deltas primarily characterised by thick gravelly, sandy, stacked cross-sets The thicker, sandy-gravel to gravelly-sand cross-sets (5–8 m thick) are interpreted as Gilbert-type deltas; interstratified thinner (0.5–1 m thick), generally openwork gravelly strata are part of delta topset assemblages and probably represent prograding fluvial bars. Tectonic movements provided the accommodation space for the total, ∼2700 m thick basin fill. Sea level fluctuations that led to the repeated development of the cross-sets may also have been influenced by climatic or eustatic changes, possibly related to the effects of early Antarctic glaciations.Some features of the Radicofani Basin can be found in both extensional and compressional basins. However, the position of the basin in the mountain chain and the development of alluvial fans, fandeltas and associated deposits along the main boundary fault, combined with structural evidence from seismic lines, show that during the early Pliocene this basin best conforms to existing models of half-graben. 相似文献
9.
The Triassic petrostratigraphic system and chronologic stratigraphic sketch have been updated and perfected in the Qiangtang area, Qinghai-Tibet Plateau based on the integrated 1:250000 regional geological survey and the latest research progeny. The first finished 1:3000000 Triassic tectonic lithofacies paleogeographic maps in the Qiangtang area shows that the Triassic tectonic unit in the Qiangtang area can been divided into three parts from north to south: northern Qiangtang block; Longmucuo-Shuanghu suture zone; and southern Qiangtang block. 相似文献
10.
Claudio I. Casciano Marco Patacci Sergio G. Longhitano Marcello Tropeano William D. McCaffrey Claudio Di Celma 《Sedimentology》2019,66(1):205-240
The Miocene Gorgoglione Flysch Formation records the stratigraphic product of protracted sediment transfer and deposition through a long‐lived submarine channel system developed in a narrow and elongate thrust‐top basin of the Southern Apennines (Italy). Channel‐fill deposits are exposed in an outcrop belt approximately 500 m thick and 15 km long, oriented oblique to the palaeoflow, which was roughly south‐eastward. These exceptional exposures of channel‐fill strata allow the stacking architectures and the evolution of the channel system to be analyzed at multiple scales, enabling the effects of syn‐sedimentary thrust tectonics and basin confinement on the depositional system development to be deciphered. Two end‐member types of elementary channel architecture have been identified: high‐aspect‐ratio, weakly‐confined channels, and low‐aspect‐ratio, incisional channels. Their systematic stacking results in a complex pattern of seismic‐scale depositional architectures that determines the stratigraphic framework of the deep‐water system. From the base of the succession, two prominent channel complex sets have been recognized, namely CS1 and CS2, consisting of amalgamated incisional channel elements and weakly‐confined channel elements. These channelized units are overlain by isolated incisional channels, erosional into mud‐prone slope deposits. The juxtaposition of different channel architectures is interpreted to have been governed by regional thrust‐tectonics, in combination with a high subsidence rate that promoted significant aggradation. In this scenario, the alternating ‘in sequence’ and ‘out of sequence’ tectonic pulses of the basin‐bounding thrusts controlled the activation of coarse‐clastic inputs in the basin and the resulting stacking architectures of channelized units. The tectonically‐driven confinement of the depositional system limited the lateral offset in channel stacking, preventing large‐scale avulsions. This study represents an excellent opportunity to analyze the stratigraphic evolution of a submarine channel system in tectonically‐active settings from an outcrop perspective. It should find wide applicability in analogous depositional systems, whose stratigraphic architecture has been influenced by tectonically‐controlled lateral confinement and associated lateral tilting. 相似文献
11.
塔里木盆地为中国西部大型克拉通盆地,巴楚隆起是塔里木盆地内部中央隆起带西部的一个重要构造单元,其所发育的边界断裂严格限制了巴楚隆起的范围,边界断裂的发育使得巴楚隆起的形成表现为一个复杂过程,探讨其形成过程及机制可为研究克拉通内变形特征及机制提供依据。文中借助于钻井及地震解释资料,刻画了巴楚隆起所发育的断裂特征及地质结构,并建立了其三维地质结构模型,结合大地构造背景及演化特征剖析了巴楚隆起的形成机制。通过研究,巴楚隆起在纵向上可识别出7个主要不整合面,并以此为界面,结合演化特征,将巴楚隆起自下而上划分为7个构造层;结合断裂带展布特征及地层构造形态,将巴楚隆起在平面上划分为西部断垒带、阿恰-吐木休克断裂带、海米罗斯-玛扎塔格断裂带、东部向斜带等4个次级构造单元;通过研究,巴楚隆起初始形成于晚奥陶世末期,晚二叠世末期强烈隆升,新近纪早期进一步隆升,上新世至第四纪时仍遭受挤压改造形成现今面貌,其形成演化主要受到边界断裂影响。 相似文献
12.
This paper presents a geological–structural study of some Neogene hinterland basins of the Northern Apennines, located on the Tyrrhenian side of the chain. These basins developed on the already delineated thrust-fold belt from middle–late Tortonian times. Their evolution has been commonly referred to an extensional tectonic regime, related to the opening of the Tyrrhenian Sea. New data have allowed us to hypothesize a different tectonic evolution for the chain, where compressive tectonics plays a major role both in the external and in the hinterland area. In this frame, the hinterland area located west of a major outcropping crustal thrust (Mid-Tuscany Metamorphic Ridge) has been the target of a geological–structural investigation. The field mapping and structural analysis has been focused on the syntectonic sediments of the Radicondoli–Volterra basin as well as on adjoining minor basins. These basins commonly display a synclinal structure and are generally located in between basement culminations, probably corresponding to thrust anticlines. Sediments of the hinterland basins have been affected by compressive deformation and regional unconformities separate stratigraphic units due to the activity of basement thrusts. In the study area, normal faulting either accommodates the thrusting processes or post-dates compressive deformation. A chronology of faulting and a six-stage evolution of this area are presented, providing further insights for the Neogene tectonic evolution of the Northern Apennines. Copyright © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 相似文献
13.
The Longmen Shan fault zone is located at the particular boundary between the Triassic Songpan-Ganzi orogen of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau and the stable Sichuan basin of the Yangtze platform. There are four major active faults and three tectonic nappes in this region. According to an analysis of neotectonics and historical earthquakes, the Longmen Shan fault zone presents a high level of seismic hazard. The rupture system that hosted the Wenchuan earthquake is characterized by thrust and dextral strike-slip movement. 相似文献
14.
We present a map that correlates tectonic units between Alps and western Turkey accompanied by a text providing access to literature data, explaining the concepts used for defining the mapped tectonic units, and first-order paleogeographic inferences. Along-strike similarities and differences of the Alpine-Eastern Mediterranean orogenic system are discussed. The map allows (1) for superimposing additional information, such as e.g., post-tectonic sedimentary basins, manifestations of magmatic activity, onto a coherent tectonic framework and (2) for outlining the major features of the Alpine-Eastern Mediterranean orogen. Dinarides-Hellenides, Anatolides and Taurides are orogens of opposite subduction polarity and direction of major transport with respect to Alps and Carpathians, and polarity switches across the Mid-Hungarian fault zone. The Dinarides-Hellenides-Taurides (and Apennines) consist of nappes detached from the Greater Adriatic continental margin during Cretaceous and Cenozoic orogeny. Internal units form composite nappes that passively carry ophiolites obducted in the latest Jurassic–earliest Cretaceous or during the Late Cretaceous on top of the Greater Adriatic margin successions. The ophiolites on top of composite nappes do not represent oceanic sutures zones, but root in the suture zones of Neotethys that formed after obduction. Suturing between Greater Adria and the northern and eastern Neotethys margin occupied by the Tisza and Dacia mega-units and the Pontides occurred in the latest Cretaceous along the Sava-İzmir-Ankara-Erzincan suture zones. The Rhodopian orogen is interpreted as a deep-crustal nappe stack formed in tandem with the Carpatho-Balkanides fold-thrust belt, now exposed in a giant core complex exhumed in late Eocene to Miocene times from below the Carpatho-Balkan orogen and the Circum-Rhodope unit. Its tectonic position is similar to that of the Sakarya unit of the Pontides. We infer that the Rhodope nappe stack formed due to north-directed thrusting. Both Rhodopes and Pontides are suspected to preserve the westernmost relics of the suture zone of Paleotethys. 相似文献
15.
Luis O'Dogherty Agustín Martín-Algarra Hans-Jürgen Gursky Roque Aguado 《International Journal of Earth Sciences》2001,90(4):831-846
Middle Jurassic radiolarites and associated pelagic limestones occur in the Rondaide Nieves unit of the Betic Cordillera, southern Spain. The Rondaide Mesozoic includes: (a) a thick succession of Triassic platform carbonates, comparable to the Alpine Hauptdolomit and Kössen facies; (b) Lower Jurassic pelagic limestones comparable to the Alpine Hierlatz and Adnet facies; (c) the Middle Jurassic Parauta Radiolarite Formation, described herein; and (d) a thin Upper Jurassic-Cretaceous condensed limestone succession. The Parauta Radiolarite Formation and associated limestones were studied with respect to stratigraphy, petrography, micropalaeontology (radiolarians, calcareous nanno- and microfossils) and facies. Radiolarite sedimentation occurred in the Middle Bathonian in a restricted and dysoxic deep Nieves basin, perched in the distal zone of a continental margin fringing the Tethyan ocean. This margin was adjacent to a young narrow oceanic basin between the South-Iberian margin and a continental block called Mesomediterranean Terrane. The Nieves basin was part of a marine corridor between the Proto-Atlantic and Piedmont-Ligurian basins of the Alpine Tethys. The regional tectonic position, the stratigraphical evolution since the Triassic, the age and the nature of the Mesozoic facies and the palaeogeographic relations to adjacent domains show striking analogies between the Betic Rondaide margin and coeval units of the Alps. 相似文献
16.
17.
JiangLaili WuWeiping ChuDongru 《中国地质大学学报(英文版)》2005,16(2):104-114
INTRODUCTION TheDabieMountainsareacollisionalorogenbe tweentheSouthandNorthChinablocks.Theageof theultrahighpressuremetamorphism(Hackeretal., 1998;Rowleyetal.,1997;Amesetal.,1993;Liet al.,1993)andthelateststratainvolvedintheforeland fold thrustbelt(Xueta… 相似文献
18.
能源矿产是国家安全和经济发展的战略资源,加强我国及周边地区油气和煤等能源资源的研究和开发利用意义重大。依据板块构造和大陆动力学以及油气与煤成藏地质学理论,以深部构造控制盆—山发育、盆—山耦合和热动力系统控制成矿的研究工作思路,应用70个油气田、471个煤田的基础地质资料,从沉积盆地发育的区域地质特征、成矿地质条件和成矿单元诸多方面,在地理信息系统（GIS）平台上提示了该区板块构造格局与能源资源的时空分布规律。中国南部及邻区能源资源可划分为3个成矿域,每个成矿域又可进一步划分为成矿省、含矿区（盆地）、矿田聚集区带、矿田（油气田）五个级别的成矿区域。数据集由构造带（断裂带和造山带）类型和时代、盆地类型和时代、能源矿产资源类型和丰度、成矿区带等元数据组成。该数据集是在区域大地构造研究的基础上,结合沉积盆地能源矿产（石油、天然气、煤）资源评价资料,综合分析成矿区带特征,利用地理信息系统（GIS）建立的一套完整的数据库,不仅是对中国南部及邻区区域地质认识和沉积盆地能源资源勘查工作成果的集成,而且为国家科学地引导地质找矿工作部署提供理论基础。 相似文献
19.
Abstract Accumulation within the unconformity‐based Hauterivian Avilé Sandstone of the Neuquén Basin, Argentina, was characterized by a close interaction between fluvial and aeolian processes developed after a major relative sea‐level drop that almost completely desiccated the entire basin and juxtaposed these non‐marine deposits on shallow‐ and deep‐marine facies. Aeolian deposits within the Avilé Member include dune (A1) and sand sheet (A2) units that characterize the lower part of the unit. Fluvial deposits comprise distal flood units (F1) interbedded with aeolian dune deposits in the middle part of the succession, and low‐ (F2) and high‐sinuosity (F3) channels associated with floodplain deposits (F4) towards the top. The internal characteristics of the aeolian system indicate that its accumulation was strongly controlled by water‐table dynamics, with the development of multiple horizontal deflation super surfaces that truncate dune deposits and form the basal boundary of flood deposits and sand sheet units. A long‐term wetting‐upward trend is recorded throughout the entire unit, with an increase in fluvial activity towards the top and the development of a more permanent fluvial system overlying a major erosion surface interpreted as a sequence boundary. The upward increase in water‐table influence might be related to relative sea‐level rise, which controlled the position of the water table and allowed the accumulation of tabular aeolian units bounded by horizontal deflation surfaces. This high‐frequency, eustatically driven process acted together with a long‐term climatic change towards wetter conditions. 相似文献
20.
Structural trends in the Celtic Sea area indicate that Variscan deformation patterns were inherited from Caledonian basement structures, and that the regional fold alignment is arcuate with a regional WSW-ENE direction rather than WNW-ESE (Armorican). There is no lateral structural continuity between Southern Ireland and South Wales-Southwest England. Three major structural provinces arranged en échelon across the Variscan foldbelt are recognised: (a) Southwest England, where there was complex deformation of a major basin; (b) the South Wales-Mendips foreland area, with strong basement/cover interaction and (c) the Southern Ireland graben and flanking platform province. Late Palaeozoic depositional patterns indicate that Southern Ireland and Southwest England were separated by a WSW-ENE trending platform bounded on the north by the inherited Wexford Boundary Lineament and to the south by a previously unidentified major Palaeozoic fault zone, here termed the Bristol Channel Lineament. The South Wales-Mendips Variscan successions accumulated on this intervening Wales-Celtic Sea platform, and were partly influenced by rejuvenated Caledonian fault lines. It is suggested that the northern margin of the Rheno-Hercynian foldbelt (the Variscan Front) be taken along the Bristol Channel Lineament, which can be traced for some 400 km southwestwards towards the Goban Spur on the continental margin. This permits a rationalisation of both tectonic and major facies boundaries in locating the front. It is also suggested that the structurally localised nature of the Southern Ireland basin be recognised by designating it as the Southern Ireland Zone of the Variscan foldbelt.The sites of Mesozoic rifting in the Celtic Sea and adjacent areas, although complex in detail, appear to have been located along the Wexford Boundary and Bristol Channel Lineaments. 相似文献