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Imbricate thrust model of the Southern Uplands of Scotland

Abstract

FAUNAL and structural evidence1–5 suggest that a wide ocean was present between the Southern Uplands of Scotland and the English Lake District, and that during the late Ordovician and the Silurian the Southern Uplands were situated on the continental margin of North America, where the lapetus Ocean was being subducted. Here we explain the stratigraphical and structural relationships observed in the Southern Uplands by a dynamic model involving sequential accretion of an imbricating sedimentary wedge on to the continental margin. This evolutionary pattern is analogous to those suggested for many modern convergent plate boundaries6–15.

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MCKERROW, W., LEGGETT, J. & EALES, M. Imbricate thrust model of the Southern Uplands of Scotland. Nature 267, 237–239 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1038/267237a0

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