Abstract - A long-standing issue in the structural analysis of onshore Ireland is the paucity of post-Carboniferous rocks over much of the island and the associated difficulty of defining the structural evolution of the last 300 million years. This problem is sometimes compounded by the perception that certain rocks have structures of a particular age and type: whilst deformation in Lower Palaeozoic rocks is most often ascribed a Caledonian or older age, deformation of Devono-Carboniferous rocks is often considered to be no older than Variscan (i.e end Carboniferous). Using newly acquired geophysical data from both onshore and offshore Ireland, this talk describes the prolonged history of faulting in Ireland from Caledonian through to the Oligocene (20Ma) times and shows that post-Caledonian faulting is characterised by multiple reactivation of faults, with younger fault activity having a profound impact on the geology of much older rocks and on fluid flow within them.
Abstract of talk given to:
Recent Developments in Irish Geology , Open University Geological Society Conference, Dublin, August 2013.