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This book contains a comprehensive field guide, including detailed itineraries and supporting data, to the Geology of Western Ireland, a classic site for world geology. It facilitates study into the rock record of the Neoproterozoic 'birth' to the Devonian 'death' of the Iapetus Ocean along the Laurentian (North American) margin. The enormous variety of lithologies and processes available for study in this spectacularly exposed region include: fluviatile to deep-sea sediments; layered ultramafic intrusions to reverse zoned granite batholiths; zeolite to eclogite facies metamorphic assemblages; continental rifting; subduction processes; island arc evolution; arc-continent collision; Andean margin development; and continent-continent collision. An introduction to the geology, that includes information relevant to the planning and execution of field trips in the region, is followed by nine chapters each providing the necessary background, field itineraries, exercisesand points for debate, covering: the Laurentian basement and Neoproterozoic cover of North Mayo, Sligo, the Ox Mountains and Connemara; the metamorphic nappes and syn-orogenic intrusions of the Ordovician Grampian Orogeny; the Cambro-Ordovician subduction-accretion complex of Clew Bay; the obducted Ordovician fore-arc basin of South Mayo; the post-subduction flip late-Ordovician of South Connemara; the Silurian successor basins deformed during the final closure of the Iapetus Ocean; the late to post-orogenic Devonian sediments; the Devonian Granite batholiths ; and the post-orogenic Carboniferous cratonic sediments. Two final chapters summarise: the current tectonic interpretation of this region; areas for future research; and the extensive sources of geochemical and geophysical data.
List of contents
Chapter 1 - Introductory section with history of research and philosophy of the guide.- Chapter 2 - The basement and Neoproterozoic rocks of North Mayo and the Ox Mountains.- Chapter 3 - The metamorphic fold nappes and syn-orogenic intrusions of Connemara.- Chapter 4 - The subduction-accretion complex and dismembered ophiolite of Clew Bay.- Chapter 5 - The Ordovician fore-arc and arc complex and the Silurian back-arc basin of South Mayo.- Chapter 6 - The post-orogenic Devonian and Carboniferous deposits.- Chapter 7 - The Devonian Granite batholiths, their emplacement and mineralisation.- Chapter 8 - Final section summarising admissible tectonic interpretations and areas of debate.
About the author
Paul D. Ryan is Emeritus Professor of Geology at NUI Galway, Ireland, with fifty years of experience in the geology of western Ireland. He has 107 publications including books, maps, software and articles with over 42,000 citations, an 'h index' of 53 and an 'i10 index' of 125 (GoogleScholar, 09/01/22). Paul co-edited 'Arc-Continent Collision' in the Springer Frontiers Series which, from 2011-2018, recorded some 42,000 chapter downloads ('top 25%').
Report
"The nineteen authors represent a great assemblage of expertise, and this is a valuable ... field guide that will be widely used by colleges and geological groups that are regular visitors to these well-trodden Irish outcrops. ... This is a truly excellent piece of work and of great benefit to the armchair traveller as well as the primary target who will use it in the field." (Nigel T. Monaghan, Irish Naturalists' Journal, Vol. 39, December, 2022)
