The Neoproterozoic Dalradian Supergroup of Scotland: an alternative hypothesis

The Dalradian Supergroup is interpreted traditionally as recording c. 300 m.y. of ‘episodic’ Neoproterozoic rifting. However, lower Dalradian (pre-Easdale Subgroup) facies architecture is incompatible with rift-basin fill, and no unambiguous Neoproterozoic extensional structures are present in those rocks. Consequently, no objective evidence exists to infer that Dalradian sedimentation was initiated during extensional tectonism. That, combined with the accumulating data for contractile deformation in Scotland at c. 870–800 Ma, the Knoydartian orogeny, permits the proposal of an alternative tectonostratigraphic evolution for the Dalradian. I propose that Dalradian basin genesis was initiated as a foredeep in response to Knoydartian orogenesis. The coarsening- and shallowing-upward, 6–8 km-thick Grampian Group–lower Lochaber Subgroup succession arguably represents a flysch to molasse Knoydartian foredeep overlain by a moderately stable post-orogenic shelfal sequence recorded by the relatively uniform thinner (c. 4 km) and compositionally more mature rocks of the upper Lochaber through Islay subgroups. Lithospheric-scale extensional tectonism and rifting did not occur until the late Neoproterozoic, as marked by the laterally variable, volcanic- and igneous-bearing Easdale Subgroup, and was followed by the late Neoproterozoic–early Palaeozoic Iapetan rift-to-drift transition through the Southern Highland Group.