The Geology of Lundy
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Irving, RA, Schofield, AJ and Webster, CJ. Island Studies (1997). Bideford: Lundy Field Society The Geology of Lundy Volcanic Province (BTVP) which is composed of intru sive complexes and their associated dykes, mainly located in Scotland and Northern Ireland (Fig. 1 ). Sandy Smith and Clive Roberts Lundy is therefore of special interest in that it is the southern-most complex of the BTVP. It also differs from the Scottish part of the BTVP as it is emplaced Introduction into rocks of Hercynian age (345-245 Ma), which are Lundy, although a small island, has attracted and younger and compositionally different to those in the intrigued geologists since the nineteenth century, as it North. is formed from rocks that are of a very different type and age to the nearby rocks of Devon and South The Lundy granite Wales. It is formed mainly of granite (a coarse-grained The Lundy granite is easily visible in the quarries on igneous rock, composed of the minerals feldspar and the east side of the island and in the tops of the cliffs. quartz, often with biotite and amphibole) intruded The granite has been studied by a number of into metamorphosed sedimentary rocks. Both of researchers, in particular Dollar (1941), Edmonds et al these rocks are themselves intruded by dykes, sheet (1979) and Thorpe et al (1990) and this summary is like intrusions of igneous rock that have a vertical or based on their accounts. near-vertical orientation. The Lundy intrusion is mainly a coarse-grained The metamorphic rocks occur in the south-east granite, containing large white alkali feldspar crystals peninsula of the island, around the Landing Beach about 20-30 mm in size surrounded by a groundmass (Plate 1). They are correlated with the Upper Devonian of alkali feldspar, quartz, plagioclase, biotite and Marte Slates or Pilton Shales of North Devon which muscovite of about 1-2 mm grain size (Plate 2). The form Marte Point south-west of llfracombe. The Lundy main granite can also appear as a very coarse-grained granite appears similar to the granites of Devon and pegmatite, composed mainly of alkali feldspar and Cornwall, which were emplaced in Carboniferous tourmaline. The granite crystallised from a relatively times, 362-290 Ma (million years ago) and was origi water- and fluorine-rich magma. As it did so, the less nally thought to be the same age. However, radiomet volatile components crystallised first changing the ric dating of the Lundy granite showed that it was composition of the remaining magma as it cooled. This much younger (59-52 Ma), belonging to the Tertiary fractionation concentrated the volatiles into the late period. This makes it part of the British Tertiary stage magma, forming the pegmatites, and also thin Copyright (1997) Lundy Field Society and the author Irving, RA, Schofield, AJ and Webster, CJ. Island Studies (1997). Bideford: Lundy Field Society 60 THE GEOLOGY OF LUNDY sheets and veins of fine-grained aplite and microgran which are consistent with the presence of an underly ite which intruded the main mass. ing gabbro intrusion (composed of the minerals The accessory minerals of the granite are similar to feldspar and pyroxene) below Lundy and with a larger those found with the Devon and Cornwall volume than the granite. Mter mixing of the basic and granites, including anatase, arsenopyrite, apatite, crustal magma, and fractional crystallisation, the beryl, cassiterite, a columbite-tantalite series mineral, magma rose and then cooled in the upper crust, where cordierite, epidote, fluorite, garnet, magnetite, molyb it assimilated some of the country rock, indicated by denite, monazite, pyrrhotite, rutile, sphene, topaz, xenoliths (inclusions) of the metasediments in the tourmaline, uraninite, xenotime, wolframite, zircon granite near the contact of the rocks. and zoisite. The Lundy granite has been dated by methods that Lundy dykes - remnants of a volcano? use ratios between naturally occurring radioactive The Lundy granite and the metasediments to the south isotopes in the rock; potassium-argon, argon-argon are intruded by a swarm of dykes (Plate 3). These and rubidium-strontium. The results give the age dykes have been studied by Dollar ( 1941, 1968), of the granite between 52 and 59 Ma, of Palaeocene Mussett et al ( 1976), Edmonds et al ( 1979), Thorpe and Eocene age within the Tertiary period. This confirms Tindle (1992) and Roberts and Smith (1994) amongst the granite as part of the BTVP, despite being physical others. ly closer to the older Devon and Cornwall granites. The dykes were emplaced into joint fractures within Strontium and neodymium isotope data show that the granite and metasediments. They are slightly the Lundy granite originated from fractional younger than the granite, with radiometric ages of 45- crystallisation of a mixture of material, partly derived 56 Ma. They range in thickness up to 2 .3 m, and from a basic (alkaline) intrusion and partly from erode readily, forming prominent gullies within the sea melting of the lower crust that also formed the source cliffs. of the Devon and Cornwall granites. This explains the Most of the dykes are dark-grey dolerites (a medi similarity of the Lundy granite to the granites of Devon um-grained igneous rock composed of feldspar and . and Cornwall. The basic intrusion would have been pyroxene), but with about 10 per cent of the dykes generated by partial melting of the mantle caused by intermediate or acid in composition: trachytes or rhyo stretching at the same time as, but distant from, lites. Field relationships indicate that the dolerites where the North Atlantic was opening. Lundy is asso and trachytes/rhyolites were emplaced contemporane ciated with positive gravity and magnetic anomalies, ously, with both dyke-types cutting the other in differ- Copyright (1997) Lundy Field Society and the author Irving, RA, Schofield, AJ and Webster, CJ. Island Studies (1997). Bideford: Lundy Field Society ISLAND STUDIES 61 ent places. They both often show evidence of west of Lundy. hydrothermal alteration and may contain gas cavities, This is consistent with the origin of the dykes as indicating emplacement at a high level near the interpreted from their mineralogy and chemistry. Earth's surface. Some of these gas cavities have been Basaltic magma (the same composition as in gabbro) infJlled by secondary minerals such as chlorite, calcite, was formed from partial melting of the mantle (the analcite, natrolite and thomsonite. layer beneath the crust), with minor crustal contami The main trend of dykes in the BTVP is northwest nation. Fractional crystallisation of the basaltic magma southeast (Fig. 1), due to the northeast-southwest produced trachytic and rhyolitic magma. Most of the regional extensional stress field at the time of emplace rhyolite dykes have a peralkaline composition (rich in ment, associated with the opening of the North Atlantic sodium and potassium), but rarer subalkaline rhyo Ocean. Some of the dyke trends in the BTVP are locally lites were also formed from the basaltic magma also related to central intrusive complexes, and do not through a separate fractional crystallisation path. follow the main dyke trend. As the plateau of Lundy is There is oruy minor evidence of any interaction of the covered with superficial sediment, dykes can oruy be dyke magmas with the granite into which they were mapped directly in the sea cliffs around the island, intruded, and the intrusion must have occurred rapid which does not allow their trend to be ascertained. ly, at a high level in the crust. Instead, the presence of dykes has been inferred from The origin of the dykes is connected to the granite magnetic measurements, as dolerite dykes (but not the through the initial basaltic magma chamber. Following trachytes or rhyolites) have a much higher magnetic emplacement of the granite, the basaltic magma cham susceptibility (degree of magnetisation) than the gran ber remained active and during further fractional crys ite or metasediments, so these dykes produce magnet tallisation yielded dolerites, trachytes and rhyolite ic anomalies. These have been mapped around Lundy magmas emplaced as dykes into the cooler, jointed (Fig. 1) and on the island (Fig. 2). granite. The chemical characteristics and silica distrib The trend of dykes around Lundy is similar to the ution within the dolerite/ trachyte/rhyolite association BTVP northwest-southeast trend, but the dykes reflect fractional crystallisation of compositionally var mapped on Lundy also show a radial trend, mainly ied basaltic magma and the rapid transition from northwest-southeast towards the south end of the basalt to rhyolite over a relatively small crystallisation island, but east-west at the centre and northeast interval. This process was accompanied by rapid southwest towards the north end. Extrapolation sug emplacement of the dyke magmas into joints within gests a focus and source for the dykes 2 to 3 km to the the cool Lundy granite, accompanied by minor crustal- Copyright (1997) Lundy Field Society and the author Irving, RA, Schofield, AJ and Webster, CJ. Island Studies (1997). Bideford: Lundy Field Society KEY: [::!] ~entral Intrusive omplexes ~ Dykes and ~ DkY e Swarms Fig. 1 \\ ~~~D Regional ~· · "- "-... '- yke Swarm ~~~~around Lundy ----~~ :::-:~'----::;::_ ~ --~ ~ ,______,Skm ~ Copyright (1997) Lundy Field Society and the author Irving, RA, Schofield, AJ and Webster, CJ. Island Studies (1997). Bideford: Lundy Field Society ISLAND STUDIES 63 granite interaction. The focus of the dyke swarm to the the island and assigned them to the effects of a west of Lundy and the positive gravity anomaly to the retreating ice sheet, which also "carved" Gannets' west suggest this was the site of the basaltic magma Combe. He also noted the occurrence of roche mou chamber. tonees and glacial erratics as further evidence of an ice This rapid emplacement of the basalt, trachyte and sheet. However. many of the rounded erratics over the rhyolite magmas at a high level in the crust makes it northend are composed of locally derived Lundy possible that the magma erupted at the surface, form Granite, which (senso stricto) should not be termed ing a volcano above Lundy.