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- This article describes the geology of the Cairngorms National Park, an area in the Highlands of Scotland designated as a national park in 2003 and extended in 2010. The Cairngorms National Park extends across a much wider area than the Cairngorms massif itself and hence displays rather more varied geology. The majority of the rocks within the National Park belong to the Dalradian Supergroup, a thick sequence of sands, muds and limestones that were deposited between about 800 and 600 million years ago on the margins of the former continent of Laurentia. Rocks now ascribed to the Moine Supergroup occur along the northwestern edge of the Park. The Dalradian and Moine successions were intensely faulted, folded and metamorphosed during the Caledonian Orogeny between about 490 and 430 million years ago Geologists recognize a ‘Grampian event’, centred around 470 million years ago, which was responsible for the initial deformation of the Dalradian and relates to the collision of a volcanic island arc with Laurentia over a period of about 20 million years. The subsequent collision of Baltica with Laurentia caused the ‘Scandian event’ which involved further folding and faulting of the Dalradian rock sequence. The Great Glen, Ericht-Laidon and Glen Tilt faults were all active as strike-slip faults at this time and may have played a part in allowing large plutons of granite to rise up amongst the Dalradian rocks and then cool in situ. The largest of these plutons is the granite mass which forms the Cairngorms themselves and which was emplaced around 427 million years ago. It is thought that the pluton had been unroofed within 20 million years of its emplacement and that the present landscape of the Cairngorms had begun to form by 390 million years ago. Evidence suggests that the granite currently at the surface was initially to be found at a depth of between 4 and 7 km. Other than a small outlier of Old Red Sandstone, there are no younger solid rocks within the National Park. The ice ages of the last 2.5 million years have however left their mark both in terms of erosional and depositional features. Post-glacial features include peat and landslips. (en)
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- This article describes the geology of the Cairngorms National Park, an area in the Highlands of Scotland designated as a national park in 2003 and extended in 2010. The Cairngorms National Park extends across a much wider area than the Cairngorms massif itself and hence displays rather more varied geology. Other than a small outlier of Old Red Sandstone, there are no younger solid rocks within the National Park. The ice ages of the last 2.5 million years have however left their mark both in terms of erosional and depositional features. Post-glacial features include peat and landslips. (en)
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- Geology of the Cairngorms National Park (en)
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