Geological structure of Great Britain

The geological structure of Great Britain is complex, resulting as it does from a long and varied geological history spanning more than two billion years. This piece of the Earth's crust has experienced several episodes of mountain building or 'orogenies', each of which has added further complexity to the picture.

A wide range of geological structures occur across Britain and include examples at a variety of scales of:

Our understanding of Britain's large-scale structure has been gained over many decades by simple geological field survey together with an increasing range of technological methods including gravity surveys, seismic surveys, aeromagnetic surveys and other forms of remote sensing.

A useful approach to considering Britain's geological structure is to examine the various terranes from which it is composed. These are essentially continental fragments whose boundaries are generally defined by faults. Individual terranes typically contain suites of structures, the histories and form of which differ from those of neighbouring terranes.

The Hebridean Terrane is defined to the east by the Moine Thrust, beyond which lies the Northern Highlands Terrane. This area in turn abuts against the Central Highlands (or Grampian) Terrane along the Great Glen Fault. Similarly the Highland Boundary Fault separates the Central Highlands Terrane from the Midland Valley Terrane which is itself separated from the Central - Southern Uplands Terrane by the Southern Uplands Fault. Each of these terranes form a part of the former continent of Laurentia whose southeastern margin is defined by the Iapetus Suture Zone which runs parallel to the English-Scottish border though some miles to its south.

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