- journal_title：Journal of the Geological Society
- Contributor：M. R. Cooper ; H. Anderson ; J. J. Walsh ; C. L. Van Dam ; M. E. Young ; G. Earls ; A. Walker
- Publisher：Geological Society of London
- Date：2012-
- Format：text/html
- Language：en
- Identifier：10.1144/0016-76492010-182
- journal_abbrev：Journal of the Geological Society
- issn：0016-7649
- volume：169
- issue：1
- firstpage：29
- section：Research Article
The Cenozoic tectonic history of NW Europe is generally attributed to some combination of three principal controlling factors: North Atlantic opening, Alpine collision and formation of the Icelandic mantle plume. Using constraints from the high-resolution Tellus aeromagnetic survey of Northern Ireland, we show that Palaeogene tectonics can be attributed to approximately north–south Alpine-related compression, forming NNW–SSE-trending dextral and ENE–WSW-trending sinistral conjugate strike-slip faults, with the latter defined by kilometre-scale displacements along reactivated Caledonian or Carboniferous faults. This tectonism was, however, punctuated by pulsed magmatic intrusive and extrusive events, including four distinct dyke swarms that are attributed to NE–SW- to east–west-directed plume-related extension. Although this evidence shows, for the first time, that north–south Alpine compression was periodically overwhelmed by the dynamic stresses and uplift associated with pulsed mantle plume-related deformation, associated strike-slip faulting may have controlled the locus of volcanic activity and central igneous complexes, and the location of sedimentary depocentres.