Deep resistivity imaging across the Northern and Central belts of the Southern Uplands

Abstract

AbstractMagnetotelluric data from 16 soundings have provided a northwest-southeast traverse across the Northern and Central belts of the Southern Uplands. The 34 km profile extends from the Ordovician Portpatrick Formation (northwest of the Thornhill Basin) across the Silurian Gala Group onto the Permian Lochmaben Basin in the southeast. The survey traverses, and has particular relevance to, the Ordovician/Silurian boundary (Orlock Bridge Fault), the associated Moniaive Shear Zone, and the Moffat Valley Lineament. The data obtained have been successfully modelled (inverted) to provide a crustal-scale resistivity cross-section. The two Upper Palaeozoic basins are resolved as relatively conducting features. Basin depths are about 200 m (Thornhill) and 1100 m (Lochmaben). Elsewhere, through the upper crustal interval, resistivities over 500 ohm m are associated with the Lower Palaeozoic greywackes. The Silurian formations appear more resistive (and slightly thicker) than their Ordovician counterparts. Depth to basement (base Lower Palaeozoic) is not a well-resolved characteristic but resistivity gradients observed below 5 km suggest a depth of this order. Concealed beneath the Thornhill Basin lie two narrow, vertical, conductive zones. The more substantial feature lies towards the northwest margin of the basin, and is probably associated with the Orlock Bridge Fault. The second zone lies towards the southeast margin of the basin. The conductivity minima, in both cases, are located in the depth range 2 to 3 km; they are separate and distinct from the overlying basin sediments. If the two anomalies, some 5 to 6 km apart, can be considered an expression of the Moniaive Shear Zone, then the major conductive constituents are concentrated at the margins. Two dipping, resistive features in the upper kilometre are imaged in the vicinity of the Moffat Valley Lineament.