Research Aims
This essay will cover the basic geology of the Midland Valley, the changes in structure and volcano activities during the carboniferous period.
General introduction of the Midland Valley
The carboniferous is a period between 290 and 360 million years ago(Ref 1,p.8,Scotland Through Time). The Midland Valley was covered with lots of rainforest and numerous of coral reefs flourished in the tropical seas. Volcanos eruptions form the Campsie Fells in the central of Scotland. There are also quite a few active volcanos such as The Arthur’s Seat, North Berwick Law and Galtron Hills. The Midland Valley is described as the major geological terrane located between the Highland Boundary fault and the Southern Upland Fault. Predominant rocks in Midland Valley are sandstones and high concentration of coal from Aryshire to East Lothian (Ref 1,P.46,Midland Valley). More prominent is the landscape of the igneous rocks. The basaltic lavas form the major upland hills, predominant being the Pentlands, Ochils, Sidlaws, Campsies and Kilsyth Hills. (Ref 1 P.64,Midland …show more content…
Limestone is an organic sedimentary rock, it was buried under many layers of sediment and exposed and weathered on the surface. Furthermore the rapid evolution and colonization by land plants is responsible for the formation of coal deposits, which was one the most important resources the Scotland’s economics depended on. Coals were formed from plants remained. In late Carboniferous sandstone, siltstone, mudstone, seat earth and coal predominantly river-delta environment. Figure 1 shows that the carboniferous sedimentary rocks are dominating the central of the Midland Valley, also there are carboniferous igneous rocks located in the north-west and east of