The British Tertiary Igneous Province: Palaeomagnetism of the Vaternish Dyke Swarm on North Skye, Scotland

Abstract

We present here the results of a palaeomagnetic investigation of 87 dykes from the north‐western area of the regional linear dyke‐swarm of Skye, NW Scotland, as a further contribution to studies of the British Tertiary igneous province. Twenty per cent of the dykes are normally magnetized, as with the north Mull dyke swarm. Reversely magnetized dykes with very low inclinations are present, as they are in some previous studies of the province. There are groups of closely adjacent dykes in which the individual dykes of any one group have very similar directions of magnetization‐ ‘palaeomagnetic dyke groups’. The overall distribution of dyke‐mean magnetizations is very far from being Fisherian. A mean pole position is not considered to be a useful expression of the results. Copyright © 1974, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved