The Dalradian of Scotland: Missing link between the Vendian of Northern and Southern Scandinavia?

The Dalradian sequence of the Scottish Highlands and the Vendian sequences of Scandinavia accumulated in rifts that evolved into passive margins in la te Vendian to early Cambrian time. They closely resemble one another in the ir evolution. The Dalradian margin faced SE, the Scandinavian margins faced NW (present-day orientation). When plotted on a reconstruction of Laurenti a, Baltica and W Gondwana in which Baltica has a more southerly position th an the most commonly discussed reconstructions of Pannotia aral Rodinia, th e Vendian sediments form a coherent pattern. In Particular, the enigmatic g ranitic clasts in the Port Askaig Dalradian tillite appear to have been ero ded from the similar to 1 Ga Proterozoic basement of southwestern Scandinav ia. This reconstruction is supported independently by previous matches of t he metamorphic belts of Baltica and Laurentia which have been largely ignor ed in most reconstructions of Pannotia and Rodinia, and by recent informati on on the age and distribution of rift-related magmatism. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.