The British Tertiary Volcanic Province (BTVP) is part of a larger N Atlantic Tertiary Province that includes NW Britain, E Greenland, the Faroes and Iceland (see Flood basalt). The igneous activity in this major province is related to the plate separation and subsequent sea-floor spreading between Greenland and NW Europe. NW Britain, E Greenland and the Faroes are situated on continental crust, but Iceland is of truly oceanic character and represents the site of current igneous activity on the spreading ridge axis that bisects the island. The structural setting of the igneous activity in the BTVP differs from that of E Greenland and the Faroes in that it lies within the continental crust while E Greenland and the Faroes are situated at the margin adjacent to ocean crust. The voluminous effusion of tholeiitic basalts in E Greenland and the Faroes immediately preceded plate separation. In the BTVP, alkaline basaltic and transitional magma types and their derivatives occur in association...
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*Contains an extensive reference list.
Bibliography
Emeleus, C. H., 1983, Tertiary igneous activity, in G. Y. Craig, ed., The Geology of Scotland, 2nd edn. Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press, 357–397.
Sutherland, D. S., ed., 1982, Igneous Rocks of the British Isles. London: Wiley. (See particularly Chaps. 27–34.)
Thompson, R. N., 1982, Magmatism of the British Tertiary Volcanic Province, Scott. J. Geol. 18, 49–107.
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© 1989 Van Nostrand Reinhold
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Durant, G.P. (1989). British tertiary volcanic province . In: Petrology. Encyclopedia of Earth Science. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-30845-8_28
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