Geological Studies in the Dublin District. I. The Heavy Minerals of the Granite and the Contiguous Rocks in the Ballycorus District

Abstract

From the southern shores of Dublin Bay there stretches to the south-west a broad granite intrusion with rocks of supposed Ordovician age on both sides of it. These rocks are metamorphosed near the granite, and the belt of metamorphism is wider on the south-east than on the north-west side, indicating, no doubt, that the plane of junction dips more steeply on the latter side. Near Dublin the Lower Carboniferous rocks rest unaltered upon the granite. On the south-east side, in the northern part of the county of Wicklow, the belt of Ordovician rocks is only some 2 miles wide, and a large area of supposed Cambrian rocks lies between it and the sea. Around the hill of Carrickgollogan a. patch of similar rocks appears incongruously in the middle of the Ordovician belt. After a study of the region to the south of Dublin one seems to be naturally drawn towards this small area around Carrickgollogan, for it presents a problem, the key to which may explain the geological structure of a much wider area.