The Southern Uplands Fault (or occasionally Southern Upland Fault) is a
fault in
Scotland
Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
that runs from
Girvan
Girvan (, "mouth of the River Girvan") is a burgh and harbour town in Carrick, South Ayrshire, Scotland. Girvan is situated on the east coast of the Firth of Clyde, with a population of about 6,450. It lies south of Ayr, and north of St ...
(or more specifically from the
Rhins of Galloway) to
Dunbar
Dunbar () is a town on the North Sea coast in East Lothian in the south-east of Scotland, approximately east of Edinburgh and from the Anglo–Scottish border, English border north of Berwick-upon-Tweed.
Dunbar is a former royal burgh, and ...
on the East coast. It marks the southern boundary of the Scottish
Midland Valley and the northern margin of the
Southern Uplands
The Southern Uplands () are the southernmost and least populous of mainland Scotland's three major geographic areas (the others being the Central Lowlands and the Highlands). The term is used both to describe the geographical region and to col ...
; indeed it is recognised as a boundary between these two
terranes. Both
sinistral and
dextral strike-slip
In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectonic ...
movement is recorded from parts of the fault as are down-north and down-south
normal movements suggestive of a complex history.
The
Stinchar,
Dove Cove and
Glen App faults form a part of the Southern Upland Fault Zone in the southwest whilst in the northeast, the Lammermuir, Dunbar-Gifford, Crossgatehall, Pentland and Firth of Forth faults are all associated with the Southern Uplands Fault.
[Oliver, G.J.H, Stone, P. & Bluck, B.J. 2002 ''The Ballantrae Complex and Southern Uplands terrane''. In Trewin, N.H. (ed) ''The Geology of Scotland'', The Geological Society, London p191-2]
See also
*
Highland Boundary Fault
*
Southern Uplands
The Southern Uplands () are the southernmost and least populous of mainland Scotland's three major geographic areas (the others being the Central Lowlands and the Highlands). The term is used both to describe the geographical region and to col ...
*
Geology of Scotland
References
Geology of Scotland
Southern Uplands
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