The Carn Chuinneag granite and its aureole

Abstract

Summary The Carn Chuinneag granite comprises a suite of acid and subsidiary basic igneous rocks, intruded into the Moine of Easter Ross. Structural evidence indicates that the granite may have been sheet-like or laccolithic in form, and now occupies the core of a major D 3 synform. Hornfelsing of pelitic rocks in the aureole has preserved a variety of sedimentary structures. The former presence of andalusite and cordierite within the hornfels indicates that the granite was emplaced at a high structural level; their alteration to aggregates containing kyanite, may have resulted from burial of the area under the superincumbent load of the Ross-shire nappe during the second episode of deformation.