Variscan structure of south west England and related areas; proceedings of a meeting

The Gramscatho flysch sequence, including the Meneage formation melange, and the Lizard ophiolite, are described in the context of the development of the Gramscatho basin in the Rhenohercynian zone of NW Europe. The zone is interpreted as an intracontinental dextral transform system that developed during the Devonian closure of a small ocean. It it thought that extension and compression formed a basin; rifting and formation of oceanic crust followed, and the Lizard ophiolite developed at a ridge-transform junction. The Meneage formation was the result of intra-basinal uplift on transcurrent faults. Plate motion changed at the end of the Devonian on oceanic closure, thrust nappes and foreland basins migrated N and, finally, thin-skinned thrusts emplaced the Lizard complex.