The great glen fault in the Shetland area

Journal article

WE apologize to Dr Flinn for any disquiet we may have caused by omitting to refer to his recent paper1. We agree with him that the aeromagnetic map2 distinguishes regions of shallow and deep magnetic basement by the smoothness of the contours. We disagree, however, with his use of the general anomaly level as an indication of sediment thickness, which is the distinction between his pattern A anomalies which "probably overlie deep sedimentary basins" and pattern B which "covers sedimentary basins less deep than those of pattern A". The usual geophysical approach is to estimate the depth to the basement using well established quantitative techniques3. One of the main points of our report4 was to present evidence for three deep Mesozoic basins marked C, D and E on our map. These basins are not delineated in Flinn's interpretation, although they do occur within wider tracts which he interprets as sediment covered. © 1970 Nature Publishing Group.

Authors: Bott, M; Watts, A

• Journal: Nature
• Volume: 227
• Issue: 5255
• Pages: 268-269
• Publication date: 1970-01-01
• DOI: 10.1038/227268b0
• ISSN: 0028-0836
• Language: English