Major folds affecting the Lower Old Red Sandstone Group at Lligwy, Anglesey, North Wales, and their regional significance

Abstract The Old Red Sandstone on Anglesey, North Wales, presumed Lower Devonian in age, is folded and locally cleaved, but the intensity of this deformation has previously been understated. We describe two S-verging anticline–syncline pairs, one with a strongly overturned middle limb, their associated minor folds and an axial-planar cleavage. The intensity of the deformation calls into question a proposed link to Variscan fault displacements, and the angular unconformity below the Old Red Sandstone precludes the deformation being part of a continuous ‘late Caledonian’ phase. We consider this deformation of the Old Red Sandstone to be mid-Devonian, correlating with the Acadian phase in mainland Wales. It is predated by a Silurian shortening deformation on Anglesey that is possibly related to the closure of the Iapetus Ocean, absent in mainland Wales and the Lake District, but perhaps preserved also on the Isle of Man.

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