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Concept
Cornubian batholith
Summary
The Cornubian batholith is a large mass of granite rock, formed about 280 million years ago, which lies beneath much of Cornwall and Devon in the south-western peninsula of Great Britain. The main exposed masses of granite are seen at Dartmoor, Bodmin Moor, St Austell, Carnmenellis, Land's End and the Isles of Scilly. The intrusion is associated with significant quantities of minerals particularly cassiterite, an ore of tin which has been mined since about 2000 BC. Other minerals include china clay and ores of copper, lead, zinc and tungsten.
It takes its name from Cornubia, the Medieval Latin name for Cornwall.
A batholith is a large mass of intrusive rock formed from the crystallization of molten rock beneath the Earth's surface (magma). From gravity and magnetic geophysical data, the batholith is interpreted to extend from about 8°W, more than 100 km southwest of the Isles of Scilly, to the eastern edge of Dartmoor. The negative gravity anomaly, caused by the relatively low density of the granites compared to average continental crust, is linear and trends WSW-ENE, parallel with that associated with the Haig Fras granite.
The shape of the batholith and the relationship between the individual plutons and the main mass of the granite remained entirely speculative until gravity data began to be used to constrain the thickness and shape of the batholith by modelling. The initial work by Martin Bott suggested that the batholith had an overall trapezoidal shape with a base to the batholith at about 10–12 km. However, current understanding of granite pluton shape suggest that most are either laccolithic or lopolithic. Comparisons with other examples would suggest that the thicknesses of the individual plutons would be in the range 3–5 km, based on their outcrop widths. The volume of the batholith was estimated in 1989 to be around 68,000 cubic kilometres.
The Cornubian batholith formed during the Early Permian period, from about 300 to 275 Ma (million years ago) at a late stage in the mountain-building event known as the Variscan orogeny as a suite of late orogenic granites.
Official source
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