Suture (geology)

Outcrops of sutures can vary in width from a few hundred meters to a couple of kilometers.

Sutures are usually associated with igneous intrusions and tectonic lenses with varying kinds of lithologies from plutonic rocks to ophiolitic fragments.

[2] An example from Great Britain is the Iapetus Suture which, though now concealed beneath younger rocks, has been determined by geophysical means to run along a line roughly parallel with the Anglo-Scottish border and represents the joint between the former continent of Laurentia to the north and the former micro-continent of Avalonia to the south.

[3] Avalonia is in fact a plain which dips steeply northwestwards through the crust, underthrusting Laurentia.

Heron, P., Pysklywec, R. & Stephenson, R. Lasting mantle scars lead to perennial plate tectonics.