Central Lowlands

The Midland Valley, and Central Lowlands is a geologically defined, low-lying area in southern Scotland. It consists of a grave rift between two faults, the Highland Boundary Fault to the north and the Southern Uplands Fault to the south. The Midland Valley is one of the three main geographical sub-units of Scotland. The others are the Highlands and Islands in the north and west, and the Southern Uplands, which lie south of the Midland Valley.

Boundary disturbances

The Highland Boundary Fault runs from Lochranza on the Isle of Arran in the south west of the Isle of Bute and Helensburgh, to then form the northern boundary of Strathmore before reaching Stonehaven in the Northeast. The fault was active during the Caledonian orogeny, a plate tectonic collision that up to 400 million years occurred before 520 in the period between the middle Ordovician to the Middle Devonian, and led to the closure of the Iapetus Ocean -. The movements of the Highland Boundary Fault led to the sinking of the Midland Valley of up to 4000 meters. These early vertical movements were later replaced by horizontal displacements.

The Southern Uplands Fault runs from Rhinns of Galloway in the west to Dunbar on the east coast, about 50 miles from Edinburgh.

Geology and Geomorphology

The valley of the Midland Valley, will be mainly of Paleozoic rocks. Many of these deposits have great economic importance, since the are coal and iron ore deposits, which promoted Scotland's industrial revolution. The area was also the scene of intense volcanism. For example, Arthur 's Seat in Edinburgh being the remnant of a once much larger volcano, which was active during the Carboniferous before about 300 million years ago.

The surface of the Talung is relatively flat, although hill as the Ochil Hills and the Campsie Fells of visible almost everywhere. Like the rest of Scotland the area of ​​the Pleistocene glaciation was concerned that covered a large part of England.

Human Geography

A successful combination of fertile lowlands with significant deposits of coal and iron has led to the Midland Valley is much more densely populated than the rest of Scotland. The major cities of Glasgow, Edinburgh, Stirling and Dundee are all here, and more than half of the population lives in the Midland Valley of Scotland.