Polish Caledonides and their relation to other European Caledonides

Abstract

Polskie kaledonidy i ich związki z kaledonidami Europy The development of opinions on the problem of the Central European Caledonides is reviewed from the work by Suess up to the present time. The results of the research started in the sixties concerning the territory of Poland and the North Sea area confirm the existence of the Central European Caledonides. The European Caledonian pattern is presented with the following chains: Irish-Scottish-Greenland chain, Cornwall-Brabant chain, and North German-Polish chain. These chains are separated from one another by the Southern Uplands fault and the paleotectonic Iapetus suture (buried and down pressed “betwixt mountains”) and by Ringkobing-Fyn and London massifs.