NE-SW faults in the Abington area of the Northern Belt of the Southern Uplands define blocks up to 3.2 km wide. The strata, folded and locally overturned, young predominantly to the NW but blocks to the SW contain younger sequences. Analogous configurations occur in modern accretionary margins. The oldest rocks, generally of pelagic and hemipelagic origin, are Arenig basalts, dolerites, cherts and brown mudstones underlying red mudstones, possibly Llanvirn, and black fossiliferous mudstones and cherts of Llandeilo and Caradoc age. Trench sediments overlying pelagic sequences represent a range of depositional mechanisms. Rudites and associated fine-grained lithologies of lateral origin relate to a lower trench-slope canyon system, whilst axially transported sands, originating on the lower trench slope, were deposited by turbidity currents and related flows. Sandstone petrography varies markedly across strike, with quartz-rich compositions suggesting a recycled orogen source, and ferromagnesian-rich compositions a dissected magmatic arc provenance. Faults, initially low-angle thrusts, facilitated thrust nappe formation; faults and bedding were rotated through the vertical within the accretionary complex, predating or accompanying slaty cleavage development. Soft sediment deformation, two fold phases and a kink-band set are recognised. Imbricate fault zones, located in incompetent pelagic sequences, are equated with tectonic melange of other accretionary complexes. Index minerals, illite crystallinity and 'vitrinite' reflectance establish metamorphic grade as prehnitepumpellyite facies.

This thesis considers the geochemical links between geophysical survey results from, and responses of barley crop growth to, the existence of plough-levelled archaeological sites. It takes as a starting point the results of magnetic and resistivity surveys undertaken at three sites in the Upper Clyde Valley, Lanarkshire, Scotland. Two of the three sites produced geophysical results that closely matched the evidence for archaeological remains recorded using oblique aerial photography. The third site was largely unresponsive to geophysical prospection techniques. These mixed responses prompted a closer examination of why barley crops respond to plough-levelled remains, and why the geophysical data gathered tend to correlate with the growth responses. To allow an examination of the growth responses, a series of pot-based growth experiments were carried out under glasshouse conditions, and these were followed up by ICP-MS analysis of the plants and the archaeological soils in which they had grown, in an attempt to link any changes in elemental compositions with the growth responses, and to the geophysical responses recorded at the soil sampling points or for the features from which the soils were taken. The results of the experimental work revealed that although soil moisture content has a role in the development of both crop marks and geophysical anomalies, other factors are also involved, including changes in elemental concentrations in soils and plant material, soil pH changes and the redox potential of the archaeological soils.