The Moine Thrust Zone

The Moine Thrust Zone in NW Scotland is over 200 km long, extending from Tongue area in the north to the Sleat Peninsula on the Isle of Skye (Murchison and Geikie, 1862; Peach et al., 1907; Law et al., 2010). The thrust zone is one of the best exposed orogenic fronts in the world, representing a geological history of >2 billion years. The Precambrian basement gneiss (up to c 3.0 Ga) are unconformably overlain by Meso- to Neoproterozoic (c. 900-1000 Ma) sandstone and conglomerate; these are in turn overlain by Cambro-Ordovician (c. 500 Ma) sandstone, shale and limestone. During the Silurian (c. 320 Ma), the Scandian phase of the Caledonian Orogeny thrusted the Precambrian gneiss onto the younger sedimentary rocks. This entire package is in turn overthrusted by the Neoproterozoic metasedimentary rocks of the Moine Supergroup. The thrust zone geometry and the deformation within the foreland sediments is very variable in 3D, ranging from single thrust surfaces to networks of splays, including up to 100 m-scale imbricate packages. Much of the thrust zone is within the NW Highlands Geopark, easily accessible at the Knockan Crag visitor centre, with other good viewpoints e.g. around Loch Glencoul, Kylesku.