Caledonian thrusting in NW Scotland

Abstract

Summary Several major thrusting events, ranging in age from Precambrian to Middle Devonian, have affected the Moine assemblage and adjacent foreland. An early thrusting event is primarily responsible for the emplacement of lenticular Lewisian Gneiss inliers within the Moines. The main Caledonian ( sensu stricto ) event (F 2 ) at about 480 Ma was complex in nature with widespread marginal and internal ductile thrusting, related recumbent folding, metamorphism and locally migmatisation. Later open to tight folding (F 3 , F 4 ) and minor ductile thrusting (F 3 ) modified this pattern. Subsequently in Silurian to Lower Devonian times marginal major brittle thrusting, and internal faulting, minor thrusting and uplift, occurred.