Transverse architecture of the Moine Thrust Belt and Moine Nappe, Northern Highlands, Scotland: new insight on a classic thrust belt

A.G. Leslie(*) & M. Krabbendam(*)
(*) British Geological Survey, Murchison House, West Mains Road, Edinburgh, EH9 3LA. E-mail: agle@bgs.ac.uk.

The Caledonian Moine Thrust belt is a world class example of a foreland propagating fold-and-thrust belt. The late 19th and early 20th century research in this region was seminal in thrust tectonics, alongside contemporaneous studies of the Alps and Apennines. New British Geological Survey syntheses of the Assynt and Ullapool regions of the Moine Thrust Belt recognise previously unappreciated transverse Zone which accommodate sharp lateral changes in the structural architecture of the brittle-ductile thrust belt, and of the ductile thrust nappes to the east of the Moine Thrust. The Traligill Transverse zones transects the classic Assynt Culmination; the Oykel Tranverse Zone constrains the southern boundary of the Cassley Culmination in Moine rocks east of Assynt. Both transverse structures are oriented sub-parallel to the thrust transport direction and are related to pre-existing faults involving basement.

Thrust systems, Transverse Zones, Culminations, Moine Thrust Belt, Northern Highlands.