The Moine Thrust
The discovery of the Moine Thrust along the
coastof Sutherland, north-west Scotland, in
1907 was a key moment in the history of
geology. Geologists were already familiar with
simple thrust faults. These are shallow reverse
faults created when the crust is squeezed,
forcing one block of rock up over another. But
theMoine Thrust is not a single thrust. In fact, it
is a complex belt of thrusts. We now know that
such belts develop when tectonic plate
movement repeatedly forces layers of crust up
and over each other, then pulls them back,
creating a complex, broken, multi-layered
formation. At Moine, this all happened between
410 and 430 million years ago, when Scotland was
crushed by opposing tectonic plates, creating a
thrust belt stretching 180km/112 miles from the
Moine Peninsula to the Isle of Skye. Similar
thrust belts have now been discovered along the
edges of fold mountain ranges ail around the
world. They are often characterized by complex
ban m I nite rock