West Highland Tectonics: Loch Leven to Glen Roy

Abstract

I. Introduction The present paper is a sequel to my paper on the “Recumbent Folds in the Schists of the Scottish Highlands”, published in this journal in 1910, and expanded with certain corrections and discussions in a Geological Survey Memoir on the “Geology of Ben Nevis and Glen Coe”, 1916. The existence of these two publications allows of concentration on new features of interpretation. The Loch Leven referred to in the title is the salt-water loch of that name, between Argyll and Inverness-shire. The coastal parts of the district are well served by roads, railways, and steamers. There are also inland roads through Glen Etive, Glen Coe, Glen Spean, and Glen Roy. The main villages or small towns are Ballachulish, Kinlochleven, Onich, Fort William, and Spean Bridge. Accommodation is easy to get. The geological facilities include good exposures, high relief, and wonderfully definite lithology. Some of the mountains are carved out of Devonian igneous rocks, as at Ben Nevis and around Glen Coe, but much the greater number consist of the schistose rocks which concern us here. These peaks include a large number rising well above 3000 feet in height, and one, Aonach Beag, surpassing the 4000-foot level. When I described the Ballachulish stratigraphical succession in 1910, and again in 1916,1 was careful not to suggest an original order of superposition . I described recumbent folds, but left it to the future to decide which set of limbs was normal and which inverted. In 1922, however, I attempted a comprehensive treatment