Folding and thrusting in the upper Glen Oykel area, Assynt

Synopsis The earliest tectonic event affecting Lewisian, Torridonian and Cambrian rocks in upper Glen Oykel involved a tight overturned syncline and anticline, the common limb of which developed into a previously unrecognized thrust, named here the Glen Oykel Thrust. The Loch Ailsh Syenites were probably intruded after this thrust. The disruption of the Torridonian rocks by the earlier thrust caused the Assynt Thrust to deviate sharply to remain within these sediments. In quartzites below the Assynt Thrust deformation is concentrated at the centre of an eastward bulge in the thrust surface.