Caves South Lybster Bay 20200803_172108_3600
Cave, south Lybster. The rock strata took a real battering in this area due to faulting, many millions of years ago.
The fractured and tilted rock bedding was originally laid down as horizontal layers of sediment in Lake Orcadie roughly 490–390 million years ago. The Caithness crust was shuffled about causing faults (crustal displacement) resulting in large stretches of land movement as the Caledonian mountain building phase occurred (Caledonian Orogeny). This was due to plate tectonic movements and the closure of the Iapetus Ocean, when three large continents collided to form a gaint landmass called Laurussia (also called Euramerica) made up of Avalonia, Baltica and the much larger Laurentia.
Caves South Lybster Bay 20200803_172108_3600
Cave, south Lybster. The rock strata took a real battering in this area due to faulting, many millions of years ago.
The fractured and tilted rock bedding was originally laid down as horizontal layers of sediment in Lake Orcadie roughly 490–390 million years ago. The Caithness crust was shuffled about causing faults (crustal displacement) resulting in large stretches of land movement as the Caledonian mountain building phase occurred (Caledonian Orogeny). This was due to plate tectonic movements and the closure of the Iapetus Ocean, when three large continents collided to form a gaint landmass called Laurussia (also called Euramerica) made up of Avalonia, Baltica and the much larger Laurentia.