Assynt Folding

(from Assynt Parish in northern Scotland), a term first applied in 1944 by the German geologist H. Stille for designating the tectonic movements which led to the unconformity of the Lower Cambrian deposits on the Torridonian sandstones and Lewisian gneisses from the Upper Precambrian era in Scotland. In 1955, Stille proposed that the term “Assynt folding” be applied to the folding era which encompassed an interval of time (according to modern radiometric data) from 1.6 billion to 570 million years ago. In this sense, the term “Assynt folding” is a synonym for Baikal folding in the initial interpretation of N. S. Shatskii (1937).