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Have a look at the Highland Boundary Fault further south, which separates the Highlands from the Lowlands. The small town of Comrie in Perthshire is known as "shaky toun" as it's right on the fault and gets dozens of small tremors a year. It even has the world's first seismology station, built in 1840. It's a lovely area to visit with fantastic scenery.
I live just above the Highland Boundary Fault, on the Loch Long Fault. I remember experiencing an earthquake here in 1985. It was quite a loud bang followed by a violent shoogle. I thought there had been an explosion nearby and that our house had slipped down the hill. Of course it hadn’t but an earthquake isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when you experience something like that in Scotland.
@@jal-kx6tmprecisely. I'm certainly not a geologist but I guess the strength of the quakes depend on how "active" a fault line is. The ones in Scotland don't move that much these days, hence the quakes are small. That's my understanding, at least 😂
Slightly further south is the Iapetus Suture, which is what separates the Laurentian plate from the Avalonian plate. It runs close to the Scottish border, down through the Isle of Man where you can actually see the bare rocks, and through Ireland down to the Shannon Estuary. It's had a huge effect on history.
hello a scotsman here from glasgow, another thing also is we built the caledonian canal along this fault, so we connected all the lochs and waterways along the full length of scotland, so you can get a boat from the atlantic ocean on the left to the north sea on the right, you can hire boats and do it if you wish.
This government project started in 1803 to allow warships to move readily and safely from the North Sea to the Atlantic. It was completed in 1822 - just as the introduction of iron steamships re-wrote the rule-book leaving it effectively obsolete. It has been used for small freight vessels and, increasingly, pleasure craft.
A lot of my PhD was on this. I studied how magnetic fields interact with the carbon in the Iapetus Suture and Variscan orogenic faults and this enabled me to find where the former ancient ocean bed residue was, and allowed me to make 3D models of the Earth's crust in Ireland.
@@Davey-Boyd Wild haggis never leave the mountain they are born on. Interesting fact - they also never move up or down a mountain, they remain at the same elevevation they were at birth because females have longer legs on their left side, males on their right, so females can only walk around the mountain slope clockwise and males anti-clockwise.
Originally, Nessie swam along the Laurentia coast and then almost got trapped in Loch Ness when the continents collided, luckily as you state she can leave along the straight line whenever scientists come to find her :)
I remember a Scottish person telling me that Scotland was wandering around the oceans and it could have run into any country, but it had to run into fookin' England.
When you travel from one side of the fault line to the other, due to the plates being made of different types of rock the scenery changes completely. From a brownish, rounded-off quality to the hills and mountains in the east, to pure grey granite with very little coverage of moss and plants in the west. It's like suddenly stepping into Austria 🙂
Not dissimilar to the change in the Peak District at the great ridge between Edale and Hope Valley. To the north is sandstone (millstone grit), forming the domed mountains and moors of the Dark Peak; to the south is carboniferous limestone, forming the dales (plateaus and valleys) of the White Peak. The change and contrast is sudden and dramatic.
@@ImTHECarlos98 yes they can. There's a canal that runs through it. Only small boats though, it's not a wide canal. The Isle of Skye is the large inner island that looks a bit like a wing. It has some high mountains on it. That's roughly a viewing distance of about 200 miles.
@@Daniel_leading_the_13_Plateans if you stand at the tip of the Great Glenn on its north eastern side, you can actually see the Isle of Skye in the distance (because the Great Glenn is below sea level like the video says).
Fun fact! Nearly every Loch in the Great Glen has its own Loch Monster. "Nessie" in Loch Ness "Wee Oichy" in Loch Oich "Lizzie" in Loch Lochy And even some rare sightings of one in Loch Linnhe Many of the surrounding Lochs also have their own sightings in Loch Garry, Loch Quoich, Loch Arkaig, Loch Morar, and Loch Sheil. Personally I think they're all the same species migrating across the highlands through the river systems that connect the lakes together.
As I sat through the video I supposed that he was in preference of a rather older style of portrayal, a few simple diagrams and oration, allowing his audience to picture the imagery for themselves.
Wrong line - *I was thinking of the one far closer to the national border, and it is not as spectacular as the Great Glen.* It's beautiful on it's own though.
My fault too. Those of us educated locally who took Geography to Higher are pretty familiar with all the details. That straight line extends way beyond the sea shore at Caol or Inverness and can be seen extending at least to Mull and perhaps Islay and Jura in the South and to Tarbat Ness and maybe even Wick in the North. As major faults go, it's pretty quiet. Earthquakes in the UK are almost all less than 4.5 and activity here is usually a lot less than that. Only one event directly on the fault in the last 60 days (BGS) and it was 0.8. The glaciation has carved out a trench that reaches down to around 300m to 400m below sea level and at four places along this trench it is filled with glacio-fluvial deposits to above sea level. These allow Fort William, Laggan, Fort Augustus and Inverness to provide home for around 70,000 people and prevents there being two separate islands. Loch Ness is the largest and best known of the lochs that fill the gaps between these plugs of sand and gravel. It has a muddy flat-bottom due to deposition from huge catchment area and is a maximum of 223m deep (surface elevation 16m). I always get a laugh when construction projects run by people from elsewhere start drilling in central Inverness trying to find bedrock without understanding that it is several hundred metres down. The BGS database clearly shows results from a 19th century drill exploration to nearly 100m and all it shows is sand and gravel with occasional minor clay deposits. The buildings all seem to stay up!
Its a Problem we know from Fault Lines where stress builds up only very slowly (if at all): We don´t know what they are capable for. Strong Quakes on such Faults are rather 1 in a 1000 or 10 000 Years events. The Fault line (or fault system) is certainly still active. I could imagine a new Episode of Activity started after the End of the last Ice Age when the Retreating Ice Cover let the ground bounce back which induced pressure onto the Faults. Quakes which could be attributed to the Great Glenn or nearby Faults are a 4.3 (USGS) in 1974 and a 4.2 (USGS) in 1986. Noteworthy also a 4.6 (+/- 0.3) near Inverness in 1816 with Intensity 7-8 (via Archive of European Earthquake Data). A 1 in 1000(0) Years Quake could easily be a M6 one.
I'm hoping to do it soon. I've done the west highland way the proper way and I've been up the Highlands every year since. Glen Coe is my favourite place, it's majestic
Scishow: It happened recently Me: oh cool when? Scishow: 66 million years ago Me: huh. For some reason I was expecting it to be like more recent than that
Edinburgh Castle sits on a dead volcano, not surprised that there’s a “line” running through Scotland. Beautiful country, I’m very lucky to have visited there.
This is a playlist I made, the geology videos talk alot about Scotland, the Scottish basically made modern Geology, it goes into some of the history (Evans is a Geology professor down here in southern Missouri who's been to Scotland and calls it the holy land of geologists) ua-cam.com/play/PLgRoK-eyLjomaNEGNHjb1r8YWbUzVIskd.html
About 300 million years ago, there was quite a massive mountain range called the Central Pangean Mountains. The Scottish Highlands are part of the remnants of those ancient mountains that were once as high as the Himalayas. The Appalachians in the US were also part of that range.
@Ricky Barber No, you're wrong. We know how old something is based on a combination of stratigraphy and actual radiometric dating techniques. It's possible to date some rocks very precisely based on the decay of certain isotope (here's an example: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubidium%E2%80%93strontium_dating). Other times, we can see what order rocks appear and compare this with the local and greater area. If you have any specific questions, feel free to ask.
@@leticiaromano6054 I wouldn't bother. Ricky Barber is obviously willfully ignorant. He doesn't want to learn. He only wants his worldview upheld. His ignorance is his bliss...
Indeed ithey were. Some of the most ancient mountainous areas in Scotland were once part ofthe Central Pangean Mountains, which include the Appalachians, the Little Atlas of Morrocco and much of the Scottish Highlands. Here's a bit on the Great Glen Fault, which actually continues on the other side of the Atlantic: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Glen_Fault
My Scottish ancestors (really only a few generations ago) from the Highlands settled along the Appalachians here in New England. Makes sense they felt at home here! I long to visit the Highlands someday and our ancestral castle. Long live Scotland!
Outstanding video, we are traveling from America to Scotland for a wedding and wanted to hike in the highlands. Your video presentation has given us the knowledge to understand the topographic features and made our visit that much more interesting. Thank You
I can tell you that here in Connecticut, on the East side of the river, is definitely proof that Scotland and America did indeed collide. The soil and rocks are the same as they are in Scotland. On the western side of the Connecticut River, the soil and rocks are completely different and have almost none of the same qualities. I’ve lived here for over 50 years and I also enjoy Geology. Specimens are VERY different! 🇺🇸🕊
Anyone who is interested in this area should look it up. Haddam Ct. I tried 2X to post a link, however I guess it went against the rules or something, because it doesn’t show up in these comments! 🕊🇺🇸
Where the ancient Iapetus Ocean once existed, we now have the Iapetus Suture Zone. It runs more or less parallel to the border, but to the southern side, between the Solway and Lindisfarne. I live right on the western end and in a 5 mile walk across the boundary, the rocks change completely in type, age and amount of deformation. On the English side, subduction of the old seabed caused volcanic islands similar to the Philippines, that were later lifted, glaciated and eroded to form the Lake District while on the north side you have the Scottish Southern Uplands which are missed by most visitors who race past heading to the busier locations further north. It's a fascinating area with shifting geology and borders !
So interesting that the Scottish Highlands and the Appalachians once connected. There is also another weird absolutely straight line valley in Tennessee called the Sequatchie Valley, where I grew up. It’s clearly visible on Google Earth.
Add to that the St. Lawrence Seaway, which is Lake Erie, Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River, which form an almost straight line along the northern edge of the Appalachians and the two lakes are part of the border between Canada & U.S..
@@thomasshepard6030no, that's where the English on the shephelah forced us to live. They wanted us as a shield against the Native Americans, and had no intention of letting us live with them. Yes Walden Ridge runs from TN to Europe it plays out in Germany.
@ronaldharding3927 that's interesting, I always thought prospecting and mining drew people into those mountains. I'm English but I live in Scotland. I'm interested in the history of the interior of the United States. Its not something we learn much about in the UK. Everything we hear revolves around New York and Los Angeles.
I learned about this some long time ago. But just as I reread a good novel I love to be reminded about stuff. Often there is new bit of infirmation as a bonus. Thanks.
@@columnarbasalt4677 Don't bother; their logic is that it was made like that, with evidence of it being older put there to test us or w/e. You can't argue with that.
I love the idea that someone once wondered how this was so, then started thinking and got together with others and they all had ideas and looked at a lot of different things from what they collected and observed and gradually came up with this theory..... there are other theories too.... love to all!
That line reminds me of the Transverse Ranges here in Southern California, most notably the mountain range next to Los Angeles. Funny enough, these mountains are also along a couple strike-slip faults, the most notable one being the San Andreas
Always wondered about that straight line, thought it was glacial activity. Never realised it was originally caused by tectonic plates. Awesome, thanks!
They didn't even mention that the larger part of the Laurentian plate that adjoined Scotland is now the Laurentian Shield part of North America, mostly in Canada.
There's a similar fault on the southeast/eastern shore of the Great Slave Lake in Canada. The Great Slave Lake Shear zone runs through there, and can be seen from space, despite it not being active in well over a billion years. It is from the Taltson- Thelon Orogeny, and is related to the Trans-Hudson Orogeny, which formed the geologic core of Laurentia 2 billion years ago.
I really really hate how companies are dumbing down their logos and making them look "cleaner". Google, Firefox, Microsoft, Patreon, Pringles, Starbucks, many many more, and now SciShow. It makes them look like something from a highschool freshman art project.
An interest addition to this video is that the geology on each side of the straight fault line is widely different...different rock types, different formations, different fossil remains and different rivers which stop at the fault, never crossing it. I believe that one side clearly matches Labrador on the other side of the Atlantic.
@@russellparratt9859 Hi Russell. No trained expert I, but a fascinated reader. Can't offer proof but what I have read over the years. (We don't keep confirmed evidence of that, do we?) That mapped straight line caught my attention years ago.
@Alboito Einschtien No. There is a WIDE difference (wide variation) in geology, not a WILD one. Didn't you mean to put a question mark on the end of yours? Thanks Alboito.
@@MauriatOttolink I mainly read history, but I have always had an interest in various aspects of science, including geology and palaeontology, even if I don't have the time to pursue these things via books these days. There is only so much time in a day.......
Furthermore, the Scottish lochs are so deep they hold over 90% of the UK's fresh water. Loch Ness alone has more than all of England and Wales put together.
What is also interesting is that the brown rocky formations around the GGL are molecularly exactly the same rock that New England “Brown Stones” are made from.
I´d guess it´s really the same rock. The oldest central parts of the Appalachians are also Caledonian Orogenesis, and the North Atlantic opened much later and tore Laurasia apart, so parts of the same old Brown Stones are now on both sides of the pond.
Asks "why don't we see more strait lines in geology like this?" and then proceeds to ignore his own question and move on without even an attempted answer.
He mentioned the reasons: ice age carving and surface features. He just didn't say things like, "first" or "also" or "another reason is". But he did answer it.
@@joshuadempsey5281: it's also a 2-min video. I'd expect he'd say more if he made a 5-min video. It's also possible it's that rare, that just the right set of circumstances worked. Other locations have different sets and different results.
@@joshuadempsey5281 Partly because its not always straight. The San Andreas Fault in California is the same type of strike-slip fault between two plates but its bent due to the Sierra Nevadas. Southern California is where it bends. In many places where two plates are against each other the plates are moving towards each other. Such as India into Asia or Africa into Eurasia.
Freaks of nature? There's a straight mountain valley in the Canadian Rockies that is 600 miles long. Those are rugged upthrust mountains and geologists have no idea how the crust managed to break in a straight line for that far.
Imagine those 2 ancient continents drifting towards each other for hundreds of millions of years for the sole purpose of Mel Gibson making that Braveheart movie.
FYI: The British Isles has several other slices sutured together so it has many different geological features in a relatively small area. It's the study of this microcosm that sparked modern geology and why the British got to name things early on.
Interesting related fact.Cornwall was also joined onto England so has different geology.That's why tin is only found there and not in the rest of Britain.Where Scotland joins to England it is actually the ridgeline on which Hadrians Wall is built.It is rather clifflike in some places as I remember.Same with Ulster bumping into Southern Ireland.Strange to think that Britain was parked up just a swim across from New York City millions of years ago and there were mountains there as high as the Himalayas.That's why buildings can be built so tall in NYC because the bedrock is granite.
Aberdeen is build on granite, with granite. Aberdeen is also the most radioactive city in Scotland (as far as natural background levels go) This is due to the area having a high % of granite bedrock and buildings.
Sorry but some of your points are incorrect. The modern day Border of England and Scotland is almost entirely geopolitical. The closest you will get to an actual physical "reason" is the Iapetus suture, which runs reasonably close to the current border but has little to do with it. The ridge line in which Hadrian's wall is built is a structure called the whin sill, and is again nothing to do with the geopolitical border which exists today, Although it was quite an easily defended position on which to construct the old border which ran along Hadrian's wall.
@@bill5974 They built Hadrians wall to stop the people who founded my town nipping down to Roman occupied England on raids, lol…….But they just teamed up with the Gaels and started doing raids by boat 🤣.
@@Acheron666 I pretty much live within a mile of what used to be hadrians wall and am aware of its history. Your point has nothing to do with my point though, not sure why you would bring that up to be honest pal.
There is something similar in Japan which is visible through Shikoku Island called the Japan Median Tectonic Line. The Kobe earthquake of 1995 was on a branch of it.
Thank you for this. Whenever I watch, listen or read about similar matters, I become aware just how insignificant and temporary our lives are. The idea of describing 66 million years as ‘relatively recent’ event, blows my mind, and strangely, I get it. I understand the timeline and I feel it as recent.
I KNOW THIS ONE!!! The electro archon was fighting a great evil serpent, so with her Musou no Hitotachi, she split the serpent AND the land in two. You can still feel the energy in that area known as balethunder
Slate mining in that part of Scotland is cut with one machine horizontally and another vertically depending on the location. My good friend in Fort William is a slater by trade. He found Scottish slate on old cottages in Brittany many years ago when we were touring there.
@@Pusher97 Yes...!! My father's mother was a Mcneill ( one "L", or two; not sure now ). There is or used to be a popular plaid design called the Mcneill Plaid.
Thank you scissor for all of the great content over the years Always interesting and subject matter that I never knew anything about I love it and always look forward when new videos come out I also enjoy watching some of the older videos again Keep up the great work Have a wonderful day today ✨
And just to show how far apart these plates can shift, the Scottish Highlands were also once connected to both the Appalachian Mountains in North America and the Atlas Mountains of northwest Africa.
I haven';t even seen the entire video yet. However I have the reason for the split. It is simply where "The Wall in the North" used to be, made of 1000ft of solid ice. Castle Black was the main fortification guarding the wall but there was also Eastwatch and many others. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
SciShow makes over 100 videos every year that get viewed by tens of millions of people, but we're only able to do it because of the support of 3,600 people. Each individual patreon patron supports over SEVENTY THREE THOUSAND HOURS of watch time on free, high quality, evidence-based videos. One patron helps us create content that will be watched for LITERALLY EIGHT YEARS OF TIME. 🤯
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You've never observed, nor can you repeat 66 billion years. This is not science.
@@ajvandelay8318 Moron. I'm a time traveller and can report that the Romans dug the Great Glen.
@@ajvandelay8318 That is not what "observation" means. You are conflating "observation" with "watching"
Oh that is hilarious. Dear Scotsman. We call that a dad joke here :-)
😂😂😂❤
Have a look at the Highland Boundary Fault further south, which separates the Highlands from the Lowlands. The small town of Comrie in Perthshire is known as "shaky toun" as it's right on the fault and gets dozens of small tremors a year. It even has the world's first seismology station, built in 1840. It's a lovely area to visit with fantastic scenery.
Haha that’s where I live!
I live just above the Highland Boundary Fault, on the Loch Long Fault. I remember experiencing an earthquake here in 1985. It was quite a loud bang followed by a violent shoogle. I thought there had been an explosion nearby and that our house had slipped down the hill. Of course it hadn’t but an earthquake isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when you experience something like that in Scotland.
@@kirsteneasdale5707 so you guys are directly on a fault and you have tremors but no big earthquakes?
@@jal-kx6tmprecisely. I'm certainly not a geologist but I guess the strength of the quakes depend on how "active" a fault line is. The ones in Scotland don't move that much these days, hence the quakes are small.
That's my understanding, at least 😂
Interesting - I’m in Montrose and not heard of Comrie
Slightly further south is the Iapetus Suture, which is what separates the Laurentian plate from the Avalonian plate. It runs close to the Scottish border, down through the Isle of Man where you can actually see the bare rocks, and through Ireland down to the Shannon Estuary. It's had a huge effect on history.
Cool! Thank you!!!!
Noice!
All I saw was plates, now I'm hungry
Y
Such knowledge . Dope
hello a scotsman here from glasgow, another thing also is we built the caledonian canal along this fault, so we connected all the lochs and waterways along the full length of scotland, so you can get a boat from the atlantic ocean on the left to the north sea on the right, you can hire boats and do it if you wish.
This government project started in 1803 to allow warships to move readily and safely from the North Sea to the Atlantic. It was completed in 1822 - just as the introduction of iron steamships re-wrote the rule-book leaving it effectively obsolete. It has been used for small freight vessels and, increasingly, pleasure craft.
Aye we know
Sounds nice, maybe would make a good summer holiday adventure? Can you hire a cruiser?
@@philtucker1224 a cruiser ?? its mainly canals along the route so only really hiring a canal boat or a smaller vessel
@ thank Mech, (I had no idea how wide the canal was). Mainly narrow boats then I guess..
A lot of my PhD was on this. I studied how magnetic fields interact with the carbon in the Iapetus Suture and Variscan orogenic faults and this enabled me to find where the former ancient ocean bed residue was, and allowed me to make 3D models of the Earth's crust in Ireland.
Now that is cool.
That's amazing 👏 I'd love to see it. Is it available online?
Interesting
Now that’s the coolest thing I’ve heard in a while!
Yes! We’d love to see your work!
It did this to make a perfectly straight line for Nessie to swim through when she wants to leave Loch Ness.
Nessie has evaded capture for decades without even having the ability to turn. Magnificent creature
@@MikeFilemaker Magnificent creature....or log.
I thought it was to stop wild haggis roaming to the South
@@Davey-Boyd Wild haggis never leave the mountain they are born on. Interesting fact - they also never move up or down a mountain, they remain at the same elevevation they were at birth because females have longer legs on their left side, males on their right, so females can only walk around the mountain slope clockwise and males anti-clockwise.
Originally, Nessie swam along the Laurentia coast and then almost got trapped in Loch Ness when the continents collided, luckily as you state she can leave along the straight line whenever scientists come to find her :)
I remember a Scottish person telling me that Scotland was wandering around the oceans and it could have run into any country, but it had to run into fookin' England.
England stole it from north America. And Noway tried to nick Greenland as well.
Lol😂🏴
Not surprised, we tend to live in their heads rent free
@@darkstarr2321 some English , not all 🏴
Yeah ......sounds like the typical whingeing Scot ?
When you travel from one side of the fault line to the other, due to the plates being made of different types of rock the scenery changes completely. From a brownish, rounded-off quality to the hills and mountains in the east, to pure grey granite with very little coverage of moss and plants in the west. It's like suddenly stepping into Austria 🙂
Not dissimilar to the change in the Peak District at the great ridge between Edale and Hope Valley. To the north is sandstone (millstone grit), forming the domed mountains and moors of the Dark Peak; to the south is carboniferous limestone, forming the dales (plateaus and valleys) of the White Peak. The change and contrast is sudden and dramatic.
I can confirm this, I live in the thing, on one out of my bedroom door I see Austria, from my conservatory I see the alps
@@WhippetNose its nothing like the peak district, that doesnt even belong in this conversation
@@IndigoBikeTouring who made you the arbitrator?
Fascinating observation! I must go and see
I live in that valley. The Great Glen. Very scenic.
Can boats go through the valley? Or is it not actually covered in water?
Wow I visited Scotland would love to live in those hills
Tj4234 can you travel from one side of Scotland to the other solely by traveling the Great Glenn fault line valley?
@@ImTHECarlos98 yes they can. There's a canal that runs through it. Only small boats though, it's not a wide canal. The Isle of Skye is the large inner island that looks a bit like a wing. It has some high mountains on it. That's roughly a viewing distance of about 200 miles.
@@Daniel_leading_the_13_Plateans if you stand at the tip of the Great Glenn on its north eastern side, you can actually see the Isle of Skye in the distance (because the Great Glenn is below sea level like the video says).
Fun fact! Nearly every Loch in the Great Glen has its own Loch Monster.
"Nessie" in Loch Ness
"Wee Oichy" in Loch Oich
"Lizzie" in Loch Lochy
And even some rare sightings of one in Loch Linnhe
Many of the surrounding Lochs also have their own sightings in Loch Garry, Loch Quoich, Loch Arkaig, Loch Morar, and Loch Sheil.
Personally I think they're all the same species migrating across the highlands through the river systems that connect the lakes together.
This is scientific fact!
Some arial view pics of what it looks like from above would have been a nice compliment to this interesting topic.
Yeah, weird - I have more questions than before I watched this video. Bit rubbish really.
As I sat through the video I supposed that he was in preference of a rather older style of portrayal, a few simple diagrams and oration, allowing his audience to picture the imagery for themselves.
Always amazes me as you drive north across it. The total and pretty abrupt change in the scenery. It's a very special place.
Cross that line on the right train route up from London is the MOST amazing experience.
*You have arrived in Scotland!*
Wrong line - *I was thinking of the one far closer to the national border, and it is not as spectacular as the Great Glen.* It's beautiful on it's own though.
It's as you go up the A9 north of Stirling it kicks in
It's stunningly beautiful.
@@MP-fw4ubthat road 😬
This shows that Scottish independence is inevitable in the next 66 million years
😂😂😂
Only for the northern Highlands
@Bamsebrakar2011 it's fine we'll apply gorilla glue to the fault between lowlands and the highland so it can come with
😂😂
You could be right. 66 million years, give or take a weekend?
It's so we can have lochs deep enough to hold monsters in.
The most logical explanation 👍😀 Love it!
And hence the lochness monster
Nah its the Monloch sterness
🤣
So we’ve found where Godzilla & Mothra have come from?
It's all Feng Shui.
Since dragons can only run in straight lines, this feature makes Nessie feel at home.
That might be so. I'm Danish so it's definitely not my fault.
Ohh I like that answer.
Nah it’s caused by Excalibur,
It was the final battle
Feng Shui is nothing more than Chinese superstition based on cultural paranoia...
Now, now folks, strictly empirical evidence scientific methodology only 😅
My fault too. Those of us educated locally who took Geography to Higher are pretty familiar with all the details. That straight line extends way beyond the sea shore at Caol or Inverness and can be seen extending at least to Mull and perhaps Islay and Jura in the South and to Tarbat Ness and maybe even Wick in the North. As major faults go, it's pretty quiet. Earthquakes in the UK are almost all less than 4.5 and activity here is usually a lot less than that. Only one event directly on the fault in the last 60 days (BGS) and it was 0.8.
The glaciation has carved out a trench that reaches down to around 300m to 400m below sea level and at four places along this trench it is filled with glacio-fluvial deposits to above sea level. These allow Fort William, Laggan, Fort Augustus and Inverness to provide home for around 70,000 people and prevents there being two separate islands. Loch Ness is the largest and best known of the lochs that fill the gaps between these plugs of sand and gravel. It has a muddy flat-bottom due to deposition from huge catchment area and is a maximum of 223m deep (surface elevation 16m).
I always get a laugh when construction projects run by people from elsewhere start drilling in central Inverness trying to find bedrock without understanding that it is several hundred metres down. The BGS database clearly shows results from a 19th century drill exploration to nearly 100m and all it shows is sand and gravel with occasional minor clay deposits. The buildings all seem to stay up!
Its a Problem we know from Fault Lines where stress builds up only very slowly (if at all): We don´t know what they are capable for. Strong Quakes on such Faults are rather 1 in a 1000 or 10 000 Years events. The Fault line (or fault system) is certainly still active. I could imagine a new Episode of Activity started after the End of the last Ice Age when the Retreating Ice Cover let the ground bounce back which induced pressure onto the Faults.
Quakes which could be attributed to the Great Glenn or nearby Faults are a 4.3 (USGS) in 1974 and a 4.2 (USGS) in 1986. Noteworthy also a 4.6 (+/- 0.3) near Inverness in 1816 with Intensity 7-8 (via Archive of European Earthquake Data). A 1 in 1000(0) Years Quake could easily be a M6 one.
I can tell it ain't my fault. I'm from Denmark. But nice and interesting fault.
SciShow: Straight line through a country
GeoWizard: heavy breathing
I understand this reference!
Queue Tom's walking mission music.
Queue angry farmers
The whole scotland mission I was thinking of this specific line
My first thought hahaha~
The line is a result of things formed during Caledonian Orogeny... So Scotland is an...Orogenous Zone?
Found Eccentrica Gallumbit's YT account.
I know it's a joke, but also, yes, that's the term for a region characterized by mountain-building 😂 geologists have a lot of fun
@@davidnewtown8774 That's awfully gneiss of you not to go after the low-hanging fruit.
@@zadtheinhaler schist, that's the pun I was going to use
The great glen hasn't been an orogenous zone for a very long time - its very old and inactive.
I just walked Great Glen Way by Loch Ness from Fort Williams all the way to Inverness there, was quite amazing.
I'm hoping to do it soon. I've done the west highland way the proper way and I've been up the Highlands every year since. Glen Coe is my favourite place, it's majestic
@@1nikg Its epic
Fort William
Scishow: It happened recently
Me: oh cool when?
Scishow: 66 million years ago
Me: huh. For some reason I was expecting it to be like more recent than that
🤣🤣🤣
Deep time
I was expecting 60 years ago, not 60 MILLION years ago XD
And I was expecting 60 thousand :P
That amount of time is a pinch of salt compared to how long the earth has been around
The geology here (Scotland) is amazing and never fails to leave me in awe.
Loch Awe?
The Line starts just below Easter Ross which is the Easter Half of Ross-shire and Geologically speaking the area is referred to as Ross...
Sutherland is a mini Rockies. Gorgeous.
Edinburgh Castle sits on a dead volcano, not surprised that there’s a “line” running through Scotland. Beautiful country, I’m very lucky to have visited there.
This is a playlist I made, the geology videos talk alot about Scotland, the Scottish basically made modern Geology, it goes into some of the history (Evans is a Geology professor down here in southern Missouri who's been to Scotland and calls it the holy land of geologists)
ua-cam.com/play/PLgRoK-eyLjomaNEGNHjb1r8YWbUzVIskd.html
1:20 i too like to move 8 to 29 kilometers away from my current location from time to time to dissipate built up stress.
About 300 million years ago, there was quite a massive mountain range called the Central Pangean Mountains. The Scottish Highlands are part of the remnants of those ancient mountains that were once as high as the Himalayas. The Appalachians in the US were also part of that range.
@Ricky Barber balls
I'll quip: I don't think it was called anything 300 millons years ago. 😏😊(😄)
@Ricky Barber No, you're wrong. We know how old something is based on a combination of stratigraphy and actual radiometric dating techniques. It's possible to date some rocks very precisely based on the decay of certain isotope (here's an example: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubidium%E2%80%93strontium_dating). Other times, we can see what order rocks appear and compare this with the local and greater area. If you have any specific questions, feel free to ask.
@@leticiaromano6054 I wouldn't bother. Ricky Barber is obviously willfully ignorant. He doesn't want to learn. He only wants his worldview upheld. His ignorance is his bliss...
You can tell yourself anything, just as someone else can say anything. No one is right
Was hoping you'd mention the Scottish Highlands were once connected to America's Appalachia
Indeed ithey were. Some of the most ancient mountainous areas in Scotland were once part ofthe Central Pangean Mountains, which include the Appalachians, the Little Atlas of Morrocco and much of the Scottish Highlands. Here's a bit on the Great Glen Fault, which actually continues on the other side of the Atlantic:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Glen_Fault
The Highlands are still connected to Appalachia, in the hearts of thousands of Scottish descendants!
@@rogermac358 funny, when I read the ops comment that's what I thought of.
Yea. Too bad they didn’t
My Scottish ancestors (really only a few generations ago) from the Highlands settled along the Appalachians here in New England. Makes sense they felt at home here! I long to visit the Highlands someday and our ancestral castle. Long live Scotland!
Outstanding video, we are traveling from America to Scotland for a wedding and wanted to hike in the highlands. Your video presentation has given us the knowledge to understand the topographic features and made our visit that much more interesting. Thank You
Go to Glencoe… just trust me. I’m a Scotsman 🏴 💛
It's been 4 months!
How was the trip? 😊
@@NarwahlGaming Trip is in July 2024. We are preplanning to get the most out of our 7 day visit.
I can tell you that here in Connecticut, on the East side of the river, is definitely proof that Scotland and America did indeed collide. The soil and rocks are the same as they are in Scotland. On the western side of the Connecticut River, the soil and rocks are completely different and have almost none of the same qualities. I’ve lived here for over 50 years and I also enjoy Geology. Specimens are VERY different! 🇺🇸🕊
Namibia also shares geology with areas in Latin America.
@Karen S Hi! You wouldn’t happen to be talking about Devils Hopyard, would you? Lots of crazy noises there! 🕊
I heard something similar from coal miners.
@Karen S Say no more LOL! The 70’s were a great time, as long as you remember them! 🥰
Anyone who is interested in this area should look it up. Haddam Ct. I tried 2X to post a link, however I guess it went against the rules or something, because it doesn’t show up in these comments! 🕊🇺🇸
Who's Fault Is It Anyway?
A new geology comedy show.
Coming soon to a UA-cam channel near you!
"Scotland, this is all YOUR fault!"
The Fault In Our Scars ... er, geological scars.
There’s definitely a Trainspotting quote that belongs in here 😂
Where the ancient Iapetus Ocean once existed, we now have the Iapetus Suture Zone. It runs more or less parallel to the border, but to the southern side, between the Solway and Lindisfarne. I live right on the western end and in a 5 mile walk across the boundary, the rocks change completely in type, age and amount of deformation. On the English side, subduction of the old seabed caused volcanic islands similar to the Philippines, that were later lifted, glaciated and eroded to form the Lake District while on the north side you have the Scottish Southern Uplands which are missed by most visitors who race past heading to the busier locations further north. It's a fascinating area with shifting geology and borders !
Hello from Scotland. Hope everyone is well.
We are trying, best to you and yours
I was hoping to visit Schotland in three weeks time, but my holiday was canceled again due to COVID. I moved it forward to May 2022. Fingers crossed
back at you from dublin!
And hello to you, likely from a different part of Scotland.
@@kellydalstok8900maybe fate is trying to help you….
Man, Scotland has been trying to leave the UK for a while now it seems.
Scotland has been harassed long enough. Time for revolution!
The exact opposite actually; it formed far away and has moved towards it….watch the video
@@Imsailig Fun fact, Scotland existed before England was a thing, so... it wasnt the uk it was the land lol
Only if you play it backwards!
@@dr.OgataSerizawa "They may take our lives, but they'll *never* take, our freedom!"
So interesting that the Scottish Highlands and the Appalachians once connected. There is also another weird absolutely straight line valley in Tennessee called the Sequatchie Valley, where I grew up. It’s clearly visible on Google Earth.
Add to that the St. Lawrence Seaway, which is Lake Erie, Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River, which form an almost straight line along the northern edge of the Appalachians and the two lakes are part of the border between Canada & U.S..
Maybe that’s why so many Scottish people settled in the Appalachian Mountains
@@thomasshepard6030no, that's where the English on the shephelah forced us to live. They wanted us as a shield against the Native Americans, and had no intention of letting us live with them. Yes Walden Ridge runs from TN to Europe it plays out in Germany.
@ronaldharding3927 that's interesting, I always thought prospecting and mining drew people into those mountains. I'm English but I live in Scotland. I'm interested in the history of the interior of the United States. Its not something we learn much about in the UK. Everything we hear revolves around New York and Los Angeles.
@@andymoore1527 A wonderful book you might like is "Cracker Culture: Celtic Ways in the Old South" by Dr. Grady McWhiney.
It’s where the weans were turned on Limmy
did she turn the weans against him, aye?
I heard if you sit in one of the Lochs with a bottle of Irn Bru and chant Maggie Thatcher 3 times, Falconhoof appears.
The continents colliding created the loudest blahem known to man.
RIP Benny Harvey
@@samdherring Gone but not forgotten big man 🥲
Thanks
I learned about this some long time ago. But just as I reread a good novel I love to be reminded about stuff. Often there is new bit of infirmation as a bonus. Thanks.
Even the land in Scotland has a slash on its face.
😂😂😂 you win.
Underrated comment 🤣
I don't know anyone with a slash in their face and most of my friends are Glaswegian incl. My ex deid husband
Have you ever done an episode that talks about the Appalachian Mountains and the Scottish Highlands being a part of the same mountain range?
Not just those two, big parts of the norwegian mountains are also part of the same orogeny.
Atlas mountains too or evidence suggests they are
Plus the Blue Stack mountains in Donegal, Ireland and the little Atlas mountains in Morocco. I think.
We have a straight line here in NZ too but its much younger- the Alpine fault, that only formed within the last 40-30 MY.
Earth is 7k years old
Explain the geology within 7k years old then
@@columnarbasalt4677 Don't bother; their logic is that it was made like that, with evidence of it being older put there to test us or w/e. You can't argue with that.
@@girlsdrinkfeck it's actually 7 years old. we're all robots with false memories.
@@DenkyManner Boltzmann's Robots! RISE UP!!
I love the idea that someone once wondered how this was so, then started thinking and got together with others and they all had ideas and looked at a lot of different things from what they collected and observed and gradually came up with this theory..... there are other theories too.... love to all!
This is what we need today. More love on the internet
That man was James Hutton. Also from Scotland.
James Hutton born 1726 - died 1797, from Scotland is known as the father of geology.
Loch Ness is in the Great Glen - it takes up about a third of its length.
Also this one called “Loch Lochy” quite funny
I've traveled along the Caledonian Canal in Scotland. Beautiful land and lochs up there!
It's very comforting as a Scotsman to know we were not attached to them .
Just ruled by us.
@@DPLFC😂😂😂
@@DPLFCwe dont even hate you for that youre just all weird pricks
From a geologist.... spot on explanation. Well said.
So it's your fault, eh?
@hoon_sol If he's Scottish it's his fault too.
I've had this question subconsciously for years, but it never occurred to me that it could be answered. Thanks SciShow!
What about the straight line in the southwest of Spain, going along Huelva - Seville - Córdoba?
That line reminds me of the Transverse Ranges here in Southern California, most notably the mountain range next to Los Angeles. Funny enough, these mountains are also along a couple strike-slip faults, the most notable one being the San Andreas
@@urk5204 Yes, San Andreas slips from time to time. It's not my fault.
Always wondered about that straight line, thought it was glacial activity. Never realised it was originally caused by tectonic plates. Awesome, thanks!
They didn't even mention that the larger part of the Laurentian plate that adjoined Scotland is now the Laurentian Shield part of North America, mostly in Canada.
This video was about part of Scotland. It's not always about North America.
You’d think the extra info would be educational enough to include, you know, also to add more to an already short video
Ya it was a 3 minute video, the extra material sold have worked well.
@@rosiefay7283 lol....salty?...geez
The infamous San Andreas is also a strike slip fault, for context.
I've been wondering why there is a line in Scotland for a while but never had the balls to figure out. God bless you for making this
"the balls"? I think there's a reason you couldn't figure it out, but somebody else will have to explain.
It was really my grandad in his JCB that caused it. 😂
Greetings from Scotland
Awright ma man
And that’s where I call home. The highlands are precious
There's a similar fault on the southeast/eastern shore of the Great Slave Lake in Canada. The Great Slave Lake Shear zone runs through there, and can be seen from space, despite it not being active in well over a billion years. It is from the Taltson- Thelon Orogeny, and is related to the Trans-Hudson Orogeny, which formed the geologic core of Laurentia 2 billion years ago.
Caledonian Orogeny sounds like a Proclaimers/Prodigy mashup band.
“And I will drive the fire starter, twisted fire starter, 500 miles lmfao 😂😂💀
We need some more love songs here in the U.S. Please send the brothers on tour, thanks.
That could be me, I can do heavy electronic music!
Did the Caledonian canal by kayak back in '84. A good trip, despite it snowing on the Loch Ness section.
Much love from Scotland 😊🏴💙
Oh bonny Scotland
Caldonia you calling me!
Nah, this is what happens when there is only one highlander and they test their power through their blade
Yeah, because the first Highlander died last year
Exactly, MacGregor!
I am Connor macleod of the clan Macleod and I cannot die!
Good short viddy: I know this fault well, because the Caledonian canal is a superb route for a scenic boat trip, and one I have done very often.
I'm really, really happy that SciShow has moved on to a new font. It's so much cleaner and respectable.
I really really hate how companies are dumbing down their logos and making them look "cleaner". Google, Firefox, Microsoft, Patreon, Pringles, Starbucks, many many more, and now SciShow. It makes them look like something from a highschool freshman art project.
@@ThoroughlyBaked I don't know how I feel about the logo change. But I mean the in-video font. I think it's sublime. 🥰
I actually don't like it. :( I was disappointed in the change. But at least someone appreciates it.
@@sweetsingin fair enough. Everybody has an opinion, but I'm not a fan and think it's part of the same trend I mentioned with the logos.
Quite the coincidence. Was talking to my pal about this recently when we were hiking in the Cairngorms!
did ye aye?
Quick, precise answer without a lot of useless info. Thanks. 😁👍🏼
I always wondered too tbh, I am into war map games and seeing the valley line on Scotland made me curious.
I've walked the entire length! It's a lovely place.
A no-nonsense high-speed presentation riddled with insights and facts? to me that deserves a tick and a subscribe which I've just done :)
Ditto!
I kind of prefer my own vision of Slartibartfast being responsible for all this. And the fjords, of course.
42
He got an award for them. The fjords.
An interest addition to this video is that the geology on each side of the straight fault line is widely different...different rock types, different formations,
different fossil remains and different rivers which stop at the fault, never crossing it.
I believe that one side clearly matches Labrador on the other side of the Atlantic.
Thanks for writing that.
It was the question on my mind as soon as I watched this youtube.
@@russellparratt9859
Hi Russell.
No trained expert I, but a fascinated reader.
Can't offer proof but what I have read over the years. (We don't keep confirmed evidence of that, do we?)
That mapped straight line caught my attention years ago.
@Alboito Einschtien
No. There is a WIDE difference (wide variation) in geology, not a WILD one.
Didn't you mean to put a question mark on the end of yours?
Thanks Alboito.
@@MauriatOttolink I mainly read history, but I have always had an interest in various aspects of science, including geology and palaeontology, even if I don't have the time to pursue these things via books these days.
There is only so much time in a day.......
@@russellparratt9859
Hi Russell.. We find great unexpected gems for which, time of day just HAS to be expanded.
Great video 🙏🏻going to walk it next year will remember its history. Thanks for sharing
Furthermore, the Scottish lochs are so deep they hold over 90% of the UK's fresh water. Loch Ness alone has more than all of England and Wales put together.
@anon anon The rain 🌧️
Only because us English allow it
They're natural lakes too. Most lakes in England and Wales are reservoirs.
@@audie-cashstack-uk4881 How exactly do we English allow it? Last time I checked weather control wasn't one of our abilities?
@@audie-cashstack-uk4881what????? What you gonna do drain our lochs???
What is also interesting is that the brown rocky formations around the GGL are molecularly exactly the same rock that New England “Brown Stones” are made from.
I´d guess it´s really the same rock. The oldest central parts of the Appalachians are also Caledonian Orogenesis, and the North Atlantic opened much later and tore Laurasia apart, so parts of the same old Brown Stones are now on both sides of the pond.
Oh so this is why it's called caledonian canal? I sailed through there. Very nice area
Asks "why don't we see more strait lines in geology like this?" and then proceeds to ignore his own question and move on without even an attempted answer.
He mentioned the reasons: ice age carving and surface features. He just didn't say things like, "first" or "also" or "another reason is". But he did answer it.
@@ericvanzytveld9034 he explained how this happened, but not why we don't see more of it.
@@joshuadempsey5281: it's also a 2-min video. I'd expect he'd say more if he made a 5-min video. It's also possible it's that rare, that just the right set of circumstances worked. Other locations have different sets and different results.
@@joshuadempsey5281
Partly because its not always straight. The San Andreas Fault in California is the same type of strike-slip fault between two plates but its bent due to the Sierra Nevadas. Southern California is where it bends. In many places where two plates are against each other the plates are moving towards each other. Such as India into Asia or Africa into Eurasia.
Freaks of nature? There's a straight mountain valley in the Canadian Rockies that is 600 miles long. Those are rugged upthrust mountains and geologists have no idea how the crust managed to break in a straight line for that far.
Imagine those 2 ancient continents drifting towards each other for hundreds of millions of years for the sole purpose of Mel Gibson making that Braveheart movie.
Thank you. very clear.
FYI: The British Isles has several other slices sutured together so it has many different geological features in a relatively small area. It's the study of this microcosm that sparked modern geology and why the British got to name things early on.
Interesting related fact.Cornwall was also joined onto England so has different geology.That's why tin is only found there and not in the rest of Britain.Where Scotland joins to England it is actually the ridgeline on which Hadrians Wall is built.It is rather clifflike in some places as I remember.Same with Ulster bumping into Southern Ireland.Strange to think that Britain was parked up just a swim across from New York City millions of years ago and there were mountains there as high as the Himalayas.That's why buildings can be built so tall in NYC because the bedrock is granite.
Aberdeen is build on granite, with granite.
Aberdeen is also the most radioactive city in Scotland (as far as natural background levels go)
This is due to the area having a high % of granite bedrock and buildings.
Sorry but some of your points are incorrect. The modern day Border of England and Scotland is almost entirely geopolitical. The closest you will get to an actual physical "reason" is the Iapetus suture, which runs reasonably close to the current border but has little to do with it. The ridge line in which Hadrian's wall is built is a structure called the whin sill, and is again nothing to do with the geopolitical border which exists today, Although it was quite an easily defended position on which to construct the old border which ran along Hadrian's wall.
@@bill5974
They built Hadrians wall to stop the people who founded my town nipping down to Roman occupied England on raids, lol…….But they just teamed up with the Gaels and started doing raids by boat 🤣.
@@Acheron666 I pretty much live within a mile of what used to be hadrians wall and am aware of its history. Your point has nothing to do with my point though, not sure why you would bring that up to be honest pal.
Thanks for all these years of amazing content!
Geology is always so facinating. I love the sloooow march of the tectonic plates always in sloooow motion, except the bursts of crazy activity!🏔🌍🌎⚡
"God doesn't build in straight lines."
--Prometheus
"Hold my Tennent's..."
--Scotland
Tennants, ironically the drink of the homeless in Scotland. 🍻😂
The Caledonian canal connects Fort William and Inverness using the lochs along the Great Glen fault and man-made canals and locks.
Seek and ye shall find!
I've lived my whole life wanting exactly this; to see which section started where.
Grateful thank you.
I live in Scotland and I didn’t know this
Same!
There is something similar in Japan which is visible through Shikoku Island called the Japan Median Tectonic Line. The Kobe earthquake of 1995 was on a branch of it.
Thank you for this. Whenever I watch, listen or read about similar matters, I become aware just how insignificant and temporary our lives are. The idea of describing 66 million years as ‘relatively recent’ event, blows my mind, and strangely, I get it. I understand the timeline and I feel it as recent.
Glaciers don’t carve when they recede: they “carve” when they advance. (2.10)
Good point! snd sound scientific criticism.
Maybe he meant to say something like “They reveal what they have carved up when they recede” 🤔
@@vice.nor.virtue so they meant to not be wrong
@@maxpulido4268 yeahhh. They didn’t really hit all the nails squarely on the head with this video. 🧐
I KNOW THIS ONE!!!
The electro archon was fighting a great evil serpent, so with her Musou no Hitotachi, she split the serpent AND the land in two. You can still feel the energy in that area known as balethunder
Genshin Impact player spotted!
I had a motorbike like that. Cheap knock-off.
Slate mining in that part of Scotland is cut with one machine horizontally and another vertically depending on the location. My good friend in Fort William is a slater by trade. He found Scottish slate on old cottages in Brittany many years ago when we were touring there.
The tectonic plates be like, “You take the high road and I’ll take the low”
I understood that reference!
Pusher _13...."and I'll be in Scotland....or Appalachia...before ye..." LOL..!!
@@marbleman52 On the bonnie bonnie banks of Loch Lomond 🏴
@@Pusher97 Yes...!! My father's mother was a Mcneill ( one "L", or two; not sure now ). There is or used to be a popular plaid design called the Mcneill Plaid.
@@marbleman52
Weren't the McNeils in the Chattan Confederacy with the Davidson's?
Relatively recently- 66 million years ago. Still fascinating! I love this channel❤
Im a bit worried with the algorythm because i was looking at google maps yesterday wondering this and then this video was top recomendation today
520 million years ago.. got it!
Thank you scissor for all of the great content over the years
Always interesting and subject matter that I never knew anything about
I love it and always look forward when new videos come out
I also enjoy watching some of the older videos again
Keep up the great work
Have a wonderful day today ✨
Had a boating holiday in the Great Glen years ago, fantastic two weeks, Dennis
Some of the hills around the Great Glen are truly ancient, some of the oldest in the world, up to 3.4 billion.
This isn't true. We dug the ditch to keep the haggis from overrunning us.
Thank you very much for your informative video, much love from Scotland
Imagine an earthquake so bad your neighbor now lives 29 km away...
Great to know. We're serving turkey dinner tonight on some tectonic plates.
“Recently” in geological terms is akin to “close” in astronomical terms.
And just to show how far apart these plates can shift, the Scottish Highlands were also once connected to both the Appalachian Mountains in North America and the Atlas Mountains of northwest Africa.
aah i love this topic. i'm on google earth everyday and have always wondered about this. thank you! more geography videos please
I haven';t even seen the entire video yet. However I have the reason for the split. It is simply where "The Wall in the North" used to be, made of 1000ft of solid ice. Castle Black was the main fortification guarding the wall but there was also Eastwatch and many others. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
The Raiden Shogun slashed through a giant sea serpent.
Dang was gonna say the same... glad to see GI players are in here too haha
I only clicked on the vid for this comment
UH !... Please try going outside.. Try having SEX.
They say there is someone for everyone. You might find it more fun than childish video games.