Dent de Moirans, Mountain summit in Isère department, France

Dent de Moirans is a 988-metre limestone summit on the territories of Saint-Quentin-sur-Isère, Montaud and Veurey-Voroize. Its upper mass shows horizontal rock bands and vertical fissures in pale grey, with dense green vegetation on the lower left shoulder and a secondary rocky ridge to the right. It overlooks the Isère valley and the bec de l'Échaillon, 400 metres below to the north.

The dent de Moirans is the southernmost anticline of the Jura domain, the coffered Ratz anticline, which also takes in the bec de l'Échaillon and the Grand-Ratz plateau. Its folded structure resembles Jura anticlines rather than Alpine ones, which is why it is attached to the Jura massif. The Isère gap has largely eroded the anticline between the dent and the Grand-Ratz plateau. The summit is built of Urgonian limestone of the Valanginian resting on Barremian calcareous marls.

The name "dent" refers to the jagged profile the summit shows from the Isère valley, where it rises above the bec de l'Échaillon, 400 m below to the north. The mountain marks the highest point of the downstream part of the Isère gap, between Saint-Quentin-sur-Isère, Montaud and Veurey-Voroize.

The summit lies on the land of Saint-Quentin-sur-Isère, Montaud and Veurey-Voroize, above the Isère valley. The bec de l'Échaillon stands about 400 metres below and north of the top; the Montaud plateau and the Vercors peaks lie to the south-west. Approach from these villages and allow for cloud on the upper limestone.

The dent de Moirans belongs geographically to the Vercors but geologically to the Jura: it is the southernmost anticline of the Jura domain, the Ratz anticline, which also takes in the bec de l'Échaillon and the Grand-Ratz plateau. The Isère gap has eroded most of the anticline between the dent and that plateau. The summit is built of Urgonian limestone of Valanginian age resting on Barremian calcareous marls.