Orogeny Orogeny Miami, Florida Category="Geology"Category="Plate tectonics"Orogeny is the process of Mountain building. The process of orogeny can take tens of millions of years and build mountains from plains or even the ocean floor. Orogeny can occur due to Continental collision or volcanic activity. Frequently, rock formations that undergo orogeny are severely deformed and undergo Metamorphism. During orogeny, deeply buried rocks may be pushed to the surface. Sea bottom and near shore material may cover some or all of the orogenic area. If the orogeny is due to two continents colliding, the resulting mountains can be very high (see Himalaya).

Orogeny usually produces long linear structures, known as orogenic belts. Generally, orogenic belts consist of long parallel strips of rock exhibiting similar characteristics along the length of the belt. Orogenic belts are associated with subduction zones, which consume crust, produce volcanoes, and build island arcs. These island arcs may be added to a Continent during an orogenic event.

[image]

List of orogenies

North American orogenies

Acadian orogeny
- Eastern U.S. during Silurian and Devonian Periods.
Antler orogeny
- Ancestral Sierra Nevada western United States.
Appalachian orogeny
- Appalachian Mountains, is a well studied orogenic belt resulting from a late Paleozoic collision between North America and Africa.
Grenville orogeny
- Worldwide during the late Proterozoic, 1300-1000 mya. Associated with the assembly of the supercontinent Rodinia. Formed folded mountains in Eastern North America from Newfoundland to North Carolina, 1100-1000 mya.
Laramide orogeny
- Rocky Mountains, western North America, 40-70 Myr ago.
Nevadan orogeny
- developed along western North America during the Jurassic Period.
Ouachita orogeny
- Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas and Oklahoma is an orogenic belt that dates from the late Paleozoic Era and is most likely a continuation of the Appalachian orogeny west across the Mississippi embayment - Reelfoot Rift zone.
Penokean orogeny
- Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan, U. S. A. and southern Ontario, Canada, 1900 Myr ago.
Sevier orogeny
- Rocky Mountains, western North America, 150 - 80 million years ago.
Taconic orogeny
- NE U.S. and Canada during the Ordovician Period.

European orogenies

Alpine orogeny
- Formation of the Alps during the Eocene through Miocene Periods.
Caledonian orogeny
- Formation of the highlands of west Norway, Britain and Ireland in the Silurian Period.
Carpathean orogeny
- Carpathian Mountains of east Europe during the Miocene Period.
Hellenic orogeny
- Greece and Aegean area during Eocene through Miocene Period.
Uralian orogeny
- Formation of the Ural Mountains, Eurasia, during the Permian Period.
Variscan orogeny
- Formation of the mountains of western Iberia, SW Ireland, SW England central France, southern Germany and Czechoslovakia during the Devonian and Carboniferous Periods.

Asian orogenies

The Aravalli-Delhi Orogen (Precambrian)
The Cimmerian and Cathayasian orogenies
- Active through Triassic and Jurassic Periods along south and southeast Asia.
Himalayan orogeny
- The Himalaya Mountains is a result of the ongoing collision of the Indian Plate with the Eurasian Plate.

South American orogenies

Andean orogeny
- Andes Mountains, 0-200 Myr ago.

Australian orogenies

Alice Springs orogeny in central Australia during the Early Carboniferous.

Antarctic orogenies

Napier orogeny (4000 ą 200 Myr ago.)
Rayner orogeny (~ 3500 Myr ago.)
Humboldt orogeny (~ 3000 Myr ago.)
Insel orogeny (2650 ą 150 Myr ago.)
Early Ruker orogeny (2000 - 1700 Myr ago.)
Late Ruker / Nimrod orogeny (1000 ą 150 Myr ago.)
Beardmore orogeny (633 - 620 Myr ago.)
Ross Orogeny (~ 500 Myr ago.)

External links

Maps of the Acadian and Taconic orogenies
Antarctic Geology