Orogeny

Orogeny is a geologic term associated with periods of mountain building. An orogenic belt, therefore, is a geologic structure associated with continental collisions and mountain building. Generally orogenic belts consist of long parallel strips of rock exhibiting similar characteristics along the length of the belt. The details of the specific belt will vary with what collided and the details of the collision. Frequently, many of the rock formations involved in the collision (Orogeny) will be severely deformed and metamorphosed. During this process, deeply buried rocks may be pushed to the surface. Sea bottom and near shore material may be overthrust into the orogeny covering some or all of the active area. Someplace under the orogenic belt will be a subduction zone that promoted the collision by consuming crust and dragging the material on one side of the collision into contact with that on the other. The subduction zone may have volcanoes or lava flows associated with it.

List of orogenies

• Acadian orogeny ( E. US) during Silurian and Devonian time.
• Alpine orogeny Formation of the Alps during Eocene through Miocene time.
• Andean orogeny (Andes, 0-200 Myr ago)
• Antler orogeny (ancestral Sierra Nevada)
• Appalachian orogeny (Appalachian Mountains, ) is a well studied orogenic belt resulting from a late paleozoic collision between North America and Africa. It stretches for many hundreds of miles on the surface from Alabama to New Jersey and can be traced further subsurface to the southwest. In the north it enters a region of confused topography associated with earlier orogenies, but clearly the Applachian deformations extend North to Labrador and Newfoundland.
• Caledonian orogeny (between Europe and Greenland) in Silurian time.
• Carpathian Mountains of east Europe during the Miocene
• The Cimmerian and Cathayasian orogenies were active through Triassic and Jurassic along south and southeast Asia.
• Granville orogeny
• Hellenic orogeny Greece and Aegean area during Eocene through Miocene time.
• Himalayan orogeny ( Himalaya Mountains) is a result of the ongoing collision of the Indian Plate with the Eurasian Plate.
• Laramide orogeny (Rocky Mountains, 40-70 Myr ago)
• Nevadan orogeny was developing along western North America during the Jurassic.
• Ouachita orogeny (Ouachita Mountains) of Arkansas and Oklahoma is an orogenic belt that dates from the late Paleozoic and is most likely a continuation of the Appalachian orogeny west across the Mississippi embayment rift zone.
• Taconic Orogeny (NE US and Canada) during Ordovician time.
• Ural orogeny in Eurasia during Permian time.