EESA06H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Rodinia, Lithosphere, Aseismic Creep
Document Summary
Orogeny: an episode of mountain building, often characterized by intense deformation of the rocks in a region. Mountain belts form along plate margins particularly where play convergence compresses the crust, causing uplift and deformation. An accretionary wedge develops where newly formed layers of marine sediment are folded and faulted as they are snowploughed off the subducting ocean floor. Magmatic arc is at a high elevation, because the crust is thicker and composed largely of hot igneous and metamorphic rocks. The andes, where the south american plate is overriding the nazca plate, is an example. As the arc and continent converge, the intervening ocean is destroyed by subduction. When collision occurs, the arc, like the continent is too buoyant to be subducted. Mountain belts that we find within continents (with cratons on either side) are hypothesized to be products of this: i. e india colliding with asia to create the himalayan or appalachian mountains.
