Caledonian orogeny

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Caledonian orogeny

The Caledonian orogeny is a mountain building era (orogeny

Orogeny

Orogeny refers to natural mountain building, and may be studied as a tectonic structural event, as a geographical event, and a chronological event: orogenic events cause distinctive structural phenomena and related tectonic activity, affect certain regions of rocks and crust, and happen within a specific period of time....
) recorded in the northern parts of the British Isles

British Isles

The British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include Great Britain and Ireland, and numerous smaller islands....
, western Scandinavia

Scandinavia

Scandinavia is a historical and geographical subregion in northern Europe that includes the Scandinavian Peninsula. It consists of the kingdoms of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark; some authorities also include Finland and some might even include Iceland....
, Svalbard

Svalbard

Svalbard is an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean north of mainland Europe, about midway between mainland Norway and the North Pole. It consists of a group of islands ranging from 74th parallel north to 81st parallel north, and 10th meridian east to 35th meridian east....
, eastern Greenland

Greenland

Greenland is a member country of the Kingdom of Denmark located between the Arctic Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago....
and parts of north-central Europe. The Caledonian orogeny encompasses events that occurred from the Ordovician

Ordovician

The Ordovician is a geologic period, the second of six of the Paleozoic era , and covers the time between 488.3?1.7 to 443.7?1.5 million years ago ....
to Early Devonian

Devonian

The Devonian is a geologic period of the Paleozoic era spanning from . It is named after Devon, England, where rocks from this period were first studied....
, roughly 490-390 million years ago (Ma). It was caused by the closure of the Iapetus Ocean

Iapetus Ocean

The Iapetus Ocean was an ocean that existed in the Neoproterozoic and Paleozoic eras of the geologic timescale . The Iapetus Ocean was situated in the southern hemisphere, between the paleocontinents of Laurentia, Baltica and Avalonia....
when the continents and terrane

Terrane

A terrane in geology is a fragment of crustal material formed on, or broken off from, one tectonic plate and Accretion ? "Suture " ? to crust lying on another plate....
s of Laurentia

Laurentia

Laurentia , like all craton land, was created as continents moved about the surface of the Earth , bumping into other continents and drifting away....
, Baltica

Baltica

Baltica redirects here. For the Russian beer, see Baltika BreweriesBaltica is a name applied by geologists to a late-Proterozoic, early-Palaeozoic continent that now includes the East European craton of northwestern Eurasia....
and Avalonia

Avalonia

Avalonia was an ancient microcontinent or terrane whose history formed much of the older rocks of Western Europe, Atlantic Canada, and parts of the coastal United States....
collided.

The Caledonian orogeny has been named for Caledonia

Caledonia

Caledonia is the Latin name given by the Ancient Rome to the land in today's Scotland north of their Roman provinces of Roman Britain, beyond the Frontiers of the Roman Empire of their Roman Empire....
, the Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
name for Scotland

Scotland

conventional_long_name = ScotlandAlba|common_name= Scotland|image_flag = Flag of Scotland.svg|flag_width = 130px...
.

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Encyclopedia

The Caledonian orogeny is a mountain building era (orogeny

Orogeny

British Isles

The British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include Great Britain and Ireland, and numerous smaller islands....
, western Scandinavia

Scandinavia

Svalbard

Greenland

Ordovician

The Ordovician is a geologic period, the second of six of the Paleozoic era , and covers the time between 488.3?1.7 to 443.7?1.5 million years ago ....
to Early Devonian

Devonian

Iapetus Ocean

Terrane

A terrane in geology is a fragment of crustal material formed on, or broken off from, one tectonic plate and Accretion ? "Suture " ? to crust lying on another plate....
s of Laurentia

Laurentia

Laurentia , like all craton land, was created as continents moved about the surface of the Earth , bumping into other continents and drifting away....
, Baltica

Baltica

Avalonia

Caledonia

Latin

Scotland

conventional_long_name = ScotlandAlba|common_name= Scotland|image_flag = Flag of Scotland.svg|flag_width = 130px...
. The name was first used in 1885 for an episode of mountain building in northern Europe that predated the Devonian

Devonian

The Devonian is a geologic period of the Paleozoic era spanning from . It is named after Devon, England, where rocks from this period were first studied....
period by Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west....
n geologist Eduard Suess

Eduard Suess

Eduard Suess was a geologist who was an expert on the geography of the Alps. He is responsible for hypothesising two major former geographical features, the supercontinent Gondwana and the Tethys Ocean....
. Geologists like Émile Haug

Émile Haug

Gustave ?mile Haug, ...
and Hans Stille

Hans Stille

Hans Wilhelm Stille was an influential Germany geologist working primarily on tectonics and the collation of tectonic events during the Phanerozoic....
saw the Caledonian orogeny as one of several episodic phases of mountain building that had occurred during the Earth's history

History of Earth

The history of the Earth covers approximately Age of the Earth , from Earth?s formation out of the solar nebula to the present. This article presents a broad overview, summarizing the leading, most current scientific theories....
. Current understanding has it that the Caledonian orogeny encompasses a number of tectonic

Tectonics

Tectonics is a field of study within geology concerned generally with the structures within the lithosphere of the Earth and particularly with the forces and movements that have operated in a region to create these structures....
phases that can laterally be diachronous

Diachronous

A diachronous deposit in Geology is a sedimentary rock formation in which apparently similar material varies in age from place to place.Typically this occurs as a result of a Transgression or regression, or the progressive development of a River delta....
. The name "Caledonian" can therefore not be used for an absolute period of geological time, it applies only to a series of tectonically related events.

Geodynamic history

The Caledonian orogeny was one of several orogenies that would eventually form the supercontinent

Supercontinent

In geology, a supercontinent is a landmass comprising more than one continental core, or craton. The assembly of cratons and terrane that form Eurasia qualifies as a supercontinent today....
Pangaea

Pangaea

Pangaea, Pang?a or Pangea was the supercontinent that existed during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras about 250 million years ago, before the component continents were separated into their current configuration....
in the Late Paleozoic

Paleozoic

The Paleozoic or Palaeozoic Era is the earliest of three geology Era of the Phanerozoic Eon . The Paleozoic spanned from roughly , and is subdivided into six period ; from oldest to youngest they are: the Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian period, Carboniferous, and Permian...
era

Era

An era is a commonly used word for long period of time. When used in science, for example geology, eras denote clearly defined periods of time of arbitrary but well defined length, such as for example the Mesozoic era from 252 Ma?66 Ma, delimited by a start event and an end event....
. In the Early Paleozoic the majority of all continental landmass was united in the paleocontinent of Gondwana

Gondwana

Gondwana , originally Gondwanaland is the name given to a southern precursor-supercontinent and then as a remnant separated from Laurasia 180- during the breakup of the Pangaea supercontinent that existed about 500 to 200 Annum ago into two large segments. (containing the crust of future Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km? including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area....
, South America

South America

South America is the southern continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere....
, southern Eurasia

Eurasia

Eurasia is a large landmass covering about 53,990,000 km? or about 10.6% of the Earth's surface . Often considered a single continent, Eurasia comprises the traditional continents of Europe and Asia, concepts which date back to classical antiquity and the borders for which are somewhat arbitrary....
, Australia

Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
and Antarctica

Antarctica

Antarctica is Earth's southernmost continent, overlying the South Pole. It is situated in the Antarctica of the southern hemisphere, almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle, and is surrounded by the Southern Ocean....
), which lay centered around the South Pole. Between 650 and 550 million years ago (in the Ediacaran

Ediacaran

The Ediacaran Period is the last geological period of the Neoproterozoic Era and of the Proterozoic Eon, immediately preceding the Cambrian Period, the first period of the Paleozoic Era and of the Phanerozoic Eon....
period) the smaller continents of Laurentia (containing the future northeast section of North America

North America

North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere....
), Baltica and Siberia

Siberia

Siberia , is the name given to the vast region constituting almost all of North Asia and for the most part currently serving as the massive central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, having served in the same capacity previously for the Soviet Union from its beginning, and the Russian Empire beginning in the 16th century....
had separated from Gondwana to move northward towards the equator. In the process, the Iapetus Ocean

Iapetus Ocean

Ordovician

The Ordovician is a geologic period, the second of six of the Paleozoic era , and covers the time between 488.3?1.7 to 443.7?1.5 million years ago ....
epoch (about 480 million years ago) the microcontinent (a small fragment of continental lithosphere

Continental crust

The continental crust is the layer of igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks which form the continents and the areas of shallow seabed close to their shores, known as Continental shelf....
) Avalonia

Avalonia

Avalonia was an ancient microcontinent or terrane whose history formed much of the older rocks of Western Europe, Atlantic Canada, and parts of the coastal United States....
(at present lithosphere that is scattered over the east of New England

New England

New England is a region of the United States located in the northeastern corner of the country, bounded by the Atlantic Ocean, Canada and New York State, and consisting of the modern U.S....
, the south of Newfoundland, parts of New Brunswick

New Brunswick

New Brunswick is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the only Constitution of Canada bilingual province in the federation. The provincial capital is Fredericton....
and Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia is a Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada located on Canada's southeastern coast. It is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada....
, southern Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is the List of islands by area in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islet....
, most of England

England

Wales

native_name = Cymru|conventional_long_name = Wales|common_name = Wales|image_flag = Flag of Wales 2.svg|national_motto = ...
, the low countries

Low Countries

The Low Countries, the historical region of de Nederlanden, are the country on low-lying land around the river delta of the Rhine, Scheldt, and Meuse River rivers....
and northern Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
) began to separate from the northern margin of Gondwana.

Early phases

Some early phases of deformation and/or metamorphism

Metamorphism

Metamorphism is the solid-state Crystallization of pre-existing Rock due to changes in physical and chemical conditions, primarily heat, pressure, and the introduction of chemically active fluids....
are recognized in the Scandinavian Caledonides. The first phase that is often included in the Caledonian orogeny is the Finnmarkian phase at 505 million years ago (late Cambrian

Cambrian

The Cambrian is a geologic period that began about Mya at the end of the Proterozoic eon and ended about Ma with the beginning of the Ordovician period ....
). Another phase was the Jämmtlandian phase at 455 million years ago. These phases are explained by the assumption that the western edge of Baltica collided with an island arc or microcontinent. In a similar way, the eastern edge of Laurentia collided with an island arc during the Taconic orogeny

Taconic orogeny

The Taconic orogeny was a great mountain building period that perhaps had the greatest overall effect on the geologic structure of basement rocks within the New York Bight region....
(between 480 to 435 million years ago).

During the Ordovician, the small continent of Avalonia moved independently in a northeastern direction towards Baltica. This motion was accommodated by the subduction

Subduction

In geology, subduction is the process that takes place at convergent boundary by which one tectonic plate moves under another tectonic plate, sinking into the Earth's mantle, as the plates converge....
of the southeastern Iapetus Ocean (the so called Tornquist Sea) beneath eastern Avalonia. In the Late Ordovician (about 450 million years ago) continental collision

Continental collision

Continental collision is a phenomenon of the plate tectonics of Earth that occurs at Convergent boundary. Continental collision is a variation on the fundamental process of subduction, whereby the subduction zone is destroyed, mountains produced, and two continents sutured together....
started between Avalonia and Baltica. The Tornquist Ocean disappeared in the process, the remaining suture

Suture (geology)

A suture is in structural geology a major Fault zone through an orogen or mountain range. Sutures separate terranes: tectonics units that have different plate tectonics, metamorphism and paleogeography histories....
is the Tornquist line, which runs under the North Sea

North Sea

The North Sea is a marginal sea, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf. The Dover Strait and the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Sea in the north connect it to the Atlantic Ocean....
, southern Denmark

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries....
and northern Germany and Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian Enclave and exclave, to the north....
.

Scandian/Grampian phase

The main phase of the Caledonian orogeny (from about 425 to 395 million years ago) is called the Scandian phase in Scandinavia and the Grampian phase in the British Isles. It was caused by the collision between Laurentia and Baltica. The Iapetus Ocean first closed in the north, then in the south. Therefore the collision between Baltica and Laurentia took place a little earlier than that between Avalonia and Laurentia. Continental collision started in the Mid Silurian

Silurian

The Silurian is a geologic period that extends from the end of the Ordovician period, about 443.7 ? 1.5 annum , to the beginning of the Devonian period, about 416.0 ? 2.8 Mya ....
and mountain building took place in the Early Devonian

Devonian

The Devonian is a geologic period of the Paleozoic era spanning from . It is named after Devon, England, where rocks from this period were first studied....
(from 407 million years onward). In North America

North America

North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere....
, the collision between Avalonia and Laurentia is called the Acadian orogeny

Acadian orogeny

The Acadian orogeny is a middle Paleozoic mountain building event , especially in the northern Appalachians, between New York and Newfoundland ....
.

According to some authors, the Caledonian continental collisions involved another microcontinent, Armorica

Armorica

Armorica or Aremorica is the name given in ancient times to the part of Gaul that includes the Brittany peninsula and the territory between the Seine and Loire River rivers, extending inland to an indeterminate point and down the Atlantic coast....
(southern Portugal

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country on the Iberian Peninsula. Located in southwestern Europe, Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east....
, most of the north of France

France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
and parts of southern Germany and Czechia), even smaller than Avalonia. This microcontinent probably did not form one consistent unit, but was instead a series of fragments, of which the current Armorican

Armorican Massif

The Armorican Massif is a geologic massif that covers a large area in the northwest of France, including Brittany, the western part of Normandy and the Pays de la Loire....
and Bohemian Massifs are the most important. The ocean between the combined continental mass of Laurentia, Baltica and Avalonia (called Euramerica, Laurussia or Old Red Continent

Euramerica

Euramerica was a minor supercontinent created in the Devonian as the result of a collision between the Laurentian and Baltica cratons .Euramerica became a part of the major supercontinent Pangaea in the Permian....
) and Armorica is called the Rheic Ocean

Rheic Ocean

The Rheic Ocean was a Paleozoic ocean between the large continent Gondwana to the south and the microcontinents Avalonia and others to the north....
.

The paleogeographic position of the Armorica crustal fragments between the Ordovician and Carboniferous

Carboniferous

The Carboniferous is a geologic period that extends from the end of the Devonian period, about 359.2 ? 2.5 annum , to the beginning of the Permian period, about 299.0 ? 0.8 Ma ...
is highly disputed though. There are indications that the Bohemian Massif started moving northward from the Ordovician onward, but many authors place the accretion of the Armorica terranes with the southern margin of Laurussia in the Carboniferous Hercynian orogeny (about 340 million years ago). The Rhenohercynian basin, a back-arc basin

Back-arc basin

Back-arc basins are geologic features, submarine basins associated with island arcs and subduction zones.They are found at some convergent boundary, presently concentrated in the Western Pacific ocean....
, formed at the southern margin of Euramerica just after the Caledonian orogeny. According to these authors, a small rim from Euramerica rifted off when this basin formed. The basin closed when these Caledonian deformed terranes were accreted again to Laurussia during the Hercynian orogeny.

Caledonian orogeny

Geodynamic history

Early phases

Scandian/Grampian phase

See also