orogeny

English edit

Etymology edit

From French orogénie, from Ancient Greek ὄρος (óros, “mountain, high ground”) + γενεια (geneia, “creation, birth, making”). By surface analysis, oro- +‎ -geny.

Pronunciation edit

(UK) IPA^(key): /ɒˈɹɒdʒɪni/, /əˈɹɒdʒɪni/

Noun edit

orogeny (countable and uncountable, plural orogenies)

(geology) The process of mountain building by the upward folding of the Earth's crust.
- 1993, P. A. Cawood, “Acadian orogeny in west Newfoundland: Definition, character, and significance”, in David C. Roy, James William Skehan, editors, The Acadian Orogeny: Recent Studies in New England, Geological Society of America, page 138:
  The effects of Acadian orogeny are concentrated in central Newfoundland, decreasing in intensity to the east and west (Williams, this volume).
- 2004, Richard Fortey, The Earth, Folio Society, published 2011, page 102:
  When I asked Geoff Milnes what age the rocks were before they were turned into uncompromising gneisses by the Alpine orogeny he made a rueful face.
- 2009, Robert S. Hildebrand, Did Westward Subduction Cause Cretaceous-Tertiary Orogeny in the North American Cordillera?, Geological Society of America, page 5:
  In Canada the fold-thrust belt formed during what is termed the Columbian orogeny (Monger and Price, 2002). Because the Sevier and Columbian orogenies were contemporaneous and constitute a single continuous and linear belt of rocks and structures, I use the term Cordillera orogeny to refer to the Cretaceous deformation that created the entire belt, whereas the term Laramide is used only to refer to a series of Late Cretaceous—Tertiary basement-involved uplifts, for the most part located in the Rocky Mountain foreland east of the fold-thrust belt and mainly south of the Lewis and Clark lineament (Fig. 1) in keeping with the original definition by Armstrong (1968).