Nevadan orogeny

The Nevadan Orogeny was a major mountain building event that took place along the western edge of ancient North America between the Mid to Late Jurassic (between about 180 and 140 million years ago).^[1] The Nevadan orogeny was the first of three major mountain building episodes to transform Western North America between the Late Mesozoic and Early Cenozoic Eras, the latter two being the Sevier and Laramide orogeny, chronologically. Much like the two orogenies that followed, the Nevadan was caused by the subduction of oceanic lithosphere at a subduction zone running along the edge of the North American continent. This resulted in relatively cool oceanic crust descending into the lithosphere very quickly, and steeply beneath the edge of the continent. Due to dehydration and release of volatiles from the subducted plate, the mantle above the down-going plate was melted. This magma rose through the mantle wedge and the continental crust to produce an arc of extrusive volcanoes with large intrusive batholiths beneath. These intrusive batholiths are presently exposed as the Sierra Nevada batholiths. Due to the steep angle of the subducted plate, these were located relatively close to continent's edge.

See also

• Sierran Arc

References

1. ^ Shaffer, Jeffrey P.. "Evolution of the Yosemite Landscape — The Nevadan Orogeny". One Hundred Hikes in Yosemite. http://www.gorp.com/parks-guide/travel-ta-yosemite-hiking-california-sidwcmdev_056847.html. 

This tectonics article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.v · Categories: Orogeny Jurassic Natural history of North America Geology of the United States Geology of California Sierra Nevada (U.S.) Tectonics stubs Wikimedia Foundation. 2010. Игры ⚽ Нужно сделать НИР? List of politicians on The West Wing Sofades Look at other dictionaries: Nevadan orogeny — ▪ geology       mountain building event in western North America that started in the Late Jurassic (Jurassic Period) Epoch about 156 million years ago. This event is generally considered to be the first significant phase of Cordilleran… …   Universalium Laramide orogeny — The Laramide orogeny was a period of mountain building in western North America, which started in the Late Cretaceous, 70 to 80 million years ago, and ended 35 to 55 million years ago. The exact duration and ages of beginning and end of the… …   Wikipedia Sevier orogeny — The Sevier orogeny was a mountain building event that affected western North America from Canada to the north to Mexico to the south. This orogeny was the result of convergent boundary tectonism between approximately 140 million years (Ma) ago,… …   Wikipedia Laramide orogeny — Series of mountain building events that affected much of western North America in Late Cretaceous and Early Tertiary time (с 65 million years ago). The Laramide orogeny originally was believed to mark the Cretaceous Tertiary boundary. It is now… …   Universalium North American Cordillera — The North American Cordillera is the North American portion of the American Cordillera which is a cordillera extending up and down the western side of the Americas. The North American Cordillera covers an extensive area of mountain ranges,… …   Wikipedia Geology of the Yosemite area — The exposed geology of the Yosemite area includes primarily granitic rocks with some older metamorphic rock. The first rocks were laid down in Precambrian times, when the area around Yosemite National Park was on the edge of a very young North… …   Wikipedia Geological history of Earth — impacting the Earth in a glancing blow. [cite journal | last = R. Canup and E. Asphaug | title = Origin of the Moon in a giant impact near the end of the Earth s formation | journal = Nature | volume = 412 | pages = 708–712 | date = 2001 | url =… …   Wikipedia Geologic time scale — This clock representation shows some of the major units of geological time and definitive events of Earth history. The Hadean eon represents the time before fossil record of life on Earth; its upper boundary is now regarded as 4.0 Ga.[1] Other… …   Wikipedia Sierra Nevada (U.S.) — Geobox|Range name=Sierra Nevada image size=300 image caption=Little Lakes Valley: typical eastside terrain country=United States state=California| state1=Nevada parent= | border= length imperial=400 length orientation=North South highest=Mount… …   Wikipedia Yosemite National Park — Infobox Protected area name = Yosemite National Park iucn category = Ib caption = locator x = 20 locator y = 84 location = Tuolumne, Mariposa, Madera Counties, California, USA nearest city = Mariposa lat degrees = 37 lat minutes = 50 lat seconds …   Wikipedia 18+ © Academic, 2000-2024 Contact us: Technical Support, Advertising Dictionaries export, created on PHP, Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, MODx. Mark and share Search through all dictionaries Translate… Search Internet Share the article and excerpts Direct link … Do a right-click on the link above and select “Copy Link”