| Title | Global setting of Ordovician orogenesis |
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| Author | van Staal, C; Hatcher, R D, Jr. |
| Source | The Ordovician Earth System; by Finney, S C (ed.); Berry, W B N (ed.); Geological Society of America, Special Paper vol. 466, 2010, 12 pages, https://doi.org/10.1130/2010.2466(01) |
| Image |  |
| Year | 2010 |
| Alt Series | Earth Sciences Sector, Contribution Series 20060371 |
| Publisher | Geological Society of America |
| Document | serial |
| Lang. | English |
| Media | paper; on-line; digital |
| File format | pdf |
| Subjects | general geology; tectonics; structural geology; orogenesis; orogenic regions; orogenies; continental drift; tectonic stages; tectonic history; tectonic evolution; subduction zones; subduction; Gondwana;
Laurentia; Iapetus Ocean; Baltica; Siberia; Ordovician |
| Illustrations | location maps |
| Program | Targeted Geoscience Initiative (TGI-3), 2005-2010 Appalachian TGI-3 |
| Released | 2010 01 01 |
| Abstract | The global distribution, setting, and dynamic implications of Ordovician orogenesis are reviewed. Evidence for true Ordovician continent-continent collision is absent. Orogenesis is principally due to
accretion of arc terranes and/or ribbon microcontinents. Most arc terranes are ensialic and separated from the adjacent continents by backarc or marginal basins, the episodic closure of which commonly was responsible for orogenesis. Little evidence
is preserved for true intra-oceanic juvenile arcs during the Early to Middle Ordovician. Instead, subduction appears to have been localized near the margins of Laurentia, Gondwana, Baltica, and Siberia, forming extensive linear orogenic belts during
relatively short periods when the upper plate switched from extension to compression. Such tectonic switching appears to have taken place along the entire length of the Pacifi c and Iapetan margins of Gondwana (>10,000 km) from Middle - Late Cambrian
to Early Ordovician time. The onset of orogenesis along Gondwana's Pacifi c margin during the end of the Early Cambrian (ca. 513 Ma) coincided with subduction initiation along both margins of the Iapetus Ocean. Orogenesis and subduction initiation
are causally related to a global-scale plate reorganization, probably induced by terminal amalgamation of Gondwana. During the Paleozoic,
Laurentia's Iapetan margin steadily grew in size and expanded southward owing to continuous accretion of
suprasubduction zone oceanic crust, peri-Gondwanan arc terranes, and ribbon microcontinents. In contrast, the Pacifi c, Iapetan, and Rheic margins of Gondwana saw little addition of new, allochthonous crust. Accretion mainly involves reattachment of
previously rifted-off arc terranes and small slivers of the intervening marginal basin crust. |
| GEOSCAN ID | 222931 |
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