Orogeny which developed in continental detachment systems at converged plate margins. Orogeny An orogeny is an event that leads to both structural deformation and compositional differentiation of the Earth's lithosphere (crust and uppermost mantle) at convergent plate margins. An orogen or orogenic belt develops when a continental plate crumples and is pushed upwards to form one or more mountain ranges; this involves a series of geological processes collectively called orogenesis. Orogeny is the primary mechanism by which mountains are built on continents. The word "orogeny" comes from Ancient Greek (, , + , , ). Although it was used before him,
East African Orogeny East African Orogeny The East African Orogeny (EAO) is the main stage in the Neoproterozoic assembly of East and West Gondwana (Australia–India–Antarctica and Africa–South America) along the Mozambique Belt. The notion that Gondwana was assembled during the Late Precambrian from two older fragments along the Pan-African Mozambique Belt was first proposed in the early 1980s. A decade later this continental collision was named the East African Orogeny, but it was also realised that this was not the simple bringing together of two halves. Rather, it was the piecemeal assembly of several much smaller cratonic elements that once formed an earlier