Taconic orogeny Taconic orogeny The Taconic orogeny was a mountain building period that ended 440 million years ago and affected most of modern-day New England. A great mountain chain formed from eastern Canada down through what is now the Piedmont of the East coast of the United States. As the mountain chain eroded in the Silurian and Devonian periods, sediments from the mountain chain spread throughout the present-day Appalachians and midcontinental North America. Beginning in Cambrian time, about 550 million years ago, the Iapetus Ocean began to close. The weight of accumulating sediments, in addition to compressional forces in the crust, forced
Cadomian Orogeny de Tréguier" and "Ignimbrites de Lézardrieux". The southern edge of the Gulf of Saint-Malo between Tregor and Cancale shows the deformational structures of the Cadomian Orogeny. These are East-west to North East trending upright folding. Schistosity is developed parallel to the axial plane of the folds. Prehnite-pumpellyite facies to mid-amphibolite facies have been produced by metamorphism. Movement was concentrated in shear belts such as at St Cast. The movement on the belts was sinistral and horizontal. During the orogeny the migmatite belts of north east Brittany were formed. Baie de St Brieuc and St Malo migmatites were deformed with the