Alleghanian orogeny Alleghanian orogeny The Alleghanian orogeny or Appalachian orogeny is one of the geological mountain-forming events that formed the Appalachian Mountains and Allegheny Mountains. The term and spelling Alleghany orogeny was originally proposed by H.P. Woodward in 1957. The Alleghanian orogeny occurred approximately 325 million to 260 million years ago over at least five deformation events in the Carboniferous to Permian period. The orogeny was caused by Africa colliding with North America. At the time, these continents did not exist in their current forms: North America was part of the Euramerica super-continent, while Africa was part of Gondwana. This collision formed
Svecofennian orogeny broad terms, regardless of details, it has been proposed that the Svecofennian orogeny involved more-less continuous subduction with subduction zones progressively migrating to the southwest. An alternative model postulates subduction included alternating extension and compression cycles, with the orogenic activity ceasing after the collision between the Fennoscandian Craton and the Sarmatian Craton. Prior to the onset of orogeny the Archean-aged craton of what is today northeastern Fennoscandia rifted creating an ocean basin, the "pre-Svecofennian Ocean", that then closed during the Svecofennian orogeny. The closure of this basin was indebted to subduction and resulted thus both in the formation of igneous