Orogeny millions of years and build mountains from plains or from the seabed. The topographic height of orogenic mountains is related to the principle of isostasy, that is, a balance of the downward gravitational force upon an upthrust mountain range (composed of light, continental crust material) and the buoyant upward forces exerted by the dense underlying mantle. Frequently, rock formations that undergo orogeny are severely deformed and undergo metamorphism. Orogenic processes may push deeply buried rocks to the surface. Sea-bottom and near-shore material may cover some or all of the orogenic area. If the orogeny is due to two continents colliding,
Gondwanide orogeny orogeny is the successor to the Neoproterozoic-Paleozoic Terra Australis orogeny in Gondwana. Following the Gondwanide orogeny southwestern Gondwana entered a period of extensional tectonics and crustal thinning leading to formation of various rift basins (e.g. Cuyo Basin) in the Triassic. Gondwanide orogeny The Gondwanide orogeny was a orogeny active in the Permian that affected parts of Gondwana that are by current geography now located in southern South America, South Africa, Antarctica, Australia and New Guinea. The zone of deformation in Argentina extends as a belt south and west of the cratonic nucleus of Río de la Plata–Pampia. The deformation of