Variscan orogeny rifted off the north Gondwana margin in early Ordovician. By the end of the Silurian and in Early Devonian times, Baltica and Laurentia drifted towards each other, closing the Iapetus Ocean between them. They collided in the Caledonian orogeny and formed the Caledonide mountains of North America, Greenland, the British Isles and Norway. Seafloor spreading to the south of Avalonia pushed the latter into north Laurentia and thrust up the northern Appalachian Mountains in the acadian phase of the Caledonian orogeny. Contemporaneously the Tornquist Sea between Avalonia and Baltica was entirely closed. Thus Avalonia formed the southern coast of the
Cadomian Orogeny Malo and Mancellian regions formed the orogeny. Crustal thickening took place afterwards. Secondly P. J. Treloar considers that the North Armorican Massif was put together from a series of terranes , their joins are the shear zones. The terranes are known as St Brieuc, St Malo and Mancellian terranes. Deformation in this model is caused by oblique subduction and is strike-slip, but not crustal thickening. The migmatite belts would then be explained by high heat flow in marginal basins. Cadomian Orogeny The Cadomian Orogeny was a tectonic event or series of events in the late Neoproterozoic, about 650–550 Ma, which