Orogeny in 1890 to describe the process of mountain building as distinguished from epeirogeny. The formation of an orogen can be accomplished by the tectonic processes such as oceanic subduction (where a continent rides forcefully over an oceanic plate for accretionary orogeny) or continental subduction convergence of two or more continents for collisional orogeny). Orogeny usually produces long arcuate (from the Latin "", "to bend like a bow") structures, known as "orogenic belts". Generally, orogenic belts consist of long parallel strips of rock exhibiting similar characteristics along the length of the belt. Although orogenic belts are associated with subduction zones, subduction
Colorado orogeny of the consistency of these fold patterns over relatively large areas, evidence for folding resulting from forceful intrusion of igneous rocks is generally lacking; intrusions of this orogenic event are synkinematic, as exemplified by the much-studied Boulder Creek batholith. Colorado orogeny The Colorado orogeny, or Colorado orogen, was an orogeny in Colorado and surrounding areas which was a part of the development of the ancestral Rockies. The Colorado orogeny, formerly called the Colorado province, is a >500-km-wide belt of oceanic arc rock (1.78–1.65 Ga) that extends southward into New Mexico and composes a major part of the Proterozoic provinces of