Alpine orogeny Alpine orogeny The Alpine orogeny or Alpide orogeny is an orogenic phase in the Late Mesozoic (Eoalpine) and the current Cenozoic that has formed the mountain ranges of the Alpide belt. These mountains include (from west to east) the Atlas, the Rif, the Baetic Cordillera, the Cantabrian Mountains, the Pyrenees, the Alps, the Apennine Mountains, the Dinaric Alps, the Hellenides, the Carpathians, the Balkan Mountains, the Taurus, the Armenian Highlands, the Caucasus, the Alborz, the Zagros, the Hindu Kush, the Pamir, the Karakoram, and the Himalayas. Sometimes other names occur to describe the formation of separate mountain ranges: for example
Grenville orogeny of Laurentia, and likely collided with a different continent than that involved in the eastern collision. The Zapotecan Orogeny of Mexico is coeval with the later stages of the Grenville orogeny, and they are generally considered to be one and the same. Mesoproterozoic igneous protoliths (metamorphosed to granulite facies during the orogeny) fall into two age groups in Mexico; c. 1235–1115 Ma and c. 1035–1010 Ma. Rocks of the former group bear geochemical signatures implying island arc and back-arc basin provenance. The latter group represents AMCG magmatism. These AMCG rocks are somewhat anomalous throughout the Grenville orogen, there is no