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
Andean orogeny were inverted in the Miocene. After a period of quiescence the Agrio fold and thrust belt resumed limited activity in the Eocene and then again in the Late Miocene. In the south of Mendoza Province the Guañacos fold and thrust belt (36.5° S) appeared and grew in the Pliocene and Pleistocene consuming the western fringes of the Neuquén Basin. The early development of the Andean orogeny in southernmost South America affected also the Antarctic Peninsula. In southern Patagonia at the onset of the Andean orogeny in the Jurassic, extensional tectonics created the Rocas Verdes Basin, a back-arc basin whose southeastern