Trans-Hudson orogeny Trans-Hudson orogeny The Trans-Hudson orogeny or Trans-Hudsonian orogeny was the major mountain building event (orogeny) that formed the Precambrian Canadian Shield, the North American Craton (also called Laurentia), and the forging of the initial North American continent. It gave rise to the Trans-Hudson orogen (THO), or Trans-Hudson Orogen Transect (THOT), (also referred to as the Trans-Hudsonian Suture Zone (THSZ) or Trans-Hudson suture) which is the largest Paleoproterozoic orogenic belt in the world. It consists of a network of belts that were formed by Proterozoic crustal accretion and the collision of pre-existing Archean continents. The event occurred 2.0-1.8 billion years ago.
Trans-Hudson orogeny Yavapai province (see Trans-Hudson Orogen map and the THOT Transect map. To the south, the orogen contributed to the subsurface Phanerozoic strata in Montana and the Dakotas that created the Great Plains. The Trans-Hudson orogeny was the culminating event of the Paleoproterozoic Laurentian assembly, which occurred after the Wopmay orogeny (West of Hudson Bay, ca. 2.1-1.9 Ga.). The Trans-Hudson orogeny resulted from the collision of the Superior Craton of eastern Canada with the Hearne Craton in northern Saskatchewan and the Wyoming Craton of the western United States, with the Archean microcontinent Sask Craton trapped in the THO western interior. Similar