Uralian orogeny

The Uralian orogeny refers to the long series of linear deformation and mountain building events that raised the Ural Mountains, starting in the Late Carboniferous and Permian periods of the Palaeozoic Era, c. 323–299 and 299–251 Mya respectively, and ending with the last series of continental collisions in Triassic to early Jurassic times. In terms of plate tectonics, the Uralian orogeny resulted from a southwestern movement of the Siberian plate, catching a smaller landmass, Kazakhstania, between it and the nearly completely assembled supercontinent, Pangaea. The mountains of Eastern Europe on the paleocontinent Laurussia, and those of Western Siberia both rose as the edge of Kazakhstania dove under the European plate. This event was the last stage in the assembly of Pangaea.

The region affected by the orogeny, the Uralian orogenic belt, is usually thought of as the boundary between Europe and Asia. It extends from the Aral Sea to Novaya Zemlya, and it includes in addition to the Ural Mountains, the Pay-Khoy Ridge and the Mugodzhar Hills of northwest Kazakhstan. Its total length is about 3,500 kilometres (2,200 mi), of which the Ural Mountains are about 2,500 km (1,600 mi).[1]

At the latitude of the Middle-Urals Ring Structure (c. 56° N, between Perm and Ufa) the Ural mountains have a eastward-convex bend. It has been proposed that the Precambrian Middle-Uralian Ring Structure caused a disturbance in the orogeny leading to the formation the bend.[2]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "J. Zavacky, The Urals, a Late Paleozoic Mountain Belt". Archived from the original on 2010-07-01. Retrieved 2010-04-17.
  2. ↑ G. Burba (2003). The geologic evolution of the Ural Mountains: A supposed exposure to a giant impact. Microsymposium 38, MS011, 2003


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