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Orogenic Belts

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  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Solid Earth Geophysics

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series ((EESS))

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Synonyms

Fold belt; Folded belt; Folded mountains; Orogen

Partial Synonyms

Mountain belt; Height Systems, Vertical Datums and Their Unification

Definition

An orogenic belt is a lithospheric structure that is formed by the collective work of any group of convergent plate margin processes (see “Lithosphere, Continental”, and “Lithosphere, Mechanical Properties”). Kober (1921, p. 21) suggested the term “orogen” to designate the orogenic belts and his term is now generally used. Although orogeny is derived from the ancient Greek oros (mountain) and genesis(birth), just as old rifts and taphrogens may no longer have any topographic expression because of tectonic and/or erosional events, some, especially old, orogenic belts may no longer appear as linear/arcuate mountain ranges for the same reasons. Their original height with respect to their surroundings can be gauged by their stratigraphically older contents, or metamorphically higher grade of their uplifted corpus plus trains of...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Mines, Department of Geology and Eurasia Institute of Earth Sciences, Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey

    A. M. Celâl Şengör

Authors
  1. A. M. Celâl Şengör
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Correspondence to A. M. Celâl Şengör .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. National Geophysical Research Institute, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Hyderabad, India

    Harsh K. Gupta

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Şengör, A.M.C. (2021). Orogenic Belts. In: Gupta, H.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Solid Earth Geophysics. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58631-7_253

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