Caledonian orogeny

The Caledonian orogeny was a Paleozoic mountain-building episode that joined parts of northwestern Europe through collision among ancient continental plates.

Iapetus Ocean: An ancient ocean that separated Laurentia, Baltica, and Avalonia before their Paleozoic convergence. Its closure brought the continental blocks together and drove the orogeny.
Paleozoic: The geological era from about 539 to 252 million years ago, preceding the Mesozoic. The Caledonian mountain-building episode unfolded during this era.
Scottish Highlands: A mountainous region of northern Scotland containing rocks deformed and metamorphosed during Caledonian mountain building. Its structures and metamorphic rocks expose the western part of the orogenic belt.
Appalachian Mountains: A long mountain system in eastern North America formed through multiple Paleozoic mountain-building episodes. Their northern sections share tectonic history with the Caledonian belt across the former ocean.
Laurentia: An ancient continental craton that included much of present-day North America and Greenland. Laurentia collided with Baltica and Avalonia during the orogeny's main phases.
Plate tectonics: The theory that Earth's outer shell consists of moving plates whose interactions reshape the surface. Converging plates provide the framework for explaining the belt's formation.
Grampian orogeny: An early Paleozoic mountain-building phase in Scotland, associated with the collision of arc terranes and Laurentia. It represents an early phase within the wider sequence commonly grouped as Caledonian.
Pangaea: A supercontinent that assembled during the late Paleozoic and began breaking apart in the Mesozoic. The collisions that built the belt contributed to the assembly of this later supercontinent.
Baltica: An ancient continental plate that underlies much of northern and eastern Europe. Its collision with Laurentia produced major deformation in Scandinavia.
Orogeny: A period of mountain building caused by tectonic deformation, commonly during plate convergence. The Caledonian event is one named example of this broader process.

Linked from 12 pages