Variscan orogeny

The Variscan orogeny was a Paleozoic mountain-building episode that assembled much of southwestern and central Europe through continental collision, chiefly during the Carboniferous.

Rheic Ocean: A Paleozoic ocean that separated major continental blocks before closing during the assembly of Pangaea. Its subduction and closure preceded the collisions that formed the Variscan belt.
Gondwana: A southern supercontinent that included Africa, South America, Antarctica, Australia, and parts of Asia and Europe. Many Variscan terranes originated along Gondwana's northern margin.
Terrane: A fault-bounded block of crust with a geologic history distinct from neighboring regions. The Variscan belt is reconstructed from terranes with different origins and histories.
Armorican Massif: A region of ancient crystalline rocks in western France, strongly shaped by Variscan deformation. Its structures expose the orogeny in one of its western European core regions.
Alpine orogeny: A Cenozoic mountain-building episode caused chiefly by convergence between Africa and Eurasia. It is a much younger European collision, distinct from the Paleozoic Variscan event.
Pangaea: A supercontinent assembled during the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic, joining nearly all major landmasses. The Variscan collision formed part of the wider assembly of this supercontinent.
Caledonian orogeny: A mountain-building episode that joined parts of northwestern Europe and eastern North America during the Paleozoic. It assembled Laurussia before the later Variscan collision.
Orogenic belt: An elongated region of deformed rocks formed by tectonic convergence and mountain building. The Variscan orogeny produced a belt now exposed across Europe.
Massif Central: A highland region of south-central France containing extensive Variscan basement rocks. Its metamorphic and plutonic rocks record deep parts of the Variscan belt.
Alleghanian orogeny: A late Paleozoic mountain-building episode in eastern North America associated with Pangaea's assembly. It is the transatlantic counterpart of related late Paleozoic collisions, not the European belt itself.

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