Alleghanian (Appalachian) orogeny, a product of zipper tectonics: Rotational transpressive continent-continent collision and closing of ancient oceans along irregular margins

Hatcher, Robert D.

doi:10.1130/0-8137-2364-7.199

Cited by 83 publications

(88 citation statements)

References 55 publications

(86 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Due to the way in which the continents were sutured together, a significant mountain range, the Central Pangean Mountains, ran roughly NE-SW through the center of Euramerica. Though reconstructions show this mountain range as synchronously present throughout its length, it appears, rather, to have been uplifted and eroded earlier in its eastern regions than in the west (Krohe 1996;Hatcher 2002;Hnat et al 2012). It is subdivided into several subregions; here only the Variscans and Appalachians are referred to.…”

Section: The Late Paleozoic Ice Agementioning

confidence: 96%

Wetland-Dryland Vegetational Dynamics in the Pennsylvanian Ice Age Tropics

DiMichele¹

2014

International Journal of Plant Sciences

161

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Premise of research. The Late Paleozoic Ice Age was the last extensive pre-Pleistocene ice age. It includes many climate changes of different intensities, permitting examination of many and varied biotic responses. The tropical Pennsylvanian Subperiod, usually visualized as one vast wetland coal forest, in fact also was dominated, periodically, by seasonally dry vegetation that, in turn, covered most of the central and western Pangean supercontinent. Equatorial wetland and dryland biomes oscillated during single glacial-interglacial cycles. This recognition changes understanding of the Coal Age tropics; examination of their spatiotemporal patterns indicates that these vegetation types responded differently to global environmental disturbances and long-term trends and points to potentially different underlying controls on evolutionary histories of their component lineages.Methodology. This study is based on the published literature and on examination of geological exposures and fossil floras, mainly from North America but also from other parts of the world.Pivotal results. Wetlands and seasonally dry habitats were equally part of the Coal Age Pangean tropics. They dominated these landscapes at different times, under different climatic regimes. Wetland vegetation was likely forced into refugia during seasonally dry (subhumid to semiarid) parts of glacial-interglacial cycles; it reemerged/reassembled during wet (humid to perhumid) periods. Seasonally dry vegetation resided permanently in areas of western and central Pangea and in microhabitats within the Central Pangean Mountains. Both floras had lower biodiversity than modern floras in similar habitats. The wetland flora species pool was more phylogenetically disparate than any modern vegetation. In contrast, seasonally dry floras were dominated by seed plants. These biomes responded differently to acute environmental changes and chronic long-term aridification.Conclusions. From ecological or evolutionary perspectives, the present-day world is but one possibility. Lower-diversity worlds such as the late Paleozoic, with a rich spectrum of environmental variations, offer insights into relationships between organisms and environments that expand understanding of these phenomena and enlarge our sense of what is possible or probable as we look to the future.

show abstract

Section: The Late Paleozoic Ice Agementioning

confidence: 96%

Wetland-Dryland Vegetational Dynamics in the Pennsylvanian Ice Age Tropics

DiMichele¹

2014

International Journal of Plant Sciences

161

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…7). This model, first proposed by Gomez-Barreiro et al (2007), does not require large-scale strike-slip movements during the late Precambrian and early Paleozoic as proposed by Fernandez-Suarez et al (2002b), because the South American source they proposed for the Mesoproterozoic zircons has been replaced by northern African sources, and the displacements necessary to join the Upper and Basal allochthonous units to NW Iberia can be explained by the widely reported dextral transcurrence between Laurrussia and Gondwana during the Devonian and Carboniferous (Gates et al, 1986;Rolet et al, 1994;Van Staal and De Roo, 1995;Franke and Zelazniewicz, 2002;Hatcher, 2002;Arenas et al, 2009). A dextral component of convergence has been considered responsible for the distribution of the different peri-Gondwanan terranes along the European Varisddes Bossiere, 2000, 2002;Marttnez Catalan et al, 2007), and may have helped to join realms that were once in lateral continuity.…”

Section: Paleogeographic Constraintsmentioning

confidence: 97%

U–Pb ages of detrital zircons from the Basal allochthonous units of NW Iberia: Provenance and paleoposition on the northern margin of Gondwana during the Neoproterozoic and Paleozoic

et al. 2010

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Keywords: NW Iberia Variscan allochthonous terranes Detrital zircons JA-ICP-MS U-Pb dating GeodynamicsLA-ICP-MS U-Ph ages of detrital zircons from eight silicic1astic samples from the Basal units of the Variscan allochthonous complexes of NW Iberia are used to establish the maximum depositional age and provenance of two tectonically-stacked metasedimentary sequences deposited on the outermost margin of Gondwana, and subsequently involved in the Rheic Ocean suture. The maximum depositionai ages for the two sequences is latest Neoproterozoicand latest Cambrian, respectively. The age spectra are also used to discuss the paleoposition of the NW Iberian basement on the continental margin ofGondwana prior to the opening of the Rheic Ocean, which is tentatively placed in northern Africa, between the West African and Saharan cratons. Based on similarities and differences with age data from the NW Iberian autochthon and other allochthonous terranes involved in the Rheic suture, the relative proportions of Mesoproterozoic zircons in both assemblages are proposed as markers of proximity to the eastern part of the West African craton during late Neoproterozoic and late Cambrian. The geodynamic processes that took place along this part ofGondwana during the late Neoproterozoic, late Cambrian and Early Ordovician are discussed in the light of the LA-ICP-MS results, as well as the sedimentological record, magmatic evolution and plate tectonic setting of NW Iberia. These processes are linked to late Neoproterozoic and Cambro-Ordovician subduction events beneath the northern Gondwanan margin.

show abstract

“…Avalonia) and ultimately Africa that took place in a number of steps , starting in the Ordovician with the Taconic orogenic phase, followed by the Acadian in Devonian to Carboniferous times and ending with the total closure of the Iapetus Ocean with the Alleghanian phase in the Permian. [237] explained the diachronous Appalachian orogenies in terms of zipper tectonics whereby the closure of the ancient ocean occurred by a combination of rotation and transpression that migrated from the Northern towards the Southern Appalachians.…”

Section: Southern Appalachiansmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thick-Skinned and Thin-Skinned Tectonics: A Global Perspective

Pfiffner¹

2017

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper gives an overview of the large-scale tectonic styles encountered in orogens worldwide. Thin-skinned and thick-skinned tectonics represents two end member styles recognized in mountain ranges. A thick-skinned tectonic style is typical for margins of continental plates. Thick-skinned style including the entire crust and possibly the lithospheric mantle are associated with intracontinental contraction. Delamination of subducting continental crust and horizontal protrusion of upper plate crust into the opening gap occurs in the terminal stage of continent-continent collision. Continental crust thinned prior to contraction is likely to develop relatively thin thrust sheets of crystalline basement. A true thin-skinned type requires a detachment layer of sufficient thickness. Thickness of the décollement layer as well as the mechanical contrast between décollement layer and detached cover control the style of folding and thrusting within the detached cover units. In subduction related orogens, thin-and thick-skinned deformation may occur several hundreds of kilometers from the plate contact zone. Basin inversion resulting from horizontal contraction may lead to the formation of basement uplifts by the combined reactivation of pre-existing normal faults and initiation of new reverse faults. In composite orogens thick-skinned and thin-skinned structures evolve with a pattern where nappe stacking propagates outward and downward.

show abstract

Alleghanian (Appalachian) orogeny, a product of zipper tectonics: Rotational transpressive continent-continent collision and closing of ancient oceans along irregular margins

Cited by 83 publications

References 55 publications

Wetland-Dryland Vegetational Dynamics in the Pennsylvanian Ice Age Tropics

Wetland-Dryland Vegetational Dynamics in the Pennsylvanian Ice Age Tropics

U–Pb ages of detrital zircons from the Basal allochthonous units of NW Iberia: Provenance and paleoposition on the northern margin of Gondwana during the Neoproterozoic and Paleozoic

Thick-Skinned and Thin-Skinned Tectonics: A Global Perspective

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About