The Variscan (or Hercynian) orogeny is a geologic mountain-building event caused by Late Paleozoic continental collision between Laurasia and Gondwana to form the supercontinent of Pangea. The Paleozoic or Palaeozoic Era (from the Greek palaio (παλαιο "old" and zoe (ζωη "life" meaning "ancient life" Continental collision is a phenomenon of the Plate tectonics of Earth. Laurasia (lɔˈreɪʃiə lɔˈreɪʒə was a Supercontinent that most recently existed as a part of the split of the Pangaean supercontinent in the late Mesozoic Gondwana (ɡɒnˈdwɑːnə originally Gondwanaland) was a southern Supercontinent that existed about 500 to 200 Ma ago In Geology, a supercontinent is a Landmass comprising more than one Continental core or Craton. Pangaea, Pangæa or Pangea (pænˈdʒiːə from παν pan, meaning entire, and Γαῖα Gaea, meaning Earth in

Naming

The name, Variscan, comes from the Medieval Latin name for the district Variscia, the home of a Germanic tribe, the Varisci, and was coined in 1880 by Vienna geologist Eduard Suess. Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. The Varisci ( German Varisker) were a Germanic tribe, the presumed prior inhabitants of a mediaeval district Provincia Variscorum, the same (in Vienna ( in Wien; see also other names) is the Capital of Austria, and is also one of the nine States of Austria. Eduard Suess ( August 20, 1831 London &ndash April 26, 1914 Vienna) was a Geologist who was an expert on the Variscite, a rare green mineral found in the region and first discovered in the Vogtland district of Saxony in Germany, which is in the Variscan belt, has the same etymology. Variscite ·2 H2O, hydrated Aluminium phosphate or Berlinite, is a relatively rare phosphate mineral The term Vogtland refers to a region reaching across the German free states of Bavaria, Saxony and Thuringia and into the Czech Republic The Free State of Saxony (Freistaat Sachsen ˈzaksən Swobodny Stat Sakska is the easternmost federal state of Germany. Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. Etymology is the study of the History of Words &mdash when they entered a language from what source and how their form and meaning have changed over time Hercynian, on the other hand, derives from the Harz Mountains, in northern Germany. The Harz is a mountain range in central Germany It is the highest mountain chain in northern Germany occupying parts of the German states of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt Both words were descriptive terms of strike directions observed by geologists in the field, variscan for southwest to northeast, hercynian for northwest to southeast. The variscan direction reflected the direction of ancient fold belts cropping out throughout Germany and adjacent countries and the meaning shifted from direction to the fold belt proper. One of the pioneers in research on the Variscan fold belt was the German geologist Franz Kossmat, establishing a still valid division of the European Variscides in 1927. Franz Kossmat ( 22 August 1871 in Vienna &ndash 1 December 1938 in Leipzig) was an Austrian German ^[1]

The other direction hercynian for the direction of the Harz Mountains in Germany saw a similar shift in meaning. The Harz is a mountain range in central Germany It is the highest mountain chain in northern Germany occupying parts of the German states of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt Today it is often used as a synonym for variscan, being somewhat less used than the latter. This article deals with the general meaning of the term "synonym" ^[2] In the USA it is only used for European orogenies, the contemporaneous and genetically linked orogenetic phases in the Appalachian Mountains have different names. The Appalachian Mountains ( often called the Appalachians, are a vast system of mountains in eastern North America. ^[3],[4]

The regional term variscan underwent a further meaning shift since the 1960s. It now is generally used for late paleozoic fold belts and orogenetic phases having an age of approximately 380 to 280 Ma. Some publications use the term variscan for fold belts of even younger age,^[5] deviating from the meaning as a term for the North American and European orogeny related to the Gondwana-Laurasia collision.

Distribution

Distribution of variscan orogenies (shaded)

The North American and European Variscan Belt includes the mountains of Portugal and western Spain, south-western Ireland (i. Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic (República Portuguesa is a country on the Iberian Peninsula. Spain () or the Kingdom of Spain (Reino de España is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Ireland (pronounced /ˈaɾlənd/ Éire) is the third largest island in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world e Munster), Cornwall, Devon, Pembrokeshire, the Gower peninsula and the Vale of Glamorgan. Munster ( Irish: An Mhumhain, ənˈvuːnʲ Cúige Mumhan or Mumha) is the southernmost of the four Provinces of Ireland. Cornwall ( Kernow ˈkɛɹnɔʊ is the most southwesterly county of England, on the Peninsula that lies to the west of the River Tamar Devon is a large county in the South West of England. The county is also referred to as Devonshire, but that is an entirely unofficial name Geography Pembrokeshire is a maritime County, bordered by the sea on three sides by Ceredigion (Cardiganshire to the northeast and by Geography It has been a County borough (unitary authority since 1996, previously being part of South Glamorgan county Its effects are present in France from Brittany, below the Paris Basin to the Ardennes, the Massif Central, the Vosges and Corsica. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. Brittany (Breizh bʁejs Bretagne; Gallo: Bertaèyn) is a former independent Celtic kingdom and Duchy, now incorporated into The Paris Basin is one of the major geological regions of France having developed since the Triassic on a basement formed by the Variscan orogeny. For the political subdivision of France see Ardennes (department. The Massif Central ( Occitan: Massís Central / Massís Centrau) is an elevated region in south-central France, consisting of Mountains and Vosges (voːʒ is a French department, named after the Vosges mountain range. Corsica (Corse Corsican and Italian: Corsica) is the fourth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea (after Sicily It shows in Sardinia in Italy and in Germany where the Rheinisches Schiefergebirge (Ardennes, Eifel, Hunsrück, Taunus and other region on both sides of Middle Rhine Valley), the Black Forest and Harz Mountains remain as testimony. Sardinia (sɑrˈdɪnɪə Sardegna Sardigna or Sardinnya is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea (after Sicily) Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. The Rheinisches Schiefergebirge is a low mountain range in western Germany, eastern Belgium and northeastern France. The Eifel is a low mountain range in western Germany. It occupies parts of southwestern North Rhine-Westphalia and northwestern Rhineland-Palatinate The Hunsrück is a low Mountain range in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The Taunus is a low mountain range in Hesse, Germany that composes part of the Rhenish Slate Mountains. Between Bingen and Bonn, Germany, the Rhine River flows as the Middle Rhine (Mittelrhein through the Rhine Gorge, a formation For the suburb of Adelaide, please see Black Forest South Australia; for the CDP in Colorado, please see Black Forest Colorado. The Harz is a mountain range in central Germany It is the highest mountain chain in northern Germany occupying parts of the German states of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt In the Czech Republic and eastern Poland the Bohemian Massif is the eastern end of the Variscan belt of crustal deformation in Europe. The Czech Republic ( ˈt͡ʃɛskaː ˈrɛpuˌblɪka short form in Česko ˈt͡ʃɛskɔ also called Czechia, Poland (Polska officially the Republic of Poland Bohemia (Čechy; Bohemia Czechy is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands, currently the Further variscan developments to the southeast are partly hidden and overprinted by the alpine orogeny. The Alpine orogeny (sometimes also called Alpide orogeny) is an orogenic phase in the Tertiary that formed the mountain ranges of the Alpide belt In the Alps a Variscan core is built by Mercantour, Pelvoux, Belledonne, Montblanc and Aar Massif. Mercantour National Park (Parc national du Mercantour is one of the seven national parks of France. Pelvoux is a commune in the Hautes-Alpes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France Belledonne (La chaine de Belledonne is a Mountain range in the Dauphiné Alps (part of the French Alps) in southeast France. Dinaric, Greek and Turkish mountain chains are the southwestern termination of the Variscan proper. The Dinaric Alps or Dinarides ( Croatian and Bosnian: Dinarsko gorje or Dinaridi, Alpet Dinaride Greece (Ελλάδα transliterated: Elláda, historically, Ellás,) officially the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία Turkey (Türkiye known officially as the Republic of Turkey ( is a Eurasian Country that stretches ^[6]

The Variscan was contemporaneous with the Acadian and Alleghenian orogeny in the United States, forming the Ouachita and Appalachian Mountains. The Acadian orogeny is a middle Paleozoic deformation especially in the northern Appalachians, between New York and Newfoundland. The Alleghenian orogeny or Appalachian orogeny is one of the geological Mountain -forming events ( Orogeny) that formed the Appalachian Mountains The United States of America —commonly referred to as the The Ouachita Mountains are a mountain range located in west central Arkansas and southeastern Oklahoma. Other North American areas with variscan foldbelts include New England, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. History See also History of New England New England's earliest inhabitants were Algonquian -speaking Native Americans including the Nova Scotia (ˌnəʊvəˈskəʊʃə ( Latin for New Scotland; Alba Nuadh Nouvelle-Écosse is a Canadian province located on Canada 's Newfoundland and Labrador (ˈnuːfɨn(dlənd ən(d ˈlæbrəˌdɔr (Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador is a province of Canada, the tenth and latest to join the Confederation The Morroccan Meseta and the Anti Atlas in northestern Africa show close relations to the Appalachian Mountains and have been the eastern part of the appalachian orogeny before the opening of the Atlantic Ocean in jurassic times. Morocco (المغرب "al-Maghrib" officially the Kingdom of Morocco (المملكة المغربية is a country located in North Africa The Anti-Atlas (الأطلس الصغير is one of the mountain ranges lying in Morocco lying as part of the Atlas mountains in the northwest of Africa The Jurassic is a geologic period and system that extends from about Ma (million years ago to  Ma that is from the end of the Triassic to the beginning

Variscan mountains in a broader sense are the Urals, the Pamir, the Tianshan and other Asian foldbelts. Tianshan may refer to Tian Shan, mount in Xinjiang China Tianshan District, district in Ürümqi ^[7],[8]

Formation

The Variscan orogogeny involved a complicated heterogeneous assembly of different microplates and heterochronous collisions, making the exact reconstruction of the plate tectonic processes difficult. Plate convergence that caused the Caledonian orogeny in the Silurian continued to form the Variscan orogeny in the succeeding Devonian and Carboniferous Periods. The Caledonian orogeny is a mountain building event recorded in the Mountains and Hills of northern Scotland, Ireland, England, The Silurian is a geologic period and system that extends from the end of the Ordovician period about 443 The Devonian is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic era spanning from to  million years ago. The Carboniferous is a geologic period and system that extends from the end of the Devonian period about 359 Both orogenies resulted in the assembly of a super-continent, Pangaea, which was essentially complete by the end of the Carboniferous. Pangaea, Pangæa or Pangea (pænˈdʒiːə from παν pan, meaning entire, and Γαῖα Gaea, meaning Earth in

In the Ordovician Period, a land mass, which has been named Gondwana (present day South America, Africa, Antarctica and Australia), straddled the space between the South Pole and the Equator on one side of the globe. The Ordovician is a geologic period and system, the second of six of the Paleozoic era, and covers the time between 488 South America is a Continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole or Terrestrial South Pole, is the southernmost point on the surface of the Earth. The equator (sometimes referred to colloquially as "the Line") is the intersection of the Earth 's surface with the plane perpendicular to the Off to the west were three other masses: Laurentia, Siberia and Baltica, located as if on the vertices of a triangle. Laurentia (also known as the North American craton) like all Craton land was created as continents moved about the surface of the Earth Siberia (Сиби́рь Sibir) is the name given to the vast region constituting almost all of Northern Asia and for the most part currently serving Baltica redirects here For the Russian beer, see Baltika Breweries Baltica is a name applied by geologists to a late- Proterozoic, To the south of them was a large archipelago, the terrane Avalonia, rifted off the north Gondwana margin in early Ordovician. A terrane in Geology is a fragment of crustal material formed on or broken off from one Tectonic plate and accreted — " sutured " Avalonia was an ancient Microcontinent or Terrane whose history formed much of the older rocks of Western Europe, Atlantic Canada and parts of the

By the end of the Silurian and in Early Devonian times, Baltica and Laurentia drifted towards each other, closing the Iapetus Ocean between them. The Silurian is a geologic period and system that extends from the end of the Ordovician period about 443 The Iapetus Ocean was an Ocean that existed in the Southern Hemisphere between Laurentia ( Scotland and North America) and Baltica They collided in the Caledonian orogeny and formed the Caledonide mountains of North America, Greenland, the British Isles and Norway. The Caledonian orogeny is a mountain building event recorded in the Mountains and Hills of northern Scotland, Ireland, England, Greenland (Kalaallit Nunaat meaning "Land of the Greenlanders" Grønland is a self-governing Danish Province located between the Norway ( Norwegian: Norge ( Bokmål) or Noreg ( Nynorsk) officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Constitutional Seafloor spreading to the south of Avalonia pushed the latter into north Laurentia and thrust up the northern Appalachian Mountains in the acadian phase of the Caledonian orogeny. Seafloor spreading occurs at Mid-ocean ridges where new Oceanic crust is formed through volcanic activity and then gradually moves away from the ridge The Acadian orogeny is a middle Paleozoic deformation especially in the northern Appalachians, between New York and Newfoundland. Contemporaneously the Tornquist Ocean between Avalonia and Baltica was entirely closed. Thus Avalonia formed the southern coast of the new continent Laurasia (the Old Red Sandstone continent in present day North America, British Isles, northern Germany, Scandinavia and western Russia). Laurasia (lɔˈreɪʃiə lɔˈreɪʒə was a Supercontinent that most recently existed as a part of the split of the Pangaean supercontinent in the late Mesozoic The Old Red Sandstone is a Rock formation of considerable importance to early Paleontology. A continent is one of several large Landmasses on Earth. They are generally identified by Convention rather than any strict criteria with seven regions The British Isles (Irish variously Na hOileáin Bhriotanacha, Oileáin Iarthair Eorpa, Éire agus an Bhreatain Mhór; Ellanyn Goaldagh Eileanan Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. Terminology and usage As a cultural term "Scandinavia" has no official definition and is subject to usage by those who identify with the culture in question as well Russia (Россия Rossiya) or the Russian Federation ( Rossiyskaya Federatsiya) is a transcontinental Country extending In late Devonian and in the Carboniferous the archipelago Armorika of southern Europe, which had rifted off Gondwana after Avalonia later in the Ordovician, was pushed into Avalonia, creating a second range, the North American/European Variscan, to the east of the Caledonide/Appalachian. The collision of Gondwana proper with Laurasia followed in the early Carboniferous, when the Variscan belt was already in place and actively developing.

By the end of the Carboniferous, Gondwana had united with Laurasia on its western end through northern South America and northwestern Africa. Siberia was approaching from the northeast, separated from Laurentia only by shallow waters. Collision with Siberia produced the Ural Mountains in the latest Paleozoic and completed the formation of Pangea. Riphean redirects here For the time period see Riphean stage The Ural Mountains (Ура́льские го́ры Uralskiye Eastern Laurasia was still divided from Gondwana by the Paleotethys Ocean. Laurasia (lɔˈreɪʃiə lɔˈreɪʒə was a Supercontinent that most recently existed as a part of the split of the Pangaean supercontinent in the late Mesozoic The Paleo-Tethys Ocean was an ancient Paleozoic Ocean. It was located between the Paleocontinent Gondwana and the so called Hunic terranes

In the Triassic Period of the Mesozoic Era, animals could move without oceanic impediment from Siberia over the North Pole to Antarctica over the South Pole. The Triassic is a geologic period and system that extends from about 251 to 199 Ma (million years ago The Mesozoic Era is one of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic eon. In the Mesozoic Era, the opening of the Atlantic split Pangea. The Mesozoic Era is one of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic eon. As a consequence, the Variscan Belt around the then periphery of Baltica ended up many hundreds of miles from the Appalachians.

References

External links

• Early Devonian Map
• Early Carboniferous Map
• Late Carboniferous Map
• Triassic Map