An orogenic experience?

(or - A Tale of Two Orogens)

Synopsis
mountain ranges: orogens
mountain building = orogenesis
mountain building event(s) = orogeny (orogenies)
subduction-related, Andean-type mountains
collision-related, Himalayan-type mountains
what drives plate motion?

Andean-type mountain ranges

Cordilleran-Andean system
convergent boundary tectonism (i.e. subductionrelated)

Orogenic belts

1.
2.

subduction of oceanic
lithosphere gives rise to 2
different features dependent
on type of overriding plate:
oceanic island arcs
continental linear
mountain chain
formerly known as
Cordilleran-type, now
called Andean-type mountain
ranges

The awesome Andes

subduction of Nazca Plate
beneath S. American Plate
now 70-120 mm yr-1

Colombia to Tierra del Fuego

>8,000 km long
Aconcagua, Torres del Paine

Peruvian Andes
2 parallel mountain belts
Eastern Cordillera =
Palaeozoic: metamorphics
Western Cordillera = MesozoicCenozoic:
sedimentary/igneous
separated to S. by Altiplano
(plateau)
subduction since at least late
Triassic?
compressional tectonics

Intermediate eruptions, acidic intrusions

Columbia
Venezuela

Peru
tio
uc
bd
Su

Precambrian basement +
Palaeozoic sediments
Trias-Jur.: calc-alkaline volcanism
(cf. andesite)
Cretaceous-Cenozoic: Andean
Coastal Batholith intruded
>1,000 granite plutons injected
into volcanics
form Western Cordillera

n
ch
en
tr

Pacific Ocean

Rising in the east

subduction and the intrusion of
batholiths:
compressional tectonics
causing crustal thickening

Eastern Cordillera rise

to E. rocks thrust eastward to
form Sub-Andean fold-thrust
belt

Western Cordillera
Altiplano Eastern
Cordillera

Na
zc
a

Pl
at
e
S. American
Plate

Sub-Andean
Fold-Thrust
Belt

How exotic!
North American Cordillera (incl.
Cascades/Rockies)
different
more complex mosaic of
terranes
exotic, suspect or displaced
terranes
volcanic arcs, oceanic plateaux,
fragments of continental crust,
aseismic ridges

Bit by bit
too buoyant to subduct
accrete (weld) onto
continental margin
orogen grows laterally
numerous exotic terranes
accrete over time (>200My)
thus an accretionary orogen

Hazardous
Cascades, Wn. USA
mounts Baker, Hood, Adams,
Rainier, Shasta, Crater Lake,
etc.
subduction-related, explosive
volcanism
stratovolcanoes
major volcanic hazards
ash falls, lava and pyroclastic
flows
lahars (volcanic mud flows)

8.32a.m., May 18th, 1980

eruption of Mount St. Helens

landslide
lateral blast
blew 540m tons of ash
(~1km3)
settled over 60,000km2
reduced summit by 440m
killed 61 people
lahars flowed 40km

Eruption of Mount St. Helens

The dead:
Forests
car caught
flattened
The
All
inash
quiet
by
lahar
the
cloud
now?
down
lateralToutle
blast River

Himalayan-type mountain ranges

Alpine-Himalayan system
continent-continent collision (Gondwana & Eurasia)

Closure?
subducting plate may be
bordered by continental crust
continued subduction
eventual closure of ocean

ocean crust subducts

completely: brings continental
crust to trench
continental crust too buoyant
to subduct

Crash, bang, wallop

continent-continent collision
rapid relative motion halted
collisional mountain range formed
by crustal shortening
fold-thrust belts

Suture

surface along which

continents collided is known
as a suture
suture may contain ophiolite
slivers

Himalaya
youngest collisional mountain
range
Himalaya usually taken as
analogy for formation of all
collisional mountains

250-350 km wide x 3000 km long

(from Afghanistan to Burma)
older: Appalachians,
Caledonides, Urals, Alps

The Roof of the World

lithologic/ tectonic units parallel
to mountain belt
incl. oceanic crust, passive
continental margin, island arc &
granite batholiths

evidence of complex
collisional history
most of Himalayan range is
part of Indian Plate
still rising ~0.5-4 mm yr-1

Ta, ta, Tethys

accretion of small crustal blocks to
Asian margin since Palaeozoic
closure of Tethyan Ocean
India collides w. Laurasia/Eurasia
~50Ma
~2000km of crustal shortening due to
southward thrusting

S
Tethys

Himalayan history: detail

micro-continents of N. & S.
Tibet accreted to Laurasia
~140 Ma & ~100 Ma,
respectively

Gondwana breaks up, India drifts

north
India collided w. Eurasia ~50 Ma
as Tethys closed

N. Tibet

S. Tibet

~200 Ma

~100 Ma

Sutures and thrusts

Indus-Zangbo Suture (IZS,
below) separates India & what
is now Eurasia

Indian Plate

continued convergence formed

Main Central Thrust (MCT) & Main
Boundary Thrust (MBT) to S.

Eurasian Plate

Indentations
India still drifting N. at
~45 mm yr-1
continued deformation
Indian Plate: old, strong
Eurasian Plate: younger,
warmer, softer
indentation tectonics
modelling using rigid block
indenting plasticene
models deformation well
incl. strike-slip faults where
China/E.Asia being squeezed to
E.

Himalayan geology: 1

Himalayan geology: 2
Eurasian Plate:
Indian Plate:
central Higher Himalaya:
Northern Trans-Himalaya:
Precambrian gneiss & Mesozoic
Cretaceous-Eocene granite
sediments intruded by Miocene
batholiths intruding Palaeozoic
granite batholiths which
sediments
overthrust the
Trans-Himalaya

Higher
Himalaya

Lower
Himalaya

Sub-Himalaya

Himalayan geology: 3
Lower Himalaya: Precambrian- Sub-Himalaya: conglomerates,
etc., from erosion of mountains
Mesozoic metasediments which
overthrust

Trans-Himalaya

Higher
Himalaya

Lower
Himalaya

Sub-Himalaya

8.50a.m., 8th October, 2005

Kashmir earthquake
7.6 on Richter Scale
Indian-Eurasian plate
boundary
hypocentre 26km depth

19km NE of Muzaffarabad,
Pakistani Kashmir
~100,000 dead
>1,000 aftershocks magnitude 4.0
& above

Chile: 3.34a.m., 27th February, 2010

Nazca-South American plate boundary,
convergence 80 mm yr-1
focus 115km NNE of Chile's 2nd city,
Concepcin, depth ~35 km
700 km rupture, slip ~10m
8.8 on Richter Scale (=5th strongest
ever)
~300 dead
tsunami of 2.5m struck along 700km of
coast, killed 15 people
immediately N of the largest quake ever
recorded: magnitude 9.5 (6,000 dead,
tsunami 25 m/82 ft high even 10m high
104 km away)

What drives plate motion?

Driving forces
mantle convection cells
are they mantle-wide?
or in paired cells above & below
MTZ?
viscous drag on base of plates
driven by lateral motion of
mantle?
this exists but not believed to be
a major driving force

P-uuuuuush!
edge-force mechanisms
ridge-push
MORs are hot, buoyant and
elevated wrt older ocean crust

gravity causes elevated

lithosphere to push on
lithosphere away from ridge

Cause or consequence?
ridge-push moves new
lithosphere away from ridge
axis
new asthenosphere rises up to
fill gap
upward movement of
asthenosphere at MORs is a
consequence of spreading, not
the cause of it!

Slab pull
slab more dense than
asthenosphere
sinks and pulls rest of plate
along behind it

a more minor force is trench

suction

It all adds up
ridge-push + slab-pull (+
trench suction)
+ shear force (drag) on base of
plate from mantle convection

if shear is in same direction as

plate movement, plate speeds up
if shear in opposite direction,
plate is slowed

The End of my bit!

So you want to be a vulcanologist?