The 'Acadian orogeny' is a middle
Paleozoic deformation, especially in the northern
Appalachians, between New York and
Newfoundland. In
Gaspé and adjacent areas, its climax is dated as early in the Late
Devonian, but deformational,
plutonic, and
metamorphic events extended into Early
Mississippian time. The Acadian should be regarded, not as a single orogenic episode, but rather as an orogenic era.
It appears to have been contemporaneous with the Bretonic phase of the
Variscan orogeny of
Europe, with metamorphic events in southwestern
Texas and northern
Mexico, and with the
Antler orogeny of the
Great Basin.
A period of
lithospheric thining that followed the Acadian orogeny created
volcanoes, such as the large
Mount Pleasant Caldera in southwestern
New Brunswick,
Canada.
See also
★
Orogeny - 'mountain building'
★
Iapetus Ocean
★
Taconic orogeny
References
★ Dictionary of Geological Terms, 3rd. Edition,1984, Robert L. Bates and Julia A. Jackson, Eds., prepared by The American Geological Institute
★ International Tectonic Dictionary, 1967, Memoir 7, ''Am. Assoc. Petroleum Geologists'', p. 114