[1] LARAMIDE OROGENY •Major tectonic event that formed the Rocky Mountains •Occurred 70-40 My •Occurred in the interior of a plate •Occurred 1,000 miles from nearest subduction zone •Can you explain the Laramide orogeny using the paradigm of plate tectonics? The Rocky Mountains took shape during an intense period of plate tectonic activity that resulted in much of the rugged landscape of the western North America. Plate tectonics (from the Late Latin: tectonicus, from the Ancient Greek: τεκτονικός, lit. The resulting tension pulled part of the oceanic plate higher in that area while yanking the continental plate downward, forming the Wyoming-Colorado Basin, the theory goes. Plate Tectonics and Plate Boundaries - Duration: 7:40. Structure & Tectonics Our research aims to understand the boundary stresses that drive strain, the role of rock strength in the growth of structures, mountain belts and oceans, and how the history of plate motions has shaped topics as diverse as seismicity, evolution and climate change.

National Geographic is the world's premium destination for science, exploration, and adventure. Lovdahl Science 109,232 views. 'pertaining to building') is a scientific theory describing the large-scale motion of seven large plates and the movements of a larger number of smaller plates of the Earth's lithosphere, since tectonic processes began on Earth between 3.3 and 3.5 billion years ago. The Ancestral Rocky Mountains were intracratonic block uplifts that formed in Colorado and the surrounding region during Pennsylvanian time. Plate tectonic processes have shaped Colorado since their inception at ~2.0 Ga, but Colorado hasn't been within 1,000 km of a credible plate margin for at least 1.4 Ga. Although millions of years and a variety of processes have led to today’s view of the Grand Canyon, the process which gave way to its formation is known as plate tectonics. Brian Johnson 430,735 views. The Laramide orogeny , about 80–55 million years ago, was the last of the three episodes and was responsible for raising the Rocky Mountains. Plate Tectonics PhET Simulation Learning Objectives: - Describe the differences between oceanic and continental crust, including their respective properties of density, composition, Their development related to the collision of North America with South America–Africa, which produced the Ouachita-Marathon orogeny. Plate tectonics is a well-developed discipline only in the vicinity of plate margins and has only been operative, as best we can tell, for the last ~2.0 Ga. Geoscientists still struggle to understand the strong and repeated intracontinental deformations so beautifully wrought in Colorado …

Plate Tectonics Lesson Summary Overview According to the theory of plate tectonics, Earth's crust is composed of a number of individual plates that change shape and position over time. Plate Tectonics - How Mountains are Made - Duration: 3:01. Before discussing the specifics of plate movements, it is important to give credit to one of the contributors to the plate tectonic theory, Alfred Wegener.