orogenous zone
English
Etymology
By analogy to erogenous zone.
Noun
orogenous zone (plural orogenous zones)
- (geology, often humorous, by analogy to erogenous zone) A region characterized by mountain-building.
- Orogenous zones are usually found along plate boundaries.
- The villagers were astonished to learn that they were living in an orogenous zone.
- 1960 World Petroleum, vol. 31, M. Palmer, ed., page 65:
- ...an orogenous zone separates a deep subsiding western zone, over 3,000 meters deep, from a more stable eastern zone rising gently to the east.
- 1968 Nevada Historical Society Quarterly, vols. 11-14, page vi:
- The El Dorado-Searchlight area is geologically a north-south trending orogenous zone, paralleled on the east by the valley of the Colorado, and by an alluvial valley on the west.
- 1976 "Geomorphology and Paleogeography", in Proceedings of the International Geographical Union, page 78:
- Structures due to strata compaction have been identified in the orogenous zone of North-Dobrogea (Independenta), in the Moesic Platform and in the Pannonian Depression (Teremia).
- 2001 Jeff Rovin, Fatalis: a Novel (Macmillan), page 28:
- Grand knew the mountains well, he respected their moods, and above all he enjoyed the challenge of what Tumamait — when he still had a sense of humor — once referred to as "one of the earth's most seductive and temperamental orogenous zones."
- 2008 Gregory S. Babonis et al., Using Multi-frequency Synthetic Aperture Radar to Develop Regional-Scale Groundwater Maps (University of Michigan), page 9:
- The NHLR lies within the Northern Highlands region—a relict orogenous zone that has been glacially eroded to form a highland plateau region spanning from Michigan to Minnesota.
Related terms
- orogeny