geology Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other Astronomical object, astronomical objects, the features or rock (geology), rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology ...

, a terrane (; in full, a tectonostratigraphic terrane) is a crust fragment formed on a

tectonic plate Plate tectonics (from the la, label=Late Latin, tectonicus, from the grc, τεκτονικός, lit=pertaining to building) is the generally accepted scientific theory that considers the Earth's lithosphere to comprise a number of large te ...

(or broken off from it) and accreted or " sutured" to crust lying on another plate. The crustal block or fragment preserves its own distinctive geologic history, which is different from that of the surrounding areas—hence the term "exotic" terrane. The suture zone between a terrane and the crust it attaches to is usually identifiable as a fault. A sedimentary deposit that buries the contact of the terrane with adjacent rock is called an overlap formation. An igneous intrusion that has intruded and obscured the contact of a terrane with adjacent rock is called a stitching pluton. Older usage of ''terrane'' simply described a series of related rock formations or an area having a preponderance of a particular rock or rock groups.

Overview

A tectonostratigraphic terrane is not necessarily an independent microplate in origin, since it may not contain the full thickness of the

lithosphere A lithosphere () is the rigid, outermost rocky shell of a terrestrial planet or natural satellite. On Earth, it is composed of the crust and the portion of the upper mantle that behaves elastically on time scales of up to thousands of years ...

. It is a piece of crust which has been transported laterally, usually as part of a larger plate, and is relatively buoyant due to thickness or low density. When the plate of which it was a part subducted under another plate, the terrane failed to subduct, detached from its transporting plate, and accreted onto the overriding plate. Therefore, the terrane transferred from one plate to the other. Typically, accreting terranes are portions of

continental crust Continental crust is the layer of igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks that forms the geological continents and the areas of shallow seabed close to their shores, known as continental shelves. This layer is sometimes called '' sial'' be ...

which have rifted off another continental mass and been transported surrounded by oceanic crust, or they are old

island arc Island arcs are long chains of active volcanoes with intense seismic activity found along convergent tectonic plate boundaries. Most island arcs originate on oceanic crust and have resulted from the descent of the lithosphere into the mantle alon ...

s formed at some distant

subduction zone Subduction is a geological process in which the oceanic lithosphere is recycled into the Earth's mantle at convergent boundaries. Where the oceanic lithosphere of a tectonic plate converges with the less dense lithosphere of a second plate, the ...

. A tectonostratigraphic terrane is a fault-bounded package of rocks of at least regional extent characterized by a geologic history which differs from that of neighboring terranes. The basic characteristics of these terranes is that the present spatial relations are not compatible with the inferred geologic histories. Where terranes which lie next to each other possess strata of the same age, it must be demonstrable that the geologic evolutions are different and incompatible, and there must be an absence of intermediate lithofacies which could link the strata. The concept of ''tectonostratigraphic terrane '' developed from studies in the 1970s of the complicated Pacific Cordilleran

orogenic Orogeny is a mountain building process. An orogeny is an event that takes place at a convergent plate margin when plate motion compresses the margin. An ''orogenic belt'' or ''orogen'' develops as the compressed plate crumples and is uplifted t ...

margin of

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and th ...

, a complex and diverse geological potpourri that was difficult to explain until the new science of plate tectonics illuminated the ability of crustal fragments to "drift" thousands of miles from their origin and fetch up, crumpled, against an exotic shore. Such terranes were dubbed " accreted terranes" by

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists usually study geology, earth science, or geophysics, althou ...

s. When terranes are composed of repeated accretionary events, and hence are composed of subunits with distinct history and structure, they may be called superterranes.

Tectonostratigraphic terranes

Africa * Birminian Terrane * Kahiltna Terrane * Likasi Terrane * Mozambique Belt Asia * Aldan Terrane * Birekte Terrane * Bargusin Terrane * Daldyn Terrane *

Magan Terrane Magan may refer to: Places *Magan (civilization), also written Makan or Makkan, an ancient region referred to in Sumerian texts *Magan, Russia, a rural locality (a ''selo'') in the Sakha Republic, Russia *Magan Airport, an airport in the Sakha Re ...

* Markha Terrane * Midyan Terrane *

Shan–Thai Terrane The Shan–Thai or Sibumasu Terrane is a mass of continental crust extending from Tibet into Southeast Asia sharing a similar geological history. The Shan–Thai Terrane rifted from Australia in the Permian and collided with the Indochina ter ...

* Tungus Terrane *

Tynda Terrane Tynda (russian: Ты́нда) is a town in Amur Oblast, Russia, located northwest of Blagoveshchensk. It is an important railway junction, informally referred to as the capital of the Baikal-Amur Mainline. Its population has declined sharply in r ...

* Uchur Terrane Taiwan * Coastal Range Terrane * Longitudinal Valley Terrane * Eastern Central Range Terrane * Western Central Range Terrane * Hsuehshan Range Terrane * Western Foothills Terrane * Coastal Plain Terrane Tibet * Lhasa TerraneAitchison, J. C., Ali, J. R., and Davis, A. M. (2007) "When and where did India and Asia collide?" ''

Journal of Geophysical Research The ''Journal of Geophysical Research'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal. It is the flagship journal of the American Geophysical Union. It contains original research on the physical, chemical, and biological processes that contribute to the un ...

'', v.112, pp.1–19 * Qiangtang Terrane * Xigaze Terrane * Bainang Terrane * Zedong Terrane * Dazhuqu Terrane Australasia *

Brook Street Terrane A brook is a small river or natural stream of fresh water. It may also refer to: Computing *Brook, a programming language for GPU programming based on C *Brook+, an explicit data-parallel C compiler *BrookGPU, a framework for GPGPU programming ...

Buller Terrane Buller is an English surname. It may refer to: People * Anthony Buller (1613–1679), English soldier and Member of Parliament * Sir Anthony Buller (1780–1866), English lawyer and Member of Parliament * Arthur Henry Reginald Buller (1874–1944 ...

* Caples Terrane *

East Tasmanian Terrane East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fa ...

* Glenburgh Terrane * Dun Mountain-Maitai Terrane * Molong—Monaro Terrane *

Murihiku Terrane The Southland Syncline is a major geological structure located in the Southland Region of New Zealand's South Island. The syncline folds the Mesozoic greywackes of the Murihiku Terrane. The northern limb of the fold is steep to overturned, whil ...

Narryer Gneiss Terrane The Narryer Gneiss Terrane is a geological complex in Western Australia that is composed of a tectonically interleaved and polydeformed mixture of granite, mafic intrusions and metasedimentary rocks in excess of 3.3 billion years old, with t ...

Takaka Terrane The Takaka Terrane is a Paleozoic terrane that outcrops in the South Island of New Zealand. It is most extensively exposed within the Kahurangi National Park in the Tasman District. The terrane is mostly made up of marble and volcanic rocks but ...

* Torlesse Composite Terrane *

Waipapa Composite Terrane Waipapa is a small town in the Bay of Islands, Northland, New Zealand. It is around 10 minutes drive from Kerikeri, the nearest urban centre to Waipapa, located on State Highway 10. Waipapa itself has no school and most people travel into Ke ...

* West Tasmanian Terrane Europe * Armorican terrane *

Avalonia Avalonia was a microcontinent in the Paleozoic era. Crustal fragments of this former microcontinent underlie south-west Great Britain, southern Ireland, and the eastern coast of North America. It is the source of many of the older rocks of West ...

* Avalon Composite Terrane *

Balearic Terrane Balearic may refer to: *Of the Balearic Islands *The Balearic dialect of Catalan *Balearic horse, a term sometimes used to describe either or both of these horse breeds in the region: **Mallorquín **Menorquín horse *Balearic beat Balearic bea ...

* Briançonnais Terrane *

Central Highlands Terrane The Central Highlands Terrane in Scotland, also known as the Grampian Terrane, is a sequence of early Paleozoic metamorphic rocks containing many igneous intrusions. It stretches from the Great Glen Fault, south-east down to the Highland Bound ...

* Central Southern Uplands Terrane *

Charnwood Terrane Charnwood may refer to: County of Leicestershire, United Kingdom * Borough of Charnwood, a local government district in the county of Leicestershire, England ** Charnwood Borough Council elections * Charnwood (ward), an electoral ward and admi ...

* Hebridean Terrane * Leinster—Lakesman Terrane * Midland Valley Terrane * North Armorican Composite Terrane * Northern Highlands Terrane * Rosslare—Monian Terranes * Southern North Sea Terrane * Tregor—La Hague Terrane *

Wrekin Terrane The The Wrekin, Wrekin Terrane is one of five inferred fault bounded terranes that make up the basement rocks of the southern United Kingdom. The other notable geological terranes in the region are the Charnwood Terrane, Fenland Terrane, Cymru T ...

Fennoscandia * Bamble Terrane * Idefjorden Terrane * Kongsberg Terrane * Telemarkia Terrane * Western Gneiss Region North America * Avalonia Terrane *

Bancroft Terrane Bancroft may refer to: People *Bancroft (surname) Places Australia * Bancroft, Queensland, a locality in the North Burnett Region, Queensland, Australia Canada *Bancroft, Ontario United Kingdom * Bancroft, Milton Keynes United States * Bancro ...

* Buffalo Head Terrane * Cache Creek Terrane *

Carolina Terrane Carolina may refer to: Geography * The Carolinas, the U.S. states of North and South Carolina ** North Carolina, a U.S. state ** South Carolina, a U.S. state * Province of Carolina, a British province until 1712 * Carolina, Alabama, a town in t ...

* Cassiar Terrane * Crescent Terrane * Elzevir Terrane * Frontenac Terrane * Franciscan Complex * Ganderia Terrane * Hottah Terrane * Insular Superterrane *

Intermontane Plate The Intermontane Plate was an ancient oceanic tectonic plate that lay on the west coast of North America about 195 million years ago. The Intermontane Plate was surrounded by a chain of volcanic islands called the Intermontane Islands, which had ...

and Intermontane Belt * Meguma Terrane * Occidentalia Terrane * Pacific Rim Terrane * Pearya Terrane *

Quesnellia Quesnellia, or the Quesnel terrane, is a terrane in British Columbia, Canada; constituent of the Canadian Cordillera. It formed volcanic arc during the Mesozoic era, in the Triassic and Jurassic periods. The Quesnel terrane forms part of the ...

* Salinian Block *

Slide Mountain Terrane The Slide Mountain Terrane is a late Paleozoic terrane made of a complex of oceanic rocks in northern and southern British Columbia, Canada. The rocks of the terrane include Carboniferous limestones, fine grained quartz rich clastics, cong ...

* Smartville Block * Sonomia Terrane * Steel Mountain Terrane *

Stikinia Stikinia, or the Stikine terrane, is a terrane in British Columbia, Canada; the largest of the Canadian Cordillera. It formed as an independent, intraoceanic volcanic arc during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic. Stikinia forms the bedrock of numerous ...

Wrangellia Terrane The Wrangellia Terrane (named for the Wrangell Mountains, Alaska) is a crustal fragment (terrane) extending from the south-central part of Alaska and along the Coast of British Columbia in Canada. Some geologists contend that Wrangellia extends ...

* Yakutat Block * Yukon—Tanana Terrane South America * Arequipa-Antofalla *

Chaitenia Chaitenia is a distinct fragment of Earth's crust in southern Chile. Rocks of Chaitenia represents an ancient island arc that existed next to Patagonia which became eventually accreted to it. The accretion of Chaitenia to Patagonia occurred in ...

Chilenia Chilenia was an ancient microcontinent or terrane whose history affected many of the older rocks of central Chile and western Argentina. It was once separated by oceanic crust from the Cuyania terrane to which it accreted at ~420-390 Ma when Cuya ...

* Chiloé Block *Cuchilla Dionisio Terrane *

Cuyania The Precordillera Terrane or Cuyania was an ancient microcontinent or terrane whose history affected many of the older rocks of Cuyo in Argentina. It was separated by oceanic crust from the Chilenia terrane which accreted into it at ~420-390 Ma ...

* Fitz Roy Terrane *

Madre de Dios Terrane Madre de Dios Terrane is a distinct fragment of Earth's crust in southwestern Patagonia. Subduction made the Madre de Dios Terrane collide and accrete to Patagonia (then part of Gondwana) in the Mesozoic. This accretion is thought to have happene ...

* Mejillonía * Nico Pérez Terrane * Pampia * Paranapanema block * Piedra Alta Terrane * Tandilia Terrane

References

Citations

General bibliography

* McPhee, John (1981). ''Basin and Range''. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. * McPhee, John (1983). ''In Suspect Terrain''. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. * McPhee, John (1993). ''Assembling California''. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

External links

West Antarctica terrane analysis

{{Structural geology