View source for Alpide belt

{{Short description|Belt of Eurasian mountain ranges}}
{{Redirect-distinguish|Alpide|Alpine (disambiguation){{!}}Alpine}}
{{Infobox mountain
| name                  = 
| other_name            = Alpine-Himalayan orogenic belt
| photo                 = File:Alpiner Gebirgsgürtel.png
| photo_size            = 300px
| photo_alt             = 
| photo_caption         = Approximate extent of the Alpide orogenic system
<!-- MAP CODE TBA -->
<!----------------------- HIGHEST POINT -->
| highest               = [[Mount Everest]]
| highest_location      = 
| elevation             = 
| elevation_m           = 8848.86
| elevation_ft          = 
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| listing               = 
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<!----------------------- DIMENSIONS -->
| length                = 
| length_km             = 15,000
| length_mi             = 
| length_orientation    = E–W in the west, N–S in the east
| length_ref            = 
| width                 = 
| width_km              = 
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<!----------------------- NAMING -->
| etymology             = Derived from ''Alps''
| nickname              = 
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| authority             = 
<!----------------------- GEOGRAPHY -->
| country               = 
| country_type          = 
| state                 = 
| state_type            = 
| location              = 
| region                =Southern Eurasia, northern Africa, central Asian subcontinent, southeast Asia
| region_type           =Mesozoic oceanic platform
| district              = 
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| topo_maker            = 
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| biome                 = 
<!----------------------- GEOLOGY -->
| formed_by             = compressive forces at aligned convergent plate boundaries
| orogeny               = [[Alpine orogeny|Alpine]] (in west), [[Geology of the Himalayas|Himalayan]] (in east) 
| age                   = 
| type                  = Folded mountain ranges
| geology               = 
| volcanic_region       = 
| last_eruption         = 
<!----------------------- CLIMBING -->
| first_ascent          = 
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}}

The '''Alpide belt''' or '''Alpine-Himalayan orogenic belt''',<ref name=Storetvedt>K.M. Storetvedt, K. M., ''The Tethys Sea and the Alpine-Himalayan orogenic belt; mega-elements in a new global tectonic system,'' Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, Volume 62, Issues 1–2, 1990, Pages 141–184 [http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0031920190901987 Abstract]</ref> or more recently and rarely '''the Tethyan orogenic belt''', is a [[earthquake|seismic]] and [[orogeny|orogenic]] belt that includes an array of [[mountain range]]s extending for more than {{convert|15000|km|mi}} along the southern margin of [[Eurasia]], stretching from [[Java]] and [[Sumatra]], through the [[Indochinese Peninsula]], the [[Himalayas]] and [[Transhimalaya]]s, the [[List of mountains in Iran|mountains of Iran]], [[Caucasus]], [[Anatolia]], the [[Mediterranean]], and out into the [[Atlantic]].<ref name="USGS1"/>

It includes, from west to east, the major ranges of the [[Atlas Mountains]], the [[Alps]], the [[Caucasus Mountains]], [[Alborz]], [[Hindu Kush]], [[Karakoram]], and the [[Himalayas]]. It is the second most seismically active region in the world, after the circum-Pacific belt (the [[Ring of Fire]]), with 17% of the world's largest earthquakes.<ref name="USGS1">{{cite web |url=http://www.usgs.gov/faq/categories/9831/3342 |title=Where do earthquakes occur? |publisher=United States Geological Survey |access-date=8 March 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140805134145/http://www.usgs.gov/faq/categories/9831/3342 |archive-date=5 August 2014 }}</ref>

The belt is the result of [[Mesozoic]]-to-[[Cenozoic]]-to-recent closure of the [[Tethys Ocean]] and process of collision between the northward-moving [[African plate|African]], [[Arabian plate|Arabian]], and [[Indian plate]]s with the [[Eurasian plate]].<ref name=Storetvedt/> Each collision results in a [[convergent boundary]], a topic covered in [[plate tectonics]]. The approximate alignment of so many convergent boundaries trending east to west, first noticed by the Austrian geologist [[Eduard Suess]], suggests that {{citation needed span|date=March 2024|once many plates were one plate, and the collision formed one subduction zone, which was oceanic, subducting the floor of Tethys.}}

Suess called the single continent [[Gondwana]], after some rock formations in India, then part of the supercontinent of Gondwana, which had earlier divided from another supercontinent, [[Laurasia]], and was now pushing its way back. Eurasia descends from Laurasia, the Laurentia part having split away to the west as a consequence of the formation of the North Atlantic Ocean. As Tethys closed, Gondwana pushed up mountain ranges on the southern margin of Eurasia.

==Brief history of the concept==
The Alpide belt is a concept from modern [[historical geology]], the study in geologic time of the events that shaped the surface of the Earth.<ref>{{harvnb|Suess|1904|p=594}} "In human affairs as in the physical world the present is only a transverse section; we cannot see the future which lies beyond, but we may gain instruction from the past. Thus the history of the earth is of fundamental importance in the description of the earth."</ref> The topic began suddenly in the mid-19th century with the evolutionary biologists. The early historical geologists, such as [[Charles Darwin]] and [[Charles Lyell]], arranged fossils and layers of sedimentary rock containing them into time periods, of which the framework remains.<ref name="Suess 1904 594">{{harvnb|Suess|1904|p=594}} "A general comparative orography, drawn from the existing store of observations, has not yet been created, and he who endeavours step by step to organize the elements of such a synthesis must be content if he finds that the structure he has raised is open to completion and correction,..."</ref>

The late 19th century was a period of synthesis, in which geologists attempted to combine all the detail into the big picture. The first of his type, [[Eduard Suess]], used the term "comparative orography" to refer to his method of comparing mountain ranges, parallel to "comparative anatomy" and "comparative philology.<ref name="Suess 1904 594"/>

His work preceded plate tectonics and continental drift. This pre-tectonic phase lasted until about 1950, when the drift theory won the field just as suddenly as had the evolutionist. The concepts and language of the comparative graphists were kept with some modification, but were explained in new ways.

===Suess's subsidence theory===
The author of the concept of a trans-Eurasian zone of [[subsidence]], which he called [[Tethys Ocean|Tethys]], was [[Eduard Suess]]. He knew it had been a subsidence because it expressed deposits of the [[Mesozoic]], now indurated into layers and raised into highlands by compressional force.<ref>{{harvnb|Suess|1908|p=19}} "Gondwana-land is bounded on the north by a broad zone of marine deposits of Mesozoic age....It must be regarded in its entirety as the relic of a sea which once extended across the existing continent of Asia."</ref> Suess had discovered the zone during his early work on the [[Alps]]. He spent the better part of his career following the zone in detail, which he assembled in one ongoing work, ''das Antlitz der Erde'', "The Face of the Earth." Like a human face, the Earth's face has [[lineament]]s. Suess's topic was the definition and classification of the lineaments of this zone, which he traced from one end of Eurasia to the other, ending on the east with the [[Malay Peninsula]].

Suess looked, as did all geologists, at the strata and content of [[sedimentary rock]], deposited as sediment in the oceanic basins, indurated under the pressure of the depths, and raised later under horizontal pressure into folds of mountain chains. What he added to the field is the study of what he called the "trend-lines" or directions of mountains chains. These were to be discovered by examining their [[Strike and dip|strikes]], or intersections with the surface. He soon discovered what are known today as convergent plate borders, which are chains of mountains raised by the compression or subduction of one plate under another, but knowledge was not in such a state that he could recognize them as that. He concerned himself instead with the patterns.
<!--Suess was innovating the use of the -ides suffix to denote chains of related mountains. The entire series therefore became the Alpides in his terminology, signifying mountains of the same type of origin as the Alps, a major chain of the now Alpides. The name remained. The orogeny creating the Alps was named the Alpine orogeny. Meanwhile, Gondwana and the one subduction had divided into smaller plates and less extensive subductions of different names and types. These were all eventually bundled together as Alpide, although Suess did experiment with a few other names. He was in the process of classifying mountain ranges. Much of his system remains in effect.-->

==Main ranges (from west to east)==
* [[Cantabrian Mountains]] (incl. the [[Basque Mountains]]), [[Sistema Central]], [[Sistema Ibérico]], [[Pyrenees]], [[Alps]], [[Carpathian Mountains|Carpathians]], [[Balkan Mountains]] (Balkanides), [[Rila]]-[[Rhodope Mountains|Rhodope]] [[massif]]s, [[Thracian Sea]] [[Thasos|islands]], [[Crimean Mountains]] – entirely in [[Europe]]
* [[Atlas Mountains|Atlas]] and [[Rif]] Mountains in [[Northern Africa]], [[Baetic System]] ([[Sierra Nevada (Spain)|Sierra Nevada]] and [[Balearic Islands]]), [[Apennine Mountains]], [[Dinaric Alps]], [[Pindus]] (Hellenides), and [[Mount Ida (Crete)|Mount Ida]];
* [[Caucasus Mountains]] (on the [[Boundaries between the continents of Earth|limits between Asia and Europe]]), [[Kopet Dag|Kopet Mountains]], [[Pamir Mountains|Pamir]], [[Pamir-Alay|Alay]] Mountains, [[Tian Shan]], [[Altai Mountains]], [[Sayan Mountains]];
* [[Pontic Mountains]], [[Armenian highlands]], [[Alborz]], [[Hindu Kush]], [[Kunlun Mountains]], [[Hengduan Mountains]], [[Annamite Range]], [[Titiwangsa Mountains]], [[Barisan Mountains]] – entirely in [[Asia]];
* [[Taurus Mountains]], [[Troodos Mountains]], [[Zagros Mountains]], [[Makran]] Highland, [[Sulaiman Mountains]], [[Karakoram]], [[Himalayas]], [[Transhimalaya]], [[Patkai]], [[Chin Hills]], [[Arakan Mountains]], [[Andaman Islands|Andaman]] and [[Nicobar Islands]] – entirely in [[Asia]].

[[Indonesia]] lies between the Pacific [[Ring of Fire]] along the northeastern islands adjacent to and including [[New Guinea]] and the Alpide belt along the south and west from [[Sumatra]], [[Java]] and the [[Lesser Sunda Islands]] ([[Bali]], [[Flores]], and [[Timor]]). The [[2004 Indian Ocean earthquake]] just off the coast of Sumatra was located within the Alpide belt.

==Etymology==
The word ''Alpide'' is a term first coined in German by Austrian geologist [[Eduard Suess]] in his 1883 magnum opus ''Das Antlitz der Erde''<ref name="suess1909">{{cite book|last1=Suess|first1=Eduard|author-link1=Eduard Suess|title=Das Antlitz der Erde|trans-title=The Face of the Earth|language=de|publication-date=1909|orig-date=1883|volume=3.2, part 4|chapter=10: Eintritt der Altaiden nach Europa|page=3|publisher=F. Tempsky|publication-place=Vienna|url=https://archive.org/details/dasantlitzdererdv3p2sues/page/n12/mode/1up|access-date=2023-12-30|lccn=10004406|oclc=1414429730|quote=Die zweite Aenderung besteht darin, dass nun die Ketten, welche jünger sind als das Ober-Carbon oder Perm, sich räumlich scharf abtrennen. Sie liegen fast ganz innerhalb von Senkungen der Altaiden, umrahmt von Linien, die nicht selten das Streichen der Altaiden durchschneiden. Man kann diese umrahmten Ketten als posthume Altaiden ansehen. Die alpinen Ketten (''Alpiden'') sind ihr wichtigstes Glied. Die ''Alpiden'' besitzen einen tertiären Saum. Im variscischen Aussenrande, z. B. ausserhalb der belgischen Kohlenfelder, sieht man nichts Aehnliches. Ueberhaupt ist jüngere Faltung in den Horsten der europäischen Altaiden nur gar selten und in geringem Maasse sichtbar. Es ist, als wäre der Rahmen erstarrt, und die Faltung vom Ober-Carbon an auf die gesenkten Räume eingeschränkt.|trans-quote=In the next place those chains of the Altaides which are younger than the upper Carboniferous and the Permian are separated sharply in space. They lie almost wholly within subsided areas of the Altaides, framed in by lines which frequently cut across the strike of these mountains. We may regard the chains thus framed in as posthumous Altaides. The Alpine chains (''Alpides'') are their most important member. The ''Alpides'' are bordered by a Tertiary zone. Nothing analogous to this is to be seen in the outer margin of the Variscan arc, i.e. outside the Belgian coal-fields. Indeed the younger folding occurs but seldom in the horsts of the European Altaides, and is then only feebly developed. It is as though the frame had become rigid, and the folding, from the upper Carboniferous onwards, had been confined to the downthrown areas. (translated by Hertha B. C. Sollas, under the direction of W. C. Sollas, 1909)}}</ref> and later popularized in English-language scientific literature by Turkish geologist and historian [[Celâl Şengör|A. M. Celâl Şengör]] in a 1984 paper on the topic.<ref name="sengor1984">{{cite book|last1=Şengör|first1=A. M. Celâl|author-link1=Celâl Şengör|title=The Cimmeride Orogenic System and the Tectonics of Eurasia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p2cB30_SniMC&pg=PA11|volume=195|series=Geological Society of America Special Paper|page=11|year=1984|url-access=limited|access-date=2023-12-30|publisher=[[Geological Society of America]]|publication-place=Boulder, CO|doi=10.1130/SPE195|isbn=9780813721958|lccn=84018845|oclc=859566590|quote=Figure 7 shows the present extent of the orogenic system related to the obliteration of Paleo-Tethys as compared with that generated during the closure of Neo-Tethys. I call the former the Cimmerides (Figure 7B, I); the latter I define to constitute the ''Alpides'' (Figure 7B, II). The Cimmerides and the ''Alpides'' may be defined to form the Tethysides, for they both descended from Tethys s.l. (Figure 7A). The Alpine-Himalayan mountain belt therefore consists of two mutually independent, but largely superimposed orogenic complexes (Figure 7A).}}</ref> The term adds the suffix ''-ides'', derived from the Ancient Greek patronymic/familial suffix {{lang|grc|-ίδης}} ({{transliteration|grc|-ídēs}}), to the ''Alps'', suggesting a "family" of related orogens. The term ''belt'' refers to the fact that the Alpides form a long, mostly unbroken chain of orogens running west to east along the southern edge of Eurasia.

==Orogeny==
If "Alpide" is taken in Kober's sense to mean the last and current of a collective group of contemporaneous ridges over the entire Tethyan region, then "Alpine orogeny" is used collectively of all the orogenies required to create the Alpides, a definition that is far from the original meanings of Alpide and Alpine, representing a specialized geologic usage.

==See also==
*{{annotated link|Geology of the Alps}}
*[[Alpine orogeny]] -- Formation of the Alpide belt

== Citations ==
{{Reflist}}

== General and cited references ==
* {{Cite book |last=Suess |first=Eduard |year=1904 |editor-first=W. J. |editor-last=Sollas |translator-first=Hertha B. C. |translator-last=Sollas |title=The Face of the Earth |trans-title=das Antlitz der Erde |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.42506/page/n5/mode/1up?q=comparative |volume=I |location=Oxford |publisher=Clarendon Press}}
* {{Cite book |last=Suess |first=Eduard |year=1908 |editor-first=W. J. |editor-last=Sollas |translator-first=Hertha B. C. |translator-last=Sollas |title=The Face of the Earth |trans-title=das Antlitz der Erde|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.22197/page/n28/mode/1up |edition=Revised |volume=III |location=Oxford |publisher=Clarendon Press}}

==External links==
{{commons category}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060117041632/http://earthquake.usgs.gov/faq/hist.html Historic Earthquakes & Earthquake Statistics – USGS]
* [http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Glossary/PlateTectonics/description_plate_tectonics.html "Ring of Fire", Plate Tectonics, Sea-Floor Spreading, Subduction Zones, "Hot Spots" – USGS]

[[Category:Geographic areas of seismological interest]]
[[Category:Plate tectonics]]
[[Category:Volcanism]]
[[Category:Belt regions]]