The Tethyside Orogenic System: An Introduction

Abstract

The Tethysides are the orogenic belts that grew out of the mostly collisional obliteration of the Tethyan domain. The Tethyan domain includes both the Palaeo-Tethys (the original triangular gap in Pangaea), and the Neo-Tethys (Tethys opened behind the Cimmerian Continent as it rifted away from northern Gondwana-Land and rotated to close Palaeo-Tethys) plus their continental margins of diverse types. The term Tethys was defined as a tectonic equivalent of the Centrall Mediterranean of Neumayr and should not be used as a palaeogeographic entity only. The evolution of the Tethysides discloses large amounts of orogen parallel (or subparallel) strike-slip faulting that significantly disrupted the Tethyan orogenic collage. The concept of “allochthonous terranes” is viewed to be little more than the concept of nappes (since the latter also included strike-slip generated slivers) and found a retrogressive step, if used in place of genetic concepts that have long superceded nappe descriptions in the Alpine System at least.