Geosyncline

Development of a mountain range by sedimentation of a geosyncline and isostatic uplifting. This is the "collapse" of the geosyncline.

A geosyncline (originally called a geosynclinal) is an obsolete geological concept to explain orogens, which was developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, before the theory of plate tectonics was envisaged.[1][2] A geosyncline was described as a giant downward fold in the Earth's crust, with associated upward folds called geanticlines (or geanticlinals), that preceded the climax phase of orogenic deformation.[1]

  1. ^ a b Şengör (1982), p. 11
  2. ^ Selley, Richard C., Applied Sedimentology, Academic Press, 2nd edition, 2000, p. 486 ISBN 978-0-12-636375-3