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{{Short description|Long series of linear deformation and mountain building events that raised the Ural Mountains}}
The '''Uralian orogeny''' refers to the long series of linear deformation and [[mountain building]] events that raised the [[Ural Mountains]], starting in the Late [[Carboniferous]] and [[Permian]] periods of the [[Palaeozoic]] Era, {{circa}} 323–299 and 299–251 million years ago (Mya) respectively, and ending with the last series of continental collisions in [[Triassic]] to early [[Jurassic]] times.

The region affected by the orogeny, the ''Uralian orogenic belt'' or the ''Uralides'', is usually thought of as the boundary between [[Europe]] and [[Asia]].  It extends from the [[Aral Sea]] to [[Novaya Zemlya]], and it includes in addition to the Ural Mountains, the [[Pay-Khoy|Pay-Khoy Ridge]] of northwest Russia and the [[Mugodzhar Hills]] of northwest [[Kazakhstan]].  Its total length is about {{convert|3500|km|mi}}, of which the Ural Mountains are about {{convert|2500|km|mi|abbr=on}}.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.geo.arizona.edu/geo5xx/geo527/Urals/geography.html |title=J. Zavacky, ''The Urals, a Late Paleozoic Mountain Belt'' |access-date=2010-04-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100701171117/http://www.geo.arizona.edu/geo5xx/geo527/Urals/geography.html |archive-date=2010-07-01 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

At the latitude of the Middle-Urals Ring Structure (''c.'' 56° N, between [[Perm, Russia|Perm]] and [[Ufa]]) the Ural mountains have an eastward-convex bend. It has been proposed that the [[Precambrian]] Middle-Urals Ring Structure caused a disturbance in the orogeny leading to the formation the bend.<ref name=Burba2003>G. Burba (2003).  [http://www.planetary.brown.edu/planetary/international/Micro_38_Abs/ms011.pdf The geologic evolution of the Ural Mountains: A supposed exposure to a giant impact]. Microsymposium 38, MS011, 2003</ref>

==Formation==
{{Multiple image | total_width = 400 | align = right
 | image1 = Uralian_orogeny_300Ma.jpg
 | image2 = Uralian_orogeny_280Ma.jpg
 | image3 = Uralian_orogeny_240Ma.jpg
 | footer = The Uralian orogeny and the formation of Laurasia during the late Carboniferous (300 Mya), early Permian (280 Mya), and Middle Triassic (240 Mya);<br />View centred on 25°N,35°E
}}The Uralian orogen (''[[sensu stricto]]'') occurred between three Palaeozoic continents, [[Baltica]], [[Kazakhstania]], and [[Siberia (continent)|Siberia]].  In the late Precambrian, the northeast margin of Baltica was deformed in the [[Timanide]] and [[Cadomian Orogeny|Cadomide]] orogenies or the assembly of the [[Pannotia]] supercontinent.  The break-up of this supercontinent opened the Palaeo-Uralian Ocean, in which a number of unidentified continental fragments [[Divergent boundary|rifted]] from Baltica.  As Baltica collided with Laurentia to form Laurussia, [[island arc]]s and other [[microcontinent]]s were [[Accretion (geology)|accreted]] to Baltica in the Late Devonian-Early Carboniferous.<ref name="Puchkov-2009-intro">{{Cite journal
 | last = Puchkov | first = V. N.
 | title = The evolution of the Uralian orogen
 | year = 2009 | journal = Geological Society, London, Special Publications | volume = 327 | issue = 1 | pages = 161–195
 | url = https://www.researchgate.net/publication/249552596 | access-date = 8 January 2020
 | doi = 10.1144/SP327.9 | bibcode = 2009GSLSP.327..161P
 | s2cid = 129439058
 }}<!-- {{Harvnb|Puchkov|2009|loc=Introduction, pp. 161–163}} --></ref>

In the Ordovician-Silurian, Kazakhstania formed separately when [[subduction]]-driven growth accreted crust to a series of small, late Precambrian microcontinents.  In the early Late Carboniferous, Kazakhstania began to collide with Laurussia as the Palaeo-Uralian ocean subducted beneath the margins of the latter.<ref name="Puchkov-2009-intro" />

The northern continuation of the Ural mountains, the Pay-Khoy-Novaya Zemlya foldbelt, is the result of the collision between Laurussia and Siberia in the Early Jurassic.<ref name="Puchkov-2009-intro" />

The southern continuation of the Ural mountains, the southern [[Tian-Shan]] mountains, formed in the late Palaeozoic with the closure of the Turkestanian Ocean, an Ordovician-Carboniferous southern branch of the Palaeo-Uralian Ocean.  Tian-Shan remained a stable [[Platform (geology)|platform]] until the Alpine-Himalayan orogeny in the Pliocene-Quaternary.<ref name="Puchkov-2009-intro" />

==See also==

* {{annotated link|Main Uralian Fault}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.scotese.com/newpage5.htm  Late Permian Period map]

{{Paleozoic  Footer}}

{{Geology of Europe}}

[[Category:Orogenies of Europe]]
[[Category:Ural Mountains]]
[[Category:Carboniferous orogenies]]
[[Category:Permian orogenies]]
[[Category:Geology of European Russia]]
[[Category:Geology of Russia]]
[[Category:Carboniferous Europe]]
[[Category:Permian Europe]]


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