Identification of the Variscan orogeny
Identificación de la orogenia varisca
- Date
- 1880 · confidence high
- Place
- University of Vienna, Austria
- Credited to
- Eduard Suess
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
Geologist Eduard Suess named as "Variscan" (after the Germanic Varisci tribe) the great Late Paleozoic orogeny that raised mountain chains from southwestern to central Europe, forming the continental framework on which much of Europe was later deposited.
What it led to
- Reference framework for the structural geology of central and western Europe
- Study of Pangaea's formation from the collision of Laurussia and Gondwana