Tectonic Reversal

the most important stage in the cycle of development of the geosyncline, expressed in a change from subsidence to uplift of the earth’s surface. The beginning of the growth of mountain ranges, compression of beds of rock into folded structures, the intrusion of granites, and regional metamorphism are connected with tectonic reversal. Before the beginning of the tectonic reversal, the downwarping of the earth’s crust in the geosyncline predominates. After the tectonic inversion, uplifts predominate, and as a result mountain country gradually forms in the marine basin formerly covering the geosyncline. The highest mountain ranges usually rise in places where, before the tectonic reversal, there were the deepest troughs, in which sedimentary and igneous rocks of great thickness accumulated.