Folding

The Cape Fold Belt formed during the Permian period (300 to 250 million years ago) in the late Paleozoic age, affecting the sequence of sedimentary rock layers of the siliciclastic Cape Supergroup with folding and faulted rocks, which were deposited in the Cape Basin in the southwestern corner of South Africa.

This terrane was part of the early Paleozoic amalgamation of Gondwana and consists of a 13,000 meters (43,000 ft) thick section of folded Cambrian-Permian strata, which accumulated on Grenville-age continental crust.

This episode saw the reactivation of cretaceous thrust faults and the development of long and short wavelength folding of Paleocene marine sediments that infilled previous foredeep accommodation.

This tectonic process led to the folding and uplift of igneous and other sedimentary rocks, resulting in the mountain's steep ridges and pronounced layering.

The geologic folds comprise three major bands (lithological units) of building that date from three epochs: the Lias (Early Jurassic), the Dogger (Middle Jurassic) and the Malm (Late Jurassic) geologic periods.

Mountains within the belt display complexly folded and faulted layers and the width of the main part of the zone varies up to ten kilometres (six miles), although it is significantly wider on Skye.

In the Pliocene, a few million years ago, the Kaikoura Orogeny led to slow folding and faulting of sedimentary layers in the Paparoa region, raising them above sea level.

These "basement" rocks below the present-day Swell moved upwards relative to the surrounding areas and caused the overlying sedimentary rocks to fold into a dome-like shape called an anticline.

The sedimentary and volcanic layers are folded and faulted.

Stresses induced in the Earth's crust by the collision caused extensive folding of the preexisting layered sedimentary rocks.

The progressing age of the rock strata towards the core and uplifted center, are the trademark indications for evidence of anticlines on a geological map

Synclines are typically a downward fold (synform), termed a synformal syncline (i.e. a trough), but synclines that point upwards can be found when strata have been overturned and folded (an antiformal syncline).

A monocline (or, rarely, a monoform) is a step-like fold in rock strata consisting of a zone of steeper dip within an otherwise horizontal or gently dipping sequence.