The movement is caused by a set of forces acting along an Earth radius, such as those contributing to isostasy and faulting in the lithosphere.
Such plate convergence forms orogenic belts that are characterized by "the folding and faulting of layers of rock, by the intrusion of magma, and by volcanism".
[5][6] Epeirogenic movements may divert rivers and create drainage divides by upwarping of the crust along axes.
[8] Epeirogenic movement has caused the southern Rocky Mountain region to be uplifted from 1300 to 2000 m since the Eocene.
The uplift is interpreted as due to lithospheric heating resulting from thinning and the intrusion of widespread middle Tertiary batholiths of relatively low density.