A tectonic model of the Earth in which both the continents and sea floor are resistant to internal deformation places the principal regions of orogeny on the continental rises, where prisms of sediment are incorporated into orogens that are accreted to the continents when decoupling allows the sea floor to underthrust the continental blocks. Arguments favoring this model include: (1) lack of deformation in Precambrian supracontinental strata, (2) persistence of ancient circular structures, (3) pattern of accretion of North America, (4) lack of orogenic crumpling of sediment layers on the sea floor.