Tearing up Rodinia: the Neoproterozoic palaeogeography of South American cratonic fragments

Rodinia was initially defined as a long‐lived supercontinent that assembled all the continental fragments around Laurentia and remained stable from 1000 up to 750 Ma. Nonetheless, recent work has cast doubt on the Rodinia palaeogeography and even on the timing of its assembly and break‐up. The geochronological and palaeomagnetic databases accumulated for South America and Africa in the last decade show that most of these continental fragments were not part of Rodinia. A wide Brasiliano Ocean separated most of the South American and African cratons from the Laurentia ? Amazonia ? Rio Apa ?West Africa margin. This ocean was closed between 940 and 630 Ma along the Pampean–Paraguay–Araguaia–Pharusian mobile belts. Moreover, accretion along the South American and African platforms was a diachronous and long‐lived process that involved several intra‐oceanic and continental magmatic arcs and microcontinents. This evolution started at around 1000 Ma and ended at around 520 Ma with the final assembly of Gondwana.     

Contemporaneous assembly of Western Gondwana and final Rodinia break-up: Implications for the supercontinent cycle

Geological, geochronological and isotopic data are integrated in order to present a revised model for the Neoproterozoic evolution of Western Gondwana. Although the classical geodynamic scenario assumed for the period 800–700 Ma is related to Rodinia break-up and the consequent opening of major oceanic basins, a significantly different tectonic evolution can be inferred for most Western Gondwana cratons. These cratons occupied a marginal position in the southern hemisphere with respect to Rodinia and recorded subduction with back-arc extension, island arc development and limited formation of oceanic crust in internal oceans. This period was thus characterized by increased crustal growth in Western Gondwana, resulting from addition of juvenile continental crust along convergent margins. In contrast, crustal reworking and metacratonization were dominant during the subsequent assembly of Gondwana. The Río de la Plata, Congo-São Francisco, West African and Amazonian cratons collided at ca. 630–600 Ma along the West Gondwana Orogen. These events overlap in time with the onset of the opening of the Iapetus Ocean at ca. 610–600 Ma, which gave rise to the separation of Baltica, Laurentia and Amazonia and resulted from the final Rodinia break-up. The East African/Antarctic Orogen recorded the subsequent amalgamation of Western and Eastern Gondwana after ca. 580 Ma, contemporaneously with the beginning of subduction in the Terra Australis Orogen along the southern Gondwana margin. However, the Kalahari Craton was lately incorporated during the Late Ediacaran–Early Cambrian. The proposed Gondwana evolution rules out the existence of Pannotia, as the final Gondwana amalgamation postdates latest connections between Laurentia and Amazonia. Additionally, a combination of introversion and extroversion is proposed for the assembly of Gondwana. The contemporaneous record of final Rodinia break-up and Gondwana assembly has major implications for the supercontinent cycle, as supercontinent amalgamation and break-up do not necessarily represent alternating episodic processes but overlap in time.     

Paleomagnetism of the Deschambault pegmatites: Stillstand and hairpin at the end of the Paleoproterozoic Trans-Hudson Orogeny,Canada

The 1766 ± 5 Ma Deschambault pegmatites are anorogenic intrusions emplaced into the Glennie domain at the end of the Trans-Hudson Orogeny (THO) in north-central Saskatchewan. They are composed mainly of orthoclase and quartz with minor biotite, muscovite, tourmaline and beryl. A coherent primary characteristic remanence is retained in all 18 sites (170 specimens) that resides in magnetite, hematite and minor pyrrhotite, giving a direction of Dec. = 28.3°, Inc. = 82.1°, α₉₅ = 4.0°, and k = 77.5 based on alternating field and thermal step demagnetization and saturation remanence analyses. The pegmatites' pole position, along with recently published ∼1810 ± 10 Ma and ∼1795 ± 15 Ma poles for the THO, define a stillstand and hairpin in the apparent polar wander path for the THO that marks continent-continent collision of the Archean Superior, Sask and Hearne (?) cratons.     

Evolution of the Central Asian Orogenic Supercollage since Late Neoproterozoic revised again

Revision of crustal architecture and evolution of the Central Asian Orogenic Supercollage (CAOS) between the breakup of Rodinia and assembly of Pangea shows that its internal pattern cannot be explained via a split of metamorphic terranes from and formation of juvenile magmatic arcs near the East European and Siberian cratons, followed by zone-parallel complex duplication and oroclinal bending of just one or two magmatic arcs/subduction zones against the rotating cratons. Also, it cannot be explained by breakup of multiple cratonic terranes and associated magmatic arcs from Gondwana and their drift across the Paleoasian Ocean towards Siberia. Instead, remnants of early Neoproterozoic oceanic lithosphere at the southern, western and northern periphery of the Siberian craton, as well as Neoproterozoic arc magmatism in terranes, now located in the middle of the CAOS, suggest oceanic spreading and subduction between Eastern Europe and Siberia even before the breakup of Rodinia at 740–720 Ma. Some Precambrian terranes in the western CAOS and Alai-Tarim-North China might have acted as a bridge between Eastern Europe and Siberia.The CAOS evolution can be rather explained by multiple regroupings of old and juvenile crust in eastern Rodinia in response to: 1) 1000–740 Ma propagation of the Taimyr-Paleoasian oceanic spreading centres between Siberian and East European cratons towards Alai-Tarim-North China; 2) 665–540 Ma opening and expansion of the Mongol-Okhotsk Ocean, collision of Siberian and East European cratons with formation of the Timanides and tectonic isolation of the Paleoasian Ocean; 3) 520–450 Ma propagation of the Dzhalair-Naiman and then Transurals-Turkestan oceanic spreading centres, possibly from the Paleotethys Ocean, between Eastern Europe and Alai-Tarim, essentially rearranging all CAOS terranes into a more or less present layout; and 4) middle to late Paleozoic expansion of the Paleotethys Ocean and collision of Alai-Tarim-North China cratons with CAOS terranes and Siberian craton to form the North Asian Paleoplate prior to its collision with Eastern Europe along the Urals to form Laurasia. Two to five subduction zones, some stable long-term and some short-living or radically reorganized in time, can be restored in the CAOS during different phases of its evolution.     

Siberia and Rodinia

An analysis of the Riphean sedimentary successions along the margins of the Siberian craton, together with recent geochronological and palaeomagnetic data from Siberia, require a revision of the hypothesis that Siberia was part of Rodinia. Some previously proposed Laurentia–Siberia reconstructions may be dismissed, whereas other models are permissible with minor modifications and conservative assumptions about recent geochronological data from Siberia. A comparison of Laurentian and Siberian apparent polar wander paths between 1050 and 1000 Ma shows a striking similarity. However, if Siberia was part of Rodinia, it was probably not contiguous with the Laurentian craton. In this scenario, northern and southern (Stanovoy block) margins of Siberia are possible candidates for conjunction with the rest of Rodinia. We propose a new reconstruction of Laurentia and Siberia at ca. 1050–1000 Ma.     

Palaeolatitude of glacial deposits and palaeogeography of Neoproterozoic ice ages

At the end of the Neoproterozoic, the Earth may have experienced important environmental changes, with a transition between two supercontinents (from Rodinia to Gondwana), extensive glaciations with ice caps reaching the Equator and the beginning of metazoan diversification. In such a context, the palaeomagnetic record can be used to constrain both the palaeogeography and the palaeoclimate (palaeolatitudinal distribution of glacial deposits). Here we present an up-to-date geochronological and palaeomagnetic database for the Neoproterozoic glacial deposits, including poles recently obtained on ‘cap carbonates’ from China, Oman, and Amazonia. The database comprises ten poles (from eight different cratons), obtained directly on the glacial deposits or on the overlying ‘cap carbonate’, and two other palaeolatitudes derived from reference poles coeval to well-dated glacial units in the same craton. The occurrence of glacial deposition at low latitudes (<30 °) is attested by some good-quality poles, two of them well dated at ∼740 and ∼635 Ma. Based on these poles and on reference poles obtained on igneous rocks, tentative palaeogeographic reconstructions for ∼750, ∼620, and ∼580 Ma (ages for which the database has limited but still sufficient entries) were performed in order to investigate the tectonic context within which the glacial events were produced.     

Paleogeographic forcing of the strontium isotopic cycle in the Neoproterozoic

The period spanning from 825 to 540 Ma is characterized by major changes in the surficial Earth system. This extraordinary interval starts with the breakup of the Rodinia supercontinent and eruption of a series of large igneous provinces and ends with the assembly of Gondwana, giving rise to the Pan-African orogenies. This paleogeographic reorganization is accompanied by a global climatic cooling, including the paroxysmal Cryogenian “snowball” glacial events. The ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr of seawater displays a major long-term rise over this interval that is punctuated by episodic, smaller declines and inflections. We use a coupled deep time climate-carbon numerical model to explore the complex role of tectonics and climate on this distinct evolution in seawater ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr. We show that the modulation of the weathering of the erupted large igneous provinces by continental drift explains the changes in seawater ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr from 800 to 635 Ma. The subsequent sharp rise in seawater ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr from 635 to 580 Ma is the result of erosion of radiogenic crust exposed in the Pan-African orogens. Coeval evolution of atmospheric CO₂ displays a decrease from about 80 times the pre-industrial level around 800 Ma to 5 times just before the beginning of the Phanerozoic.     

Ediacaran–Early Ordovician paleomagnetism of Baltica: A review

The Ediacaran–Early Ordovician interval is of great interest to paleogeographer's due to the vast evolutionary changes that occurred during this interval as well as other global changes in the marine, atmospheric and terrestrial systems. It is; however, precisely this time period where there are often wildly contradictory paleomagnetic results from similar-age rocks. These contradictions are often explained with a variety of innovative (and non-uniformitarian) scenarios such as intertial interchange true polar wander, true polar wander and/or non-dipolar magnetic fields. While these novel explanations may be the cause of the seemingly contradictory data, it is important to examine the paleomagnetic database for other potential issues.This review takes a careful and critical look at the paleomagnetic database from Baltica. Based on some new data and a re-evaluation of older data, the relationships between Baltica and Laurentia are examined for ~ 600–500 Ma interval. The new data from the Hedmark Group (Norway) confirms suspicions about possible remagnetization of the Fen Complex pole. For other Baltica results, data from sedimentary units were evaluated for the effects of inclination shallowing. In this review, a small correction was applied to sedimentary paleomagnetic data from Baltica. The filtered dataset does not demand extreme rates of latitudinal drift or apparent polar wander, but it does require complex gyrations of Baltica over the pole. In particular, average rates of APW range from 1.5° to 2.0°/Myr. This range of APW rates is consistent with ‘normal’ plate motion although the total path length (and its oscillatory nature) may indicate a component of true polar wander. In the TPW scenario, the motion of Baltica results in a back and forth path over the south pole between 600 and 550 Ma and again between 550 and 500 Ma. The rapid motion of Baltica over the pole is consistent with the extant database, but other explanations are possible given the relative paucity of high-quality paleomagnetic data during the Ediacaran–Cambrian interval from Baltica and other continental blocks.A sequence of three paleogeographic maps for Laurentia and Baltica is presented. Given the caveats involved in these reconstructions (polarity ambiguity, longitudinal uncertainty and errors), the data are consistent with geological models that posit the opening of the Iapetus Ocean around 600 Ma and subsequent evolution of the Baltica–Laurentia margin in the Late Ediacaran to Early Ordovician, but the complexity of the motion implied by the APWP remains enigmatic.     

The position of the Amazonian Craton in supercontinents

This paper examines the extensive regions of Proterozoic accretionary belts that either formed most of the Amazonian Craton, or are marginal to its southeastern border. Their overall geodynamic significance is considered taking into account the paleogeographic reconstruction of Columbia, Rodinia and Gondwana. Amazonia would be part of Columbia together with Laurentia, North China and Baltica, forming a continuous, continental landmass linked by the Paleo- to Mesoproterozoic mobile belts that constitute large portions of it. The Rodinia supercontinent was formed in the Mesoproterozoic by the agglutination of the existing cratonic fragments, such as Laurentia and Amazonia, during contemporary continental collisions worldwide. The available paleomagnetic data suggest that Laurentia and Amazonia remained attached until at least 600 Ma. Since all other cratonic units surrounding Laurentia have already rifted away by that time, the separation between Amazonia and Laurentia marks the final break-up of Rodinia with the opening of the lapetus ocean.     

New Precambrian palaeomagnetic constraints on the position of the North China Block in Rodinia

We report new palaeomagnetic results from a ca. 1300 to 800 Ma continental shelf succession on the southern margin of the North China Block. A total of 386 oriented core samples were subjected to stepwise demagnetisation. Two overprint components (‘A’ and ‘B’) were identified, with ‘A’ being a Recent geomagnetic field component and ‘B’ a likely Mesozoic remagnetisation related to collision of the North and South China Blocks. An interpreted primary remanence was isolated from six rock units. The most reliable results are as follow, in the order of stratigraphic ascendance. (1) Purple mudstone, muddy sandstone and andesite of the lower Yunmenshan Formation (Rb–Sr age ca. 1270 Ma) yields a high-temperature component that passes both reversal and fold tests and gives a palaeopole at (60.6°S, 87.0°E, A₉₅ = 3.7°). (2) Mudstone in the overlying Baicaoping Formation yields a high-temperature component with a palaeopole at (43.0°S, 143.8°E, A₉₅ = 11.1°). (3) Purple sandstone of the earliest Neoproterozoic Cuizhuang and Sanjiaotang Formations exhibits a high-temperature component that provides a palaeopole at (41.0°S, 44.8°E, A₉₅ = 11.3°). Based on both our new results and a critical selection of available palaeomagnetic data, we construct a preliminary apparent polar wander path (APWP) for the North China Block between 1300 and 510 Ma. Regardless of alternative polarity options applicable to these poles, North China was located within equatorial latitudes for much of this interval. Comparing the North China poles with coeval poles from Laurentia suggests that the two continents were situated on the same plate between 1200 and 700 Ma. North China was thus likely part of the supercontinent Rodinia. Separation of North China and Laurentia occurred between 650 and 615 Ma.     

Growing Gondwana and Rethinking Rodinia: A Paleomagnetic Perspective

The formation of Gondwana during the late Neoproterozoic to early Cambrian times (550-530 Ma) was traditionally viewed as the welding of two, more or less contiguous, Proterozoic continental masses called East and West Gondwana. The notion of a united West Gondwana is no longer tenable as a wealth of geochronologic and structural data indicate major orogenesis amongst its constituent cratons during the final stages of greater Gondwana assembly. The idea that East Gondwana may also have formed through the amalgamation of a collage of cratonic nuclei during the Cambrian is controversial. Recent paleomagnetic, geochronologic and structural data from elements of East Gondwana indicate that its formation may have extended well into Cambrian time. Thus, the terms ‘East’ and ‘West’ Gondwana may be relegated to convenient geographical terms rather than any connotation of tectonic coherence during the Proterozoic. In addition, the paleomagnetic data also challenge the conventional views of the Neoproterozoic supercontinent Rodinia and the SWEAT fit. Alternative variants including Protopangea and AUSWUS are not supported by paleomagnetic data during the interval 800–700 Ma.     

Neoproterozoic—Early Paleozoic evolution of peri-Gondwanan terranes: implications for Laurentia-Gondwana connections

Neoproterozoic tectonics is dominated by the amalgamation of the supercontinent Rodinia at ca. 1.0 Ga, its breakup at ca. 0.75 Ga, and the collision between East and West Gondwana between 0.6 and 0.5 Ga. The principal stages in this evolution are recorded by terranes along the northern margin of West Gondwana (Amazonia and West Africa), which continuously faced open oceans during the Neoproterozoic. Two types of these so-called peri-Gondwanan terranes were distributed along this margin in the late Neoproterozoic: (1) Avalonian-type terranes (e.g. West Avalonia, East Avalonia, Carolina, Moravia-Silesia, Oaxaquia, Chortis block that originated from ca. 1.3 to 1.0 Ga juvenile crust within the Panthalassa-type ocean surrounding Rodinia and were accreted to the northern Gondwanan margin by 650 Ma, and (2) Cadomian-type terranes (North Armorica, Saxo-Thuringia, Moldanubia, and fringing terranes South Armorica, Ossa Morena and Tepla-Barrandian) formed along the West African margin by recycling ancient (2–3 Ga) West African crust. Subsequently detached from Gondwana, these terranes are now located within the Appalachian, Caledonide and Variscan orogens of North America and western Europe. Inferred relationships between these peri-Gondwanan terranes and the northern Gondwanan margin can be compared with paleomagnetically constrained movements interpreted for the Amazonian and West African cratons for the interval ca. 800–500 Ma. Since Amazonia is paleomagnetically unconstrained during this interval, in most tectonic syntheses its location is inferred from an interpreted connection with Laurentia. Hence, such an analysis has implications for Laurentia-Gondwana connections and for high latitude versus low latitude models for Laurentia in the interval ca. 615–570 Ma. In the high latitude model, Laurentia-Amazonia would have drifted rapidly south during this interval, and subduction along its leading edge would provide a geodynamic explanation for the voluminous magmatism evident in Neoproterozoic terranes, in a manner analogous to the Mesozoic-Cenozoic westward drift of North America and South America and subduction-related magmatism along the eastern margin of the Pacific ocean. On the other hand, if Laurentia-Amazonia remained at low latitudes during this interval, the most likely explanation for late Neoproterozoic peri-Gondwanan magmatism is the re-establishment of subduction zones following terrane accretion at ca. 650 Ma. Available paleomagnetic data for both West and East Avalonia show systematically lower paleolatitudes than predicted by these analyses, implying that more paleomagnetic data are required to document the movement histories of Laurentia, West Gondwana and the peri-Gondwanan terranes, and test the connections between them.     

New age constraints for Grenville-age metamorphism in western central Dronning Maud Land (East Antarctica), and implications for the palaeogeography of Kalahari in Rodinia

New SHRIMP zircon data from Gjelsvikfjella and Mühlig–Hofmann–Gebirge (East Antarctica) indicate that the metamorphic basement is composed of Grenville-age rocks that are most likely part of the north-eastern continuation of the Namaqua–Natal–Maud Belt. Crystallisation ages of meta-igneous rocks range between ca. 1,150 to 1,100 Ma, with little inheritance recorded. Metamorphic zircon overgrowth during high-grade metamorphism is dated between ca. 1,090 to 1,050 Ma. Both, the crystallisation ages and the metamorphic overprint are similar to U–Pb data from a number of areas along a ca. 2,000-km stretch from Natal in South Africa to central Dronning Maud Land. The basement underwent in part strong high-grade reworking during the collision of East and West Gondwana at ca. 550 Ma. The timing of Grenville-age metamorphism has important implications for the position of Kalahari in Rodinia. It also questions that Coats Land is part of the Maud Belt because the undeformed volcanic rocks of Coats Land are older than the main metamorphism within the Maud Belt and, therefore, must rest on older basement. This interpretation explains why the pole of Coats Land at ca. 1,110 Ma differs from the Kalahari poles by 30°, i.e. Coats Land had not yet amalgamated to Kalahari. On the other hand, the palaeopoles from Coats Land and Laurentia at 1,110 Ma are identical within error. Thus, Coats Land could have been part of Laurentia prior to the final amalgamation of Rodinia, the Namaqua–Natal–Maud Belt could have been a part of the Grenville Belt and the entire Kalahari Craton could indeed have opposed Laurentia on its eastern side.     

Provenance and tectonic significance of late Mesoproterozoic detrital zircons from the Tonian system,northern margin of the North China Craton

The involvement of the North China Craton (NCC) in the assembly or breakup of Rodinia has long been debated. Studies of palaeomagnetism, mafic sills (dikes), igneous events, and sedimentary records have led to contrasting opinions on this topic. No igneous events related to the late Mesoproterozoic assembly of Rodinia have been reported in the NCC. However, the authors found numerous late Mesoproterozoic zircons in the Tonian system on the northern margin of the NCC. The Tonian Zhulazhagamaodao formation is composed of meta-sandstone, siltstone, slate, carbonate, and dolomine of the littoral to neritic facies and occurs mainly in the western part of the Bayan Obo–Zhaertai–Langshan rift. U–Pb dating of detrital zircons from the Tonian system reveals age peaks at 1079 ± 23 Ma, 1092 ± 22 Ma, 1175 ± 50 Ma, 1175 ± 18 Ma, 1260 ± 45 Ma, 1266 ± 16 Ma, and 1270 ± 26 Ma, which correspond to the timing of Rodinia assembly. Considering that coeval igneous rocks and orogenic belts developed mostly in the Laurentia–Baltica cratons, we propose that these cratons supplied clastic material to the northern margin of the NCC and that they had a close spatial relationship between each other during the Tonian.     

Paleozoic terranes of eastern Australia and the drift history of Gondwana

Critical assessment of Paleozoic paleomagnetic results from Australia shows that paleopoles from locations on the main craton and in the various terranes of the Tasman Fold Belt of eastern Australia follow the same path since 400 Ma for the Lachlan and Thomson superterranes, but not until 250 Ma or younger for the New England superterrane. Most of the paleopoles from the Tasman Fold Belt are derived from the Lolworth-Ravenswood terrane of the Thomson superterrane and the Molong-Monaro terrane of the Lachlan superterrane. Consideration of the paleomagnetic data and geological constraints suggests that these terranes were amalgamated with cratonic Australia by the late Early Devonian. The Lolworth-Ravenswood terrane is interpreted to have undergone a 90° clockwise rotation between 425 and 380 Ma. Although the Tamworth terrane of the western New England superterrane is thought to have amalgamated with the Lachlan superterrane by the Late Carboniferous, geological syntheses suggest that movements between these regions may have persisted until the Middle Triassic. This view is supported by the available paleomagnetic data. With these constraints, an apparent polar wander path for Gondwana during the Paleozoic has been constructed after review of the Gondwana paleomagnetic data. The drift history of Gondwana with respect to Laurentia and Baltica during the Paleozoic is shown in a series of paleogeographic maps.     

Scent of a supercontinent: Gondwana's ores as chemical tracers—tin,tungsten and the Neoproterozoic Laurentia-Gondwana connection

The birth of Gondwana is inextricably linked to the break-up of the earlier Neoproterozoic supercontinent Rodinia. In detail, the Neoproterozoic reconstructions of Rodinia are unsolved and without them a detailed kinematic history of the birth of Gondwana cannot be constructed. This paper shows that Gondwana's ore deposits provide chemical “scents” that can be effectively used to trace the tectonic history of Gondwana; and the heterogenous distribution of Gondwana's ore deposits are used to evaluate Late Neoproterozoic reconstructions, which place Laurentia against West Gondwana along a common belt of Grenville age rocks. West Gondwana (including its Grenville-like rocks) is anomalously enriched in Sn and W relative to the rest of Gondwana. The Grenville Province of Laurentia and its immediate hinterland are devoid of Sn-W deposits and even occurrences of any significance. Therefore, Rodinia reconstructions which juxtapose East Laurentia against the west coast of South America result in juxtaposition of distinctly different metalliferous crustal blocks. These reconstructions may not be correct, and other models should be (re-)explored.     

Dominant Lid Tectonics behaviour of continental lithosphere in Precambrian times:Palaeomagnetism confirms prolonged quasi-integrity and absence of supercontinent cycles

Although Plate Tectonics cannot be effectively tested by palaeomagnetism in the Precambrian aeon due to the paucity of high precision poles spanning such a long time period,the possibility of Lid Tectonics is eminently testable because it seeks accordance of the wider dataset over prolonged intervals of time;deficiencies and complexities in the data merely contribute to dispersion.Accordance of palaeomagnetic poles across a quasi-integral continental crust for time periods of up to thousands of millions of years,together with recognition of very long intervals characterised by minimal polar motions(～2.6-2.0,～1.5-1.25 and～0.75-0.6 Ga)has been used to demonstrate that Lid Tectonics dominated this aeon.The new PALEOMAGIA database is used to refine a model for the Precambrian lid incorporating a large quasiintegral crescentric core running from South-Central Africa through Laurentia to Siberia with peripheral cratons subject to reorganisation at～2.1,～1.6 and～1.1 Ga.The model explains low levels of tidal friction,reduced heat balance,unique petrologic and isotopic signatures,and the prolonged crustal stability of Earth's"Middle Age",whilst density concentrations of the palaeomagnetic poles show that the centre of the continental lid was persistently focussed near Earth's rotation axis from～2.8 to 0.6 Ga.The exception was the～2.7-2.2 Ga interval defined by～90°polar movements which translated the periphery of the lid to the rotation pole for this quasi-static period,a time characterised by glaciation and low levels of magmatic activity;the～2.7 Ga shift correlates with key interval of mid-Archaean crustal growth to some 60-70%of the present volume and REE signatures whilst the～2.2 Ga shift correlates with the Lomagundiδ～(13)C and Great Oxygenation events.The palaeomagnetic signature of breakup of the lid at～0.6 Ga is recorded by the world-wide Ediacaran development of passive margins and associated environmental signatures of new ocean basins.This event defined the end of a dominant Lid Tectonic phase in the history of Earth's continental lithosphere recorded by the quasi-integral Precambrian supercontinent Palaeopangaea and the beginning of the comprehensive Plate Tectonics which has characterised the Phanerozoic aeon.Peripheral modifications to the lid achieved a symmetrical and hemispheric shape in Neoproterozoic times comparable to the familiar short-lived supercontinent(Neo)Pangaea(～350-150 Ma)and this appears to be the sole supercontinent cycle recorded by the palaeomagnetic record.Prolonged integrity of a large continental nucleus accompanied by periodic readjustments of peripheral shields can reconcile divergent tectonic analyses of Precambrian times which on the one hand propose multiple Wilson Cycles to explain some signatures of Plate Tectonics,and alternative interpretations which consider that Plate Tectonics did not commence until the end of the Neoproterozoic.     

Provenance of latest Mesoproterozoic to early Neoproterozoic (meta)-sedimentary rocks and implications for paleographic reconstruction of the Yili Block

The Yili Block is one of the major Precambrian microcontinents of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB). Detrital zircon U-Pb ages and Hf isotopic data of the Meso-Neoproterozoic (meta)-sedimentary units within the Yili Block constrain the tectonic affinity and early history of the block. Detrital zircon U-Pb ages, in combination with related magmatic age data, indicate that the Tekesi and Kusitai groups were deposited during the latest Mesoproterozoic-earliest Neoproterozoic (1040–960 Ma) and early Neoproterozoic (<926 Ma), respectively. Zircons from the Kusitai Group yield major age groups at 941–910 Ma and 1887–1122 Ma, whereas the Tekesi Group have a dominant age group at ca. 2.0–1.1 Ga with age peaks at ca. 1.9 Ga, 1.8 Ga, 1.75–1.70 Ga, 1.58 Ga, 1.5 Ga, 1.47–1.43 Ga and 1.27–1.20 Ga. A minor age peak of ca. 2.5 Ga is also recognized in the middle part of the Tekesi Group. Early Neoproterozoic detrital zircons with relatively uniform ε_Hf(t) values (+0.7 to +3.2) were mainly derived from contemporaneous magmatic rocks in the Yili Block. The Central Tianshan Block provides a likely source for detritus with ages of ca. 1.7–1.4 and 2.5 Ga. The predominant late Paleoproterozoic to latest Mesoproterozoic detrital zircons with positive ε_Hf(t) values (+0.5 to +12.0) in the Yili Block were probably derived primarily from regions exhumed during collisional assembly of Rodinia. These populations are consistent with those from the late Mesoproterozoic-early Neoproterozoic (meta)-sedimentary successions in the Central Tianshan, Kokchetav-North Tianshan and Erementau-Niyaz blocks, and Southeast Siberia and northeastern Laurentia cratons. The Yili Block, together with the Precambrian microcontinents in the southwestern Central Asian Orogenic Belt, was likely located at the margin of Rodinia supercontinent, between the southeast Siberia and northeast Laurentia during the early Neoproterozoic.     

The Grenville-age basement of the Andes

The analysis of the basement of the Andes shows the strong Grenville affinities of most of the inliers exposed in the different terranes from Colombia to Patagonia. The terranes have different histories, but most of them participated in the Rodinia supercontinent amalgamation during the Mesoproterozoic between 1200 and 1000 Ma. After Rodinia break-up some terranes were left in the Laurentian side such as Cuyania and Chilenia, while others stayed in the Gondwanan side. Some of the terranes once collided with the Amazon craton remained attached, experiencing diverse rifting episodes all along the Phanerozoic, as the Arequipa and Pampia terranes. Some other basement inliers were detached in the Neoproterozoic and amalgamated again to Gondwana in the Early Cambrian, Middle Ordovician or Permian times. A few basement inliers with Permian metamorphic ages were transferred to Gondwana after Pangea break-up from the Laurentian side. Some of them were part of the present Middle America terrane. An exceptional case is the Oaxaquia terrane that was detached from the Gondwana margin after the Early Ordovician and is now one of the main Mexican terranes that collided with Laurentia. These displacements, detachments, and amalgamations indicate a complex terrane transfer between Laurentia and Gondwana during Paleozoic times, following plate reorganizations and changes in the absolute motion of Gondwana.     

Neoproterozoic evolution of Rodinia: constraints from new paleomagnetic data on the western margin of the Siberian craton

The paper summarizes paleomagnetic results obtained from the Neoproterozoic rocks of the western margin of the Siberian craton. On the basis of the obtained paleomagnetic poles and available paleomagnetic data for the Precambrian of Siberia, a new version of the Neoproterozoic segment of the apparent polar wandering path (APWP) is proposed for the craton and is compared with the Laurentian APWP. The superposition of these paths suggests that in the Neoproterozoic the southern margin of the Siberian craton (in modern coordinates) faced the Canadian margin of Laurentia. Most likely, in the end of the Mesoproterozoic and during the Neoproterozoic the Siberian craton and Laurentia were connected to form the supercontinent Rodinia. At 1 Ga the western margin of the Siberian craton was a northern (in modern coordinates) continuation of the western margin of Laurentia. The available paleomagnetic data on Laurentia and continental blocks of Eastern Gondwana (Australia, Antarctica, India, South China) and the proposed APWP trend allowed a new model for the breakup of this segment of Rodinia. Analysis of a total of the data available suggests that strike-slip movements on the background of the progressive opening of the oceanic basin between Siberia and Laurentia were predominant in the south of the Siberian craton during the Neoproterozoic. Similar kinematics is typical of the western margin of Laurentia, where strike-slip motions are probably associated with the progressive opening of the ocean basin between Laurentia and eastern Gondwana.