Discussion of the Relationships Between the Gondwana and Eastern China Block: Paleomagnetic Constraints

The time when Gondwana finally formed is still debatable (Powell and Pisarevsky, 2002; Meert, 2003). Paleomagnetic data have demonstrated that the appar-ent polar wander paths (APWPs) for the main conti-nental blocks of Gondwana are in good agreement from Early Cambrian to at least 260 Ma under the widely accepted Gondwana fit (see Li & Powell, 2001, Fig. 6). This is especially the case for Australia and Africa, of which APWPs are best defined and near identical. This indicates that the main amalgamation of East Gondwana and African blocks has likely com-pleted since the Early Cambrian.     

Age,Mechanism and Direction of Eash Qinling—Dabieshan Lithosphere Delamination——Petrological Evidence and Stipulation

Throughy studies of P-T-t paths and decompressive retrograde metamorphic textures of metamorphic rocks in the East Qinling-Dabieshan region,the authors determined the Mesozoic crust rapid uplifting age,and then inferred that in the East Qinling-Dabieshan region lithosphere delamination occurred from T3 to J1.The Yanshanian granites produced by delamination are developed well in the East Qinling-Dabieshan region.But due to the Gondwana plate effect,magmatism in the region caused by delamination lagged until J3 when the northern Tibet terrane and the Eurasian plate completely amalgamated.Additionally,due to western Pacific plate subducting underneath the Eurasian plate,in the East Qinling-Dabieshan region the stress state was transformed from compression to extension.So in the region from J3 to K2 magmatism was most intensive,and liberalization was also relatively strong.Geophysical data reflect that in the East Qinling-Dabieshan region the asthenosphere rose to the shallow level,the Moho is flat with no mountain root,and the crustal thickness is less than 40 km on average. These features agree with those of collisional orogenes in which delamination has occurred.Through contrastin differences in surface and interior depth between east and west Qinling we believe that elamination proceeded from east to west.     

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1674987111001113

The Rheic Ocean was one of the most important oceans of the Paleozoic Era.It lay between Laurentia and Gondwana from the Early Ordovician and closed to produce the vast Ouachita-Alleghanian -Variscan orogen during the assembly of Pangea.Rifting began in the Cambrian as a continuation of Neoproterozoic orogenic activity and the ocean opened in the Early Ordovician with the separation of several Neoproterozoic arc terranes from the continental margin of northern Gondwana along the line of a former suture.The rapid rate of ocean opening suggests it was driven by slab pull in the outboard lapetus Ocean.The ocean reached its greatest width with the closure of lapetus and the accretion of the periGondwanan arc terranes to Laurentia in the Silurian.Ocean closure began in the Devonian and continued through the Mississippian as Gondwana sutured to Laurussia to form Pangea.The ocean consequently plays a dominant role in the Appalachian-Ouachita orogeny of North America,in the basement geology of southern Europe,and in the Paleozoic sedimentary,structural and tectonothermal record from Middle America to the Middle East.Its closure brought the Paleozoic Era to an end.     

North Gondwana mid-Palaeozoic bioevent／biogeography in relation to crustal dynamics （Final report for IGCP 421）

IGCP 421—““““““““North Gondwana mid-Palaeozoic bioevent/biogeography patterns in relation to crustal dynamics““““““““—was directed towards analysis of bioevents (especially global extinctions and recoveries), major variation in biodiversity, and change in biogeographic differentiation along the North Gondwana continental margin during the mid-Palaeozoic. Incidental to this was integration of these data with the biofacies/lithofacies database for the region in pursuit of increased precision in stratigraphic alignments and improved palaeogeographic and palaeoclimatologic syntheses.     

The Early Permian Woniusi Flood Basalts from the Baoshan Terrane, SW China: Petrogenesis and Geodynamic Implications

The Woniusi flood basalts from the Baoshan terrane, SW China, represent a signi?cant eruption of volcanic rocks which were linked to the Late Paleozoic rifting of the Cimmeria from the northern margin of East Gondwana. However, the precise mechanism for the formation and propagation of the rifting is still in debate. Here we report 40Ar/39Ar dating, whole-rock geochemistry, and Sr–Nd–Pb isotopes for the Woniusi basalts from the Baoshan terrane of SW China, with the aim of assessing if a mantle plume was related to the formation of the continent Cimmeria. 40Ar/39Ar dating of the Woniusi basalts yielded ages of 279.3 ± 1.1 Ma and 273.9 ± 1.5 Ma, indicating they were emplaced during the Early Permian. Whole-rock geochemistry shows that these basalts have subalkaline tholeiitic af?nity, low TiO2 (1.2–2.2 wt%), and fractionated chondrite-normalized LREE and nearly ?at HREE patterns [(La/Yb)N = 2.86–5.77; (Dy/Yb)N = 1.21–1.49] with noticeable negative Nb and Ta anomalies on the primitive mantle-normalized trace element diagram. The ?Nd(t) values (?4.76 to +0.92) and high (206Pb/204Pb)i (18.40?18.66) along with partial melt modeling indicates that the basalts were likely derived from a sub-continental lithospheric mantle (SCLM) source metasomatized by subduction-related processes. On the basis of a similar emplacement age to the Panjal basalts and Qiangtang mafic dykes and flood basalts in the Himalayas, combined with a tectonic reconstruction of Gondwana in the Early Permian, we propose that the large-scale eruption of these basalts and dykes was related to an Early Permian mantle plume that possibly initiated the rifting on the northern margin of East Gondwana.     

Terrane Processes at the Pacific-margin of Gondwana （TAPMOG）

Although the terrane concept emerged from the study of northern hemisphere active continental margins and orogenic belts, it is largely in the Southern Hemisphere, in particular in relation to the Gondwana supercontinent, where it has seen its fullest flowering. New data continue to emerge, and new models and techniques are being actively developed. For these reasons, “Terrane Processes at the Pacific-margin of Gondwana”     

Late syn-to post-collisional magmatism in Madagascar:The genesis of the Ambalavao and Maevarano Suites

The East African Orogen involves a collage of Proterozoic microcontinents and arc terranes that became wedged between older cratonic blocks during the assembly of Gondwana.The Ediacaran-Cambrian Ambalavao and Maevarano Suites in Madagascar were emplaced during the waning orogenic stages and consist of weakly deformed to undeformed plutonic rocks and dykes of mainly porphyritic granite but also gabbro,diorite and charnockite.U-Pb geochronological data date emplacement of the Ambalavao Suite to between ca.580 Ma and 540 Ma and the Maevarano Suite to between ca.537 Ma and522 Ma.Major and trace element concentrations are consistent with emplacement in a syn-to postcollisional tectonic setting as A-type(anorogenic) suites.Oxygen(δ~(18)O of 5.27‰-7.45‰) and hafnium(ε_(Hf)(t) of-27.8 to-12.3) isotopic data from plutons in the Itremo and Antananarivo Domains are consistent with incorporation of an ancient crustal source.More primitive δ~(18)O(5.27‰-5.32‰) andε_(Hf)(t)(+0.0 to+0.2) isotopic values recorded in samples collected from the Ikalamavony Domain demonstrate the isotopic variation of basement sources present in the Malagasy crust.The Hf isotopic composition of Malagasy zircon are unlike more juvenile Ediacaran-Cambrian zircon sou rces elsewhere in the East African Orogen and,as such,Madagascar represents a distinct and identifiable detrital zircon source region in Phanerozoic sedimentary provenance studies.Taken together,these data indicate that high-T crustal anatexis,crustal assimilation and interaction of crustal material with mantle-derived melts were the processes operating during magma emplacement.This magmatism was coeval with polyphase deformation throughout Madagascar during the amalgamation of Gondwana and magmatism is interpreted to reflect lithospheric delamination of an extensive orogenic plateau.     

Jurassic Tectonic Revolution in China and New Interpretation of the “Yanshan Movement”

With acquisition and accumulation of new data of structural geological investigations and high-resolution isotopic dating data, we have greatly improved our understanding of the tectonic events occurring in eastern China during the period from the Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous and may give a new interpretation of the nature, timing and geodynamic settings of the “Yanshan Movement”. During the Mid-Late Jurassic （165±5 Ma）, great readjustment of plate amalgamation kinematics took place in East Asia and the tectonic regime underwent great transformation, thus initiating a new tectonic regime in which the North China Block was the center and different plates converged toward it from the north, east and southwest and forming the “East Asia convergent” tectonic system characterized by intracontinental subduction and orogeny. As a consequence, the crustal lithosphere of the East Asian continent thickened considerably during the Late Jurassic, followed immediately by Early Cretaceous substantial lithospheric thinning and craton destruction featured by drastic lithospheric extension and widespread volcano-magmatic activities, resulting in a major biotic turnover from the Yanliao biota to Jehol Biota. Such a tremendous tectonic event that took place in the continent of China and East Asia is the basic connotation of the “Yanshan Movement”. In the paper, according to the deformation patterns, geodynamic settings and deep processes, the “Yanshan Movement” is redefined as the Late Jurassic East Asian multi-directional plate convergent tectonic regime and its associated extensive intracontinental orogeny and great tectonic change that started at -165±5 Ma. The substantial lithospheric attenuation in East China is considered the post-effect of the Yanshanian intracontinental orogeny and deformation.     

The Electrical Conductivity Structure of the Lanping–Simao Basin and its Implications for Mineralization

正Objective The Lanping–Simao Basin in western Yunnan,located in the southeastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau,is tectonically in the transition zone between the Gondwana and Eurasia tectonic domains.It is also the frontier zone of northeastern extrusion of the Indochina Plate towards the     

Chinese Continental Blocks in Global Paleocontinental Reconstruction during Paleozoic and Mesozoic

The Cambrian to Cretaceous paleomagnetic data from Chinese continental and adjacent blocks were collected using principles to obtain reliable and high-precision paleomagnetic data and to pay attention to the similarity of paleobiogeography and the coordination of tectonic evolution. The Chinese continental blocks were laid up on the reconstruction of proposed global paleocontinents with almost the same scale. Thus, it can be clearly recognized that the global continents, including Chinese continental blocks, range along latitudes on the southern side of the equator during the Early Paleozoic. In the Paleozoic, Chinese continental blocks were still located among the Laurentia, Siberia and Gondwana plates, following the fast moving of the Siberia Plate northwards, the amalgamation in a north-south direction at the western parts of the Laurentia and Gondwana plates, and the Iapetus and Rheic Oceans were subducted, eventually to form a uniform Pangea in the Late Paleozoic. The Australian and Indian plates of Eastern Gondwana moved and dispersed gradually southwards, continued to extend the Paleo-Tethys Ocean. The Chinese continental and adjacent blocks were still located in the Paleo-Tethys Ocean, preserved the status of dispersion, gradually moving northwards, showing characteristics of ranging along a north–south orientation until the Permian. In addition, a series of local collisions happened during the Triassic, and consequently most of the Chinese continental blocks were amalgamated into the Pangea, except for the Gangdise and Himalayan blocks. There was a counter-clockwise rotation of the Eastern Asian continent in the Jurassic and northwards migration of the Chinese continent in varying degrees during the Cretaceous, but the Himalayan and Indian plates did not collide into the Chinese continent during this period.     

第十三届国际冈瓦纳大会

Dali(大理), Yunnan Province, China 15-22 September 2008 Call for papers Gondwana 13 Conference will be held in Dali, Yunnan Province, China. Research in the fields of geology, paleontology, mineral deposits and tectonic history of these and other Gondwanan elements, and related tectonic processes, will form the basis for the theme of the conference"Gondwana in Asia".     

The Boundary Between Gondwana and Pacifica and the Suturing Ages of Their Allied Terranes in Southwestern China

Two terranes formed since the Late Palaeozoic can be distinguished in southwestern China. One is charac-terized by the Permo-Carboniferous ice-rafted marine gravel-bearing clastic formation and the cold-water faunaof the Gondwana facies, including the Gangmar Co, Lhasa, Sa' gya, Tengchong and Baoshan terranes and theother is marked by the Upper Palaeozoic of the Yangtze type with the Cathaysian flora and the Pacific-typefusulinids, comprising the Changning-Menglian, Shuangjiang-Lancang, Qamdo and Bayan Har terranes. TheLongmu Co-Shuanghu-Dengqen-North Lancang River-Kejie-Mengding suture zone between the two groups ofterranes is the boundary between Gondwana and Pacifica in southwestern China. On the grounds of thesedimentary formation and successive southwestward migration of the Asian nonmarine Jurassic-Cretaceousendemic bivalves, the ages of the suture and some terranes to the southwest of the suture zone are discussed.The Baoshan terrane and the Nyainrong-Sog terrane in the Lhasa composite terrane were firstly pieced togeth-er with the Asian continent in the early Early Jurassic. The northern Tibet-western Yunnan microplate, in-cluding the Gangmar Co, Lhasa and Tengchong terranes, collided with the Asian continent at the end of theEarly Cretaceous Neocomian.     

Gondwana to Asia： Fourth International Symposium

The international symposium as titled above was held in Fukuoka, Japan from 8 to 10 November 2007. It was supported by seven organizations such as Kyushu University, the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, IGCP 512, etc. The same symposium was held by the International Association for Gondwana Research in collaboration with Gondwana-related scientific projects in Chouchong, South Korea （2004）, Beijing （2005）, and Hong Kong （2006）.     

Geochemical Characteristics of Volcanic Rocks of the Laochang Ag Polymetallic Deposit,Lancang,Yunnan Province,China

In terms of major element, trace element and REE geochemical characteristics ofvolcanic rocks in the area studied and by making use of the TiO2-K2O-P2O5,The-Hf-Ta and Zr-Nb-Y trianglar diagrams and the environmental discrimination diagrams of incompatible ele-ment distribution pattems,the authors have drawn some conclusions that are different from those by previous workers.It is concluded that volcanic rocks in the Laochang Ag polymetallic deposit at Lancang,Yunnan belong to continental within-plate alkali basalts, and that their geotectonic setting seems to be at the northeastern margin of East Gondwana Land.     

A Large Transpression Zone at the South Margin of the East Kunlun Mountains and Oblique Subduction

1. Introduction The East Kunlun terrane lying in northern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau is a Caledonian-Indosinian composite orogenic belt. South of the terrance is the Baryan Hara-Songgan (Songpan-Garze) terrane, which is an Indosinian orogenic belt. Between the two terrances is the boundary of Indosinian 搒outh margin of the East Kunlun?(western Datan-eastern Datan-A抧yemaqen) convergent belt extended about 1200 km. On the north side of the convergent belt, the southern East Kunlun terra…     

Detrital zircon geochronology of the Lutzow-Holm Complex,East Antarctica:Implications for Antarctica-Sri Lanka correlation

The Lützow-Holm Complex(LHC) of East Antarctica has been regarded as a collage of Neoarchean(ca.2.5 Ga), Paleoproterozoic(ca. 1.8 Ga), and Neoproterozoic(ca. 1.0 Ga) magmatic arcs which were amalgamated through the latest Neoproterozoic collisional events during the assembly of Gondwana supercontinent. Here, we report new geochronological data on detrital zircons in metasediments associated with the magmatic rocks from the LHC, and compare the age spectra with those in the adjacent terranes for evaluating the tectonic correlation of East Antarctica and Sri Lanka. Cores of detrital zircon grains with high Th/U ratio in eight metasediment samples can be subdivided into two dominant groups:(1) late Meso-to Neoproterozoic(1.1-0.63 Ga) zircons from the northeastern part of the LHC in Prince Olav Coast and northern Soya Coast areas, and(2) dominantly Neoarchean to Paleoproterozoic(2.8-2.4 Ga) zircons from the southwestern part of the LHC in southern Lutzow-Holm Bay area. The ca.1.0 Ga and ca. 2.5 Ga magmatic suites in the LHC could be proximal provenances of the detrital zircons in the northeastern and southwestern LHC, respectively. Subordinate middle to late Mesoproterozoic(1.3-1.2 Ga) detrital zircons obtained from Akarui Point and Langhovde could have been derived from adjacent Gondwana fragments(e.g., Rayner Complex, Eastern Ghats Belt). Meso-to Neoproterozoic domains such as Vijayan and Wanni Complexes of Sri Lanka, the southern Madurai Block of southern India, and the central-western Madagascar could be alternative distal sources of the late Meso-to Neoproterozoic zircons. Paleo-to Mesoarchean domains in India, Africa, and Antarctica might also be distal sources for the minor ~2.8 Ga detrital zircons from Skallevikshalsen. The detrital zircons from the Highland Complex of Sri Lanka show similar Neoarchean to Paleoproterozoic(ca. 2.5 Ga) and Neoproterozoic(ca. 1.0 Ga) ages, which are comparable with those of the LHC, suggesting that the two complexes might have formed under similar tectonic regimes. We consider that the Highland Complex and metasedimentary unit of the LHC formed a unified latest Neoproterozoic suture zone with a large block of northern LH-Vijayan Complex caught up as remnant of the ca. 1.0 Ga magmatic arc.     

晚古生代冈瓦纳的演化长逾13500 km的基墨利超级地体的裂离及其向亚洲的漂移

The Cimmerian terrane forms an almost unbroken chain stretching >13,500 km, from central southern Europe to western Indonesia, via SE Europe, the Middle East, Afghanistan, Tibet, SW China and Myanmar. Ar-guably, it is Earth’s most spectacular example of a “sliver” terrane, dwarfing in size more recently devel-oped examples, for instance the Palawan Block in the western Philippines, and the Lord Howe Rise in the Tasman Sea. The presentation will first outline the in-triguing geological features associated with this unique tectonic entity. Following that, recently obtained results following paleomagnetic investigations of two lower Permian rift-related basalt suites will be summarized (Abor Volcanics in northeastern India and Woniusi Ba-salts in Yunnan, China). The two studies are part of a larger programme of ongoing research aimed at deducing (I) the geodynamic configuration that generated the un-usual rifting system, and (II) exactly how Cimmeria fit-ted against Gondwana prior to its dispersal in the Early Permian. The critical unit is Baoshan, which we fit against Gondwana within a narrow longitudinal belt close to where northern India and northwestern Australia were once in close proximity (Fig. 1). Furthermore, we suggest that Sibumasu lay to directly the east, offshore of Australia; Qiangtang and Lhasa almost certainly sat to the west (off northern Greater India-SE Arabia), but we are uncertain as to their exact configuration. Our findings will be compared with several rather different models that have been published in recent years. The new pa-leomagnetic constraint highlights the flexibility authors currently have in reconstructing the region, principally because of the overall lack of similar high-quality data from the various blocks. We explain how new data could resolve these ambiguities, thereby offering more robust explanations for eastern Gondwana’s late Paleozoic de-velopment.     

3D Velocity Structure and Its Tectonic Implications in the East China Sea and Yellow Sea

3D structure of the crust and upper mantle in the studied area has been analyzed from surface wave tomography. The velocity distribution in the uppermost crust is symmetrical on two sides of the central line of the sea, and coincides with the structure of crystalline basement. The essential difference in tectonics between the East China Sea and the Yellow Sea mainly lies in that the velocity structures of their lower crust and upper mantle are identical to those of South China and North China respectively. In the upper mantle there exists a high-velocity zone with a nearly EW strike from the Hangzhou Bay, China, to the Tokara Channel, Japan, along about the latitude of 30°N. It is found that between the East China Sea and the Yellow Sea there are systematical differences in geomorphology, geology, seismicity, heat flow, quality factor and gravity and aeromagnetic anomalies, which is related to both left-lateral shear dislocation and right-lateral tear of the Benioff zone from the Hangzhou Bay to the Tokara Channel.It is inferred that the East China Sea was formed by Cenozoic back-arc extension. The boundary between the North China and South China crustal blocks stretches along the southern piedmont of Mts. Daba-Dabie-Hangzhou Bay-Tokara Channel, and the subduction zone at the Okinawa trench is the eastern boundary of the South China crustal block. The movements of the Pacific plate, Indian plate and upper mantle rather than the Philippine plate subduction have played a dominant role for the modern tectonic movements in East Asia.     

The Distribution of Petroleum Resources and Characteristics of Main Petroliferous Basins along the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road

The Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road Initiative, abbreviated as the Belt and Road Initiative, is a primary development strategy of China’s future international cooperation. Especially, the energy resource cooperation, including oil and gas resources cooperation, is an important part of this initiative. The Belt and Road has undergone complicated geological evolution, and contains abundant mineral resources such as oil, gas, coal, uranium, iron, copper, gold and manganese ore resources. Among these, Africa holds 7.8% of the world’s total proven oil reserves. The oil and gas resources in Africa are relatively concentrated, with an overall low exploration degree and small consumption demand. Nigeria and Libya contain the most abundant oil resources in Africa, accounting for 2.2% and 2.9% of the world’s total reserves, respectively. Nigeria and Algeria hold the richest natural gas resources in Africa, occupying 2.8% and 2.4% of the world’s total reserves, respectively. Africa’s oil and gas resources are mainly concentrated in Egypt, Sultan and Western Sahara regions in the northern Africa, and the Gulf of Guinea, Niger River and Congo River area in the western Africa. The Russia–Central Asia area holds rich petroleum resources in Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The potential oil and gas areas include the West Siberia Basin, East Siberia Basin and sea continental shelf in Russia, the northern and central Caspian Basin in Kazakhstan, the right bank of the Amu-Darya Basin, the East Karakum uplift and the South Caspian Basin in Turkmenistan, and the Amu–Daria Basin, Fergana Basin, Afghan–Tajik Basin and North Ustyurt Basin in Uzbekistan. The Middle East oil and gas resources are mainly distributed in the Zagros foreland basin and Arabian continental margin basin, and the main oil-producing countries include Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq. The Asia Pacific region is a new oil and gas consumption center, with rapid growth of oil and gas demand. In 2012, this region consumed about 33.6% of the world’s total oil consumption and 18.9% of the world’s total natural gas consumption, which has been ranked the world’s largest oil and gas consumption center. The oil and gas resources are concentrated in China, Indosinian, Malaysia, Australia and India. The abundant European proven crude oil reserves are in Norway, Britain and Denmark and also rich natural gas resources in Norway, Holland and Britain. Norway and Britain contain about 77.5% of European proven oil reserves, which accounts for only 0.9% of the world’s proven reserves. The Europe includes main petroliferous basins of the Voring Basin, Anglo–Dutch Basin, Northwest German Basin, Northeast German–Polish Basin and Carpathian Basin. According to the analysis of source rocks, reservoir rocks, cap rocks and traps for the main petroliferous basins, the potential oil and gas prospecting targets in the Belt and Road are mainly the Zagros Basin and Arabic Platform in the Middle East, the East Barents Sea Basin and the East Siberia Basin in Russia–Central Asia, the Niger Delta Basin, East African rift system and the Australia Northwest Shelf. With the development of oil and gas theory and exploration technology, unconventional petroleum resources will play an increasingly important role in oil and gas industry.     

Exhumation and Preservation of the Jinchuan Ni-Cu-PGE Deposit under the East Longshou Mountain Thermal Evolution,Revealed by Apatite Fission Track Thermochronology

Uplift and exhumation are important factors affecting the preservation of deposits. The anatomy of uplift-cooling evolution and exhumation in the East Longshou Mountain is of significant research value in understanding changes in the Jinchuan Ni-Cu-PGE deposit since its formation. This study uses apatite fission track(AFT) thermochronology to reconstruct the thermal history of the East Longshou Mountain, including the Jinchuan mine, revealing the uplift and exhumation history of the East Longsho...