Locating South China in Rodinia and Gondwana; a fragment of greater India lithosphere?

From the formation of Rodinia at the end of the Mesoproterozoic to the commencement of Pangea breakup at the end of the Paleozoic, the South China craton first formed and then occupied a position adjacent to Western Australia and northern India. Early Neoproterozoic suprasubduction zone magmatic arc...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geology (Boulder) 2013-08, Vol.41 (8), p.903-906
Main Authors: Cawood, Peter A, Wang Yuejun, Wang Yuejun, Xu Yajun, Xu Yajun, Zhao Guochun, Zhao Guochun
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Asia
China
Far East
Geological time
Geology
Geophysics
Gondwana
igneous rocks
Lithosphere
Neoproterozoic
paleogeography
Paleozoic
plate tectonics
Precambrian
Proterozoic
reconstruction
Rodinia
sedimentary rocks
solid Earth (tectonophysics)
South China Block
supercontinents
tectonic units
tectonics
upper Paleozoic
upper Precambrian
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Summary:From the formation of Rodinia at the end of the Mesoproterozoic to the commencement of Pangea breakup at the end of the Paleozoic, the South China craton first formed and then occupied a position adjacent to Western Australia and northern India. Early Neoproterozoic suprasubduction zone magmatic arc-backarc assemblages in the craton range in age from ca. 1000 Ma to 820 Ma and display a sequential northwest decrease in age. These relations suggest formation and closure of arc systems through southeast-directed subduction, resulting in progressive northwestward accretion onto the periphery of an already assembled Rodinia. Siliciclastic units within an early Paleozoic succession that transgresses across the craton were derived from the southeast and include detritus from beyond the current limits of the craton. Detrital zircon age spectra require an East Gondwana source and are very similar to the Tethyan Himalaya and younger Paleozoic successions from Western Australia, suggesting derivation from a common source and by inference accumulation in linked basins along the northern margin of Gondwana, a situation that continued until rifting and breakup of the craton in the late Paleozoic.
ISSN:0091-7613
1943-2682
DOI:10.1130/G34395.1