A positive test for the greater Tarim Block at the heart of Rodinia; mega-dextral suturing of supercontinent assembly

The Tarim craton and neighboring terranes in Central Asia, i.e., the Greater Tarim Block (GTB), have been proposed to occupy a "missing-link" position at the heart of the Neoproterozoic Rodinia supercontinent between Australia and Laurentia. Such a reconstruction is tested with new paleoma...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geology (Boulder) 2018-08, Vol.46 (8), p.687-690
Main Authors: Wen, Bin, Evans, David A. D, Wang Chao, Wang Chao, Li Yongxiang, Li Yongxiang, Jing Xianqing, Jing Xianqing
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
absolute age
Asia
Assembly
China
Collisions
Cratons
Far East
Geochronology
Geochronometry
Geological time
Geology
Heart
igneous rocks
Lithosphere
Magnetic fields
Neoproterozoic
nesosilicates
orthosilicates
Palaeomagnetism
paleogeography
Paleomagnetism
Pangea
plate collision
plate tectonics
Precambrian
Proterozoic
reconstruction
Rodinia
Shearing
silicates
Stratigraphy
Subduction
supercontinents
suture zones
Tarim Platform
terranes
U/Pb
upper Precambrian
volcanic rocks
zircon
zircon group
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Summary:The Tarim craton and neighboring terranes in Central Asia, i.e., the Greater Tarim Block (GTB), have been proposed to occupy a "missing-link" position at the heart of the Neoproterozoic Rodinia supercontinent between Australia and Laurentia. Such a reconstruction is tested with new paleomagnetic data from the GTB, and it is found that high-quality paleomagnetic poles conform to a stable missing-link configuration enduring from ca. 900 to 720 Ma. Integrating the new results with compilations of tectonomagmatic activity and geochronology throughout the GTB, we propose a novel paleogeographic model for Rodinia assembly. In our model, following initial phases of quasi-orthogonal subduction and collisions between southern GTB-Australia and northern GTB-Laurentia at ≥1070 Ma, the Rodinia supercontinent completed its assembly through a mega-dextral transpressional shearing along the Tarimian orogen. This scenario has noteworthy parallels to the history of collisions that created Pangea, and implies a more complicated geodynamic process for supercontinental assembly than previously proposed.
ISSN:0091-7613
1943-2682
DOI:10.1130/G40254.1