ABSTRACT
Several orogenic belts transecting south-eastern Asia are the
sites of former convergent plate margins although there have been
varying interpretations of the collisional framework of individual
continental blocks, styles of convergence at these zones and the
timing of respective collisions. A comprehensive tectonic study of
eastern China, Mongolia and the southern Soviet Far East indicates
the collision of the South China Block with a combined North
China-Northeast China Fold Zone Block in the late Triassic-early
Jurassic, their collective suturing to Eurasia in the late
Jurassic-early Cretaceous, followed by the Sikhote Alin-Japan
Block in the mid to late Cretaceous. The evidence is as follows:
(a) A linear belt of late Triassic-early Cretaceous granites and
granodiorites trends east from the Qinlingshan through the
Dabieshan to the Huaiyang massif. Ophiolites, flysch, subduction
zone melange, a paired metamorphic belt indicating north-dipping
subduction and marine strata of Carboniferous to late Triassic age
from the Qinlingshan define the suture between the North and South
China Blocks; (b) A sinuous belt of ultramafics, blueschists,
silicic to intermediate magmatism and west-and north-vergent folds
and thrusts trend from the west margin of Ordos Basin through
central Inner Mongolia and along the east Great Khingan Range to
the Amur River. Coupled with a mid Jurassic-early Cretaceous
unconformity a suturing of eastern Chinese blocks Eurasia along
this zone is suggested; (c) A fold and thrust belt with
ultramafics, flysch, blueschists and subduction zone melange along
the Ussuri River in northeast China indicates the suturing of the
Sikhote Alin-Japan Block to Eurasia along a west-dipping
subduction zone in the mid to late Cretaceous. Similarly, a
comprehensive tectonic study of southern China and Southeast Asia
has revealed a complex regional mosaic of suture-bounded terrains
which nucleated about the eastern, western and southern margins of
the Yangtze Craton during the late Triassic and early Jurassic.
The evidence is as follows: (d) A north-south trending belt of
ophiolites, blueschists, calc-alkaline volcanics and subduction
melange including granites, granodiorites and strongly deformed
marine strata all of late Triassic age exposed in the Longmenshan
of Sichuan merge with the Kekexilishan ophiolite zone into the
Ailaoshan-Tengtaiohe ophiolite and blueschist belt in central
Yunnan along which the Songban-Ganzi Complex and the
Shan-Thai-Malaya Block join the Craton; (e) A southeastern
prolongation of the Ailaoshan-Tengtiaohe belt bifurcates into the
southeast-trending Konvoi zone of northern Vietnam and the
north-south trending Pak Lay-Luang Prabang zone of Laos and
Thailand. Zones of ophiolite, calc-alkaline volcanics and strong
late Triassic deformation, they separate the Indosinia and
Shan-Thai Malaya Blocks from the Craton respectively; and (f) A
northeast-southwest trending belt of ultramafics, pillow lavas and
strongly deformed Triassic marine rocks extends from the
Guangxi-Guizhou border to just south of Nanjing, on-strike with
coeval porphyry copper deposits (the Kweichow Geosyncline of
Fromaget, 1935) is considered by Hsu (1981) as a suture between
the Craton and a strip of terrain herein known as the Cathaysian
Arc.
These findings differ significantly from previous interpretations
of a late Paleozoic consolidation of south-eastern Asia as well as
the existence of a true Pangaea.
Klimetz, M.P., 1983. The pre-Tertiary geology and Mesozoic
tectonic evolution of Eastern China, Southeast Asia and adjacent
regions. Unpublished MSc. thesis, State University of New York at
Albany. 216 pp., +xii; 14 folded plates (maps, charts)
University at Albany Science Library call number: SCIENCE
Oversize (*) QE 40 Z899 1983 K55
thesis (scanned
text) - 9.8MB pdf file
Plate 1 - Mesozoic
lithotectonic map of northeastern China (scale 1:4million) -
3.6MB pdf file
Plate 2 - Permian
to Paleogene stratigraphic columns of northeastern China -
0.9MB pdf file
Plate 3 - Permian
to Paleogene stratigraphic columns of southern China - 0.8MB
pdf file
Plate 4 - Permian
to Paleogene stratigraphic columns of Vietnam, Laos, Kampuchea
and western Yunnan - 0.9MB pdf file
Plate 5 - Late
Permian paleogeography of China, Mongolia and the southern
Soviet Far East - 0.9MB pdf file
Plate 6 - Correlation
chart of the Mesozoic Formations of northeastern China -
3.6MB pdf file
Plate 7 - Province
and location atlas map - 0.5MB pdf file
Plate 8 - Principal
geomorphic features atlas map - 0.7MB pdf file
Plate 9 - Mesozoic
tectonic map of eastern China - 0.1MB pdf file
Plate 10 - Location
sketch map of the northeastern Soviet Union - 0.06MB pdf
file
Plate 11 - Location
map of Indochina (Vietnam, Laos, Kampuchea nad eastern Thailand)
- 0.06MB pdf file
Plate 12 - Location
map of Thailand - 0.05MB pdf file
Plate 13 - Location
map of Burma - 0.05MB pdf file
Plate 14 - Location
map of Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak (NW Borneo) and
adjacent regions - 0.04MB pdf file
Return to MS Theses completed in the
Geological Sciences Program, University at Albany