Topic
Terrane
About: Terrane is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 11025 publications have been published within this topic receiving 442596 citations. The topic is also known as: tectonostratigraphic terrane.
Papers published on a yearly basis
Papers
More filters
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors provided an overview of the composition, nature and ages of the principal tectonic elements, including ophiolitic melanges and related volcanic rocks, intrusive plutons and sedimentary cover sequences in the East Kunlun Orogenic Belt (E-KOB).
215 citations
TL;DR: Based on new petrographic observations and zircon U-Pb geochronological data of the Precambrian basement from deep drilling cores in the Tarim basin and comparison with the precambrian basements surrounding orogenic belts, a possible unified Tarim block was reconstructed in this paper.
214 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors suggest that Eburnian and Pan-African materials occur throughout the Anti-Atlas region: the entire anti-atlas is underlain by Eburnians, unconformably overlain by a lower Neoproterozoic passive margin; allochthonous pan-African ocean crustal slices were thrust onto the West African craton (WAC) passive margin sequence ∼685 Ma ago.
214 citations
TL;DR: The structure and geological history of the Caucasus are largely determined by its position between the still converging Eurasian and Africa-Arabian lithospheric plates, within a wide zone of continental collision as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Th e structure and geological history of the Caucasus are largely determined by its position between the still- converging Eurasian and Africa-Arabian lithospheric plates, within a wide zone of continental collision. During the Late Proterozoic-Early Cenozoic, the region belonged to the Tethys Ocean and its Eurasian and Africa-Arabian margins where there existed a system of island arcs, intra-arc rift s, back-arc basins characteristic of the pre-collisional stage of its evolution of the region. Th e region, along with other fragments that are now exposed in the Upper Precambrian- Cambrian crystalline basement of the Alpine orogenic belt, was separated from western Gondwana during the Early Palaeozoic as a result of back-arc rift ing above a south-dipping subduction zone. Continued rift ing and seafl oor spreading produced the Palaeotethys Ocean in the wake of northward migrating peri-Gondwanan terranes. Th e displacement of the Caucasian and other peri-Gondwanan terranes to the southern margin of Eurasia was completed by ~350 Ma. Widespread emplacement of microcline granite plutons along the active continental margin of southern Eurasia during 330-280 Ma occurred above a north-dipping Palaeotethyan subduction zone. However, Variscan and Eo-Cimmerian-Early Alpine events did not lead to the complete closing of the Palaeozoic Ocean. Th
214 citations
TL;DR: The temporal distributions of mineral deposit types reflect both formational and preservational processes as discussed by the authors, and they are essential indicators of that process and geodynamic settings, and should be incorporated into any holistic tectonic terrane analysis, and provide a particularly critical test on ancient continental reconstructions derived from palaeomagnetic data.
Abstract: Mineral deposits represent extraordinary metal concentrations that form by magmatic, magmatic–hydrothermal or hydrothermal processes in geodynamic environments typified by anomalously high thermal and/or mechanical energy near plate boundaries. As they require the conjunction of specific environmental conditions to form, particular mineral deposit types tend to occupy specific geodynamic niches. The temporal distributions of mineral deposit types reflect both formational and preservational processes. In the Archaean and Palaeoproterozoic, these were linked because of preservation in continental crust connected to thick buoyant subcontinental lithospheric mantle (SCLM), but were decoupled by the Neoproterozoic and Phanerozoic as a result of evolution to thinner, increasingly dense SCLM. The transition marks a change from mantle plume-influenced plate tectonics to modern-style plate tectonics, with broadly coincident environmental changes and a major impact on the nature and abundance of preserved mineral deposit types. As mineral deposits represent an integral part of tectonic process, they are essential indicators of that process and geodynamic settings, and should be incorporated into any holistic tectonic terrane analysis. Their distribution also provides a particularly critical test on ancient continental reconstructions derived from palaeomagnetic data. Conversely, such reconstructions provide a first-order targeting tool for the conceptual exploration required to discover new mineral provinces and deposits under cover.
213 citations