Tectonic history of the major east Asian lithospheric blocks since the mid-proterozoic - A synthesis

East Asia consists of three major Precambrian continental blocks: the North China Block (NCB), the Yangtze Block, and the Cathaysia Block. A tectonostratigraphic analysis suggests that the NCB was probably part of the Laurentia-Siberia supercontinent during much of the Proterozoic, and the Cathaysia Block was at the western margin of that supercontinent during at least late Mesoproterozoic and early Neoproterozoic (ca. 1400-700 Ma). The late-Mesoproterozoic Grenvillian orogenies, which led to the formation of supercontinent Rodinia, joined the Cathaysia Block with the Yangtze Block, which in turn was joined with East Gondwanaland. Rifting during the Neoproterozoic broke up Rodinia, and separated the NCB and the South China Block (SCB) (the combination of the Yangtze and Cathaysia Blocks) from the other former Rodinian continents. Both the NCB and the SCB drifted close to Australia by the Cambrian. A failed rift in the southeastern SCB existed until the Ordovician when it was turned into a foreland basin. After having occasional connections with East Gondwanaland until the Devonian, both the NCB and SCB were left at low-latitude positions, whereas East Gondwanaland drifted rapidly towards the South Pole during the mid-Carboniferous. Collision between the two blocks and with northern Eurasia started during the Permian, and finished before the Cretaceous. Major suturing between the NCB and SCB occurred during the late Middle Triassic to Middle Jurassic interval, involving the obduction of the upper crust of the SCB along the Sulu orogen, and large-scale crustal to thin-skinned thrusting along the Qinling-Dabie orogen, which led to the exhumation of ultrahigh-pressure rocks in both regions. An Andean-type plate margin was developed along the southeast coast of East Asia during the Late Jurassic-Cretaceous time. The collision of India with Eurasia during the Cenozoic caused block-rotations along the western margin of the SCB, and the development of pull-apart basins (including the South China Sea), whereas the subduction of the Pacific and Philippine plates led to the formation of the present West Pacific archipelagos.