Geoscience Frontiers 5 (2014) 303e350

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China University of Geosciences (Beijing)

Geoscience Frontiers
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/gsf

Focus paper

Plate tectonics in the late Paleozoic

Mathew Domeier a, *, Trond H. Torsvik a, b, c
a
Center for Earth Evolution and Dynamics (CEED), University of Oslo, NO-0316 Oslo, Norway
b
Geodynamics, NGU, N-7491 Trondheim, Norway
c
School of Geosciences, University of Witwatersrand, Wits 2050, South Africa

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: As the chronicle of plate motions through time, paleogeography is fundamental to our understanding of
Received 21 November 2013 plate tectonics and its role in shaping the geology of the present-day. To properly appreciate the history
Received in revised form of tectonicsdand its influence on the deep Earth and climatedit is imperative to seek an accurate and
13 January 2014
global model of paleogeography. However, owing to the incessant loss of oceanic lithosphere through
Accepted 15 January 2014
Available online 28 January 2014
subduction, the paleogeographic reconstruction of ‘full-plates’ (including oceanic lithosphere) becomes
increasingly challenging with age. Prior to 150 Ma w60% of the lithosphere is missing and re-
constructions are developed without explicit regard for oceanic lithosphere or plate tectonic principles;
Keywords:
Late Paleozoic
in effect, reflecting the earlier mobilistic paradigm of continental drift. Although these ‘continental’ re-
Paleogeography constructions have been immensely useful, the next-generation of mantle models requires global plate
Plate tectonics kinematic descriptions with full-plate reconstructions. Moreover, in disregarding (or only loosely
Plate kinematics applying) plate tectonic rules, continental reconstructions fail to take advantage of a wealth of additional
Paleomagnetism information in the form of practical constraints. Following a series of new developments, both in geo-
dynamic theory and analytical tools, it is now feasible to construct full-plate models that lend themselves
to testing by the wider Earth-science community. Such a model is presented here for the late Paleozoic
(410e250 Ma) together with a review of the underlying data. Although we expect this model to be
particularly useful for numerical mantle modeling, we hope that it will also serve as a general framework
for understanding late Paleozoic tectonics, one on which future improvements can be built and further
tested.
Ó 2014, China University of Geosciences (Beijing) and Peking University. Production and hosting by
Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction mobilistic paradigmdand with it, the obvious significance of

paleogeography. Ironically, since the development and acceptance
Since its origin in the nascent mobilistic concept of continental of plate tectonics, work on pre-Cretaceous paleogeography has
drift, as first put forth by Wegener (1912), paleogeography has been almost exclusively conducted under the framework of the
come to be fundamental to our understanding and interpretation of now-superseded theory of continental drift. Of course, paleo-
geology and geophysics. But though Wegener had presented a late geographers have not rejected plate tectonics in favor of its
Paleozoic reconstruction (relative to Europe and Africa) a century archetype, but nonetheless, general considerations of plate
ago, it wasn’t until the plate tectonic revolution of the 1960s that boundaries and oceanic lithosphere are largely absent from pre-
the wider Earth-science community came to appreciate and adopt a Cretaceous models. The reason for that is simple: due to the
incessant destruction of oceanic lithosphere by subduction, infor-
mation pertaining to the oceanic component of plates is progres-
sively lost with time. Moving backward, at 150 Ma w60% of the
* Corresponding author.
lithosphere is missing (Torsvik et al., 2010b), thus making a global
E-mail address: mathew.domeier@fys.uio.no (M. Domeier).
‘full-plate’ reconstruction exceedingly challenging prior to that
Peer-review under responsibility of China University of Geosciences (Beijing) time.
However, with the advent of powerful new geodynamic con-
cepts (Torsvik et al., 2008b) and analytical tools (www.gplates.org),
in addition to ever-growing libraries of paleogeographic data, it is
Production and hosting by Elsevier now feasible to make significant progress on that front, which, in

1674-9871/$ e see front matter Ó 2014, China University of Geosciences (Beijing) and Peking University. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gsf.2014.01.002
304 M. Domeier, T.H. Torsvik / Geoscience Frontiers 5 (2014) 303e350

effect, ‘pushes’ plate tectonics backward into early Mesozoic and Paleozoic, as they demonstrably have since the Mesozoic, we can
Paleozoic time. The rationale for such effort is broad: not only will construct models with provisional paleolongitude, when and where
‘full-plate’ reconstructions yield myriad testable scenarios, pre- LIPs and kimberlites are found. However, reconstructions of this kind
dictions, insights and novel questions, they are also necessary for must be prepared in a mantle reference frame and therefore must first
the execution of next-generation numerical models (Bower et al., be corrected for true polar wander (TPW) (Torsvik et al., submitted for
2013; Bull et al., submitted for publication). Moreover, as it is publication). In the late Paleozoic there were six known LIP eruptions
certain that plate tectonics was operating in the early Mesozoic and and approximately 35 kimberlite emplacements, the latter mostly in
Paleozoic, it is natural that we should strive to make models that Siberia and northern Laurussia.
conform to this framework. Although paleontology only acts as a qualitative to semi-
Stampfli and Borel (2002) and Stampfli et al. (2013) first quantitative paleogeographical tool, it can prove invaluable in
attempted to apply plate tectonic principles to the early Mesozoic constraining paleolatitude or relative paleolongitude, particularly
and Paleozoic, producing a ‘full-plate’ (hereafter just ‘plate’) model when other forms of data are ambiguous (i.e. indeterminate
with a careful accounting of plate kinematics and consideration of hemisphere or multiple LLSVP margins) or lacking. Such fossil data
geodynamic forces. Unfortunately, the critical underpinning, do not feature strongly in our following discussion, but they have
industry-confidential details of their model are not accessible, and played a prominent role in the continental reconstruction model
so it is impractical to test or improve. Seton et al. (2012) later paved which was our starting framework. Many specific reconstructions
the way with newly available and freely accessible tools, and within this model are underpinned by observations of paleo-
released the details of a global plate model that extends back to the biogeographical provinciality and/or temperature-sensitive biota,
earliest Jurassic (200 Ma). Following their lead, we present here a and much of that data has been reviewed in a series of papers by
global plate model that spans late Paleozoic time (410e250 Ma). Cocks and Torsvik (2005, 2007, 2011, 2013) and Torsvik and Cocks
Importantly, our model is constrained both by observational data (2004, 2009, 2011, 2013).
and by plate tectonic principles, and includes explicitly prescribed A variety of geological data were likewise used in the conti-
plate boundaries and oceanic lithosphere that are rigorously nental reconstruction model, some of which we review below. Our
managed throughout the modeled interval. Although we have focus here is on those data which communicate information about
endeavored to make this model conform to the existing observa- plate interactions and dynamics, so readers looking, for example,
tional record and thus expect that it will be useful as an input, for a treatment on the climate-sensitive facies data should refer to
reference and predictive tool, we also hope that it will prove suit- the papers cited above. Broadly, the compiled and presented
ably amenable to modification so as to act as an infrastructure for geologic data include spatio-temporal details of regionally impor-
further improvements. tant episodes of magmatism, metamorphism and orogenesis, as
well as key stratigraphic and structural relationships. They have
2. Methodology been organized spatially, according to qualitatively defined mar-
gins, to facilitate the construction of simplified plate boundaries.
2.1. Fundamental data and models
2.2. Construction of plate model
The foundation of our plate model is the continental recon-
struction model of Torsvik et al. (submitted for publication), which Using GPlates software (www.gplates.org), we have constructed
itself is founded upon a global paleomagnetic dataset (Torsvik et al., a network of plate boundaries by drawing both from the relative
2012), a catalog of LIP and kimberlite distributions (Torsvik et al., motions described by the continental reconstruction model and
2008b, 2010a) and a wealth of qualitative to semi-quantitative from our interpretations of the compiled geological data (Section
geological and paleontological data. A further discussion of those 3). From the geological data, observations of arc magmatism, HP/
data and their specific paleogeographic implications for our plate UHP metamorphism, ophiolite obduction, etc. can be used to infer
model follows in Section 4. the location, duration and polarity of a convergent margin, whereas
Paleomagnetism represents our single most valuable paleo- rift-related sedimentation, volcanism, etc. may herald the devel-
geographical tool for times prior to the Cretaceous, but it can only opment of a divergent one. Likewise, structural studies can
be used to constrain latitude (longitude is indeterminate) and communicate the style of a collisional event or the sense of motion
Paleozoic paleomagnetic records are only available from the con- along a transform boundary. By employing basic plate tectonic
tinents. Furthermore, their quantity and quality are highly variable principles, the kinematic data extracted from the continental
in both space and time, and thus are our constraints on paleo- reconstruction model can be used to infer the characterdand oc-
latitude. Unfortunately, some of the greatest deficiencies in the casionally the locationdof plate boundaries within the geographic
Phanerozoic dataset are found in our interval of interest. For domain of the continents. For example, in a purely divergent sys-
example, only one paleomagnetic pole is available from Laurussia tem, an Euler pole describing the relative motion between two
for 390e340 Ma, Siberia only has one reliable entry for the Devo- continents would also describe the spreading between them. By
nian and Carboniferous and South China has no Carboniferous data. assuming that the axis of the embryonic ridge approximates the
Where data are absent, interpolation is used to make a naïve esti- trace of a great-circle passing through the Euler pole, and that
mate according to a smoothly varying spherical spline, but that spreading is symmetrical, the location and orientation of the plate
approach is obviously limiteddas always, more data are needed. margin can be tracked. It is similarly straightforward to predict the
Enticingly, a plate model loaded with other forms of data may be orientation of transform faults, since they follow the trace of a small
able to offer novel constraints on paleolatitude; we will revisit this circle about the Euler pole describing the relative motion of the
idea in Section 5.2. bounding plates. In a global kinematic model, even geometrical
Concerning paleolongitude, Torsvik et al. (2008b, 2010a,b) showed considerations as simple as the conservation of area can provide
that LIP and kimberlite occurrences of the last 320 Myrdwhen great insight into the former positions and relationships of plate
reconstructed to their original positions in a mantle reference boundaries.
framedcoincided with the margins of the large low shear wave ve- In practice, construction of the plate boundary network is an
locity provinces (LLSVPs) in the lowermost mantle. Following the iterative process, as boundaries must not only meet the constraints
assumption that the LLSVPs have remained stable from the earliest imposed by a given time, but also evolve with kinematic continuity
 M. Domeier, T.H. Torsvik / Geoscience Frontiers 5 (2014) 303e350 305

Figure 1. (A) Modern map showing the present-day location of the cratons that constituted Laurussia (yellow), the various terranes that were accreted to, rifted from, or remo-
bilized along its margins in late Paleozoic time (various bright colors), and other features discussed in Section 3.1. Brown areas are late Paleozoic terranes not explicitly discussed.
Abbreviations: App, Appalachian; Ca, Caucasus; CMFB, Clements Markham fold belt; GTMZ, Galicia-Trás-os-Montes zone; IS, Iapetus suture; MGCH, mid-German crystalline high; RS,
Rheic suture; TS, Thor suture; UZ, East Uralian/Trans-Uralian zone. (B) Schematic early Devonian reconstruction of Laurussia showing its margins and orogenic systems as we define
and discuss them in Section 3.1.
306 M. Domeier, T.H. Torsvik / Geoscience Frontiers 5 (2014) 303e350

Table 1
Summarized interpretations of plate kinematics along continental margins. * denotes collision/orogenic events.

Margin (sub-domain) Onset (Ma) Termination (Ma) Type Polarity

Laurussia
East Laurentia (Appalachian margin)
(North Appalachians) 420 370? Convergent West-dipping
(South Appalachians) 420 370? Passive? ?
370? 320 Transform Dextral
*Collision with northwest Gondwana at 320 Ma
South Laurentia (Ouachita margin)
Cambrian 320 Passive e
*Collision with northwest Gondwana at 320 Ma
West Laurentia (Cordillera margin)
Neoproterozoic 390 Passive e
390 370 Convergent East dipping
370 350 Divergent e
350 250 Passive e
*Accretion of peri-Laurentian arcs at 250 Ma
Peri-Laurentian arc, east margin (facing Laurentia)
370 350 Divergent e
350 270 Passive e
270 250 Convergent West dipping
*Accretion to Laurentia at 250 Ma
Peri-Laurentian arc, west margin (facing Panthalassa)
370 270 Convergent East dipping
270 250 Transform? ?
North Laurentia (Innuitian)
420 400 Transform Sinistral
*Accretion of Pearya and Arctic Alaska-Chukotka at 420e400 Ma
*Ellesmerian orogeny at 370e360 Ma
Arctic Alaska-Chukotka terrane, south margin (facing Panthalassa)
420 400 ? ?
390 370 Convergent North dipping
370 350 Divergent e
350 Jurassic Passive e
East Baltica (Uralian)
Early Paleozoic 380 Passive e
*Accretion of Magnitogorsk arc at 380 Ma
380 345? Passive e
*Accretion of Tagil arc at 345(?) Ma
345 310 Passive e
*Collision with Kazakhstania at 310 Ma
Magnitogorsk arc, west side (facing Baltica)
415 380 Convergent East dipping
*Accretion to Baltica at 380 Ma
Tagil arc, west side (facing Baltica)
Ordovician 345? Convergent East dipping
*Accretion to Baltica at 345(?) Ma
Southeast Baltica (Scythian and Turan Platforms)
Mid-Paleozoic? Triassic Convergent? North dipping?
Southwest Baltica
(Southern British Isles) Silurian 390? Convergent? North dipping?
(Rheno-Hercynian zone) 420? 390? Divergent? e
*Accretion of Variscan terranes at 370e340 Ma
370 320 Transform Dextral
Variscan terrane assemblage, north side (facing Baltica)
(North margin, intraoceanic) Silurian 340? Convergent South dipping?
(North margin, internal) 370 350 Convergent South dipping
*Accretion to Baltica at 370e340 Ma
Gondwana
Northwest Gondwana (west of Taurides)
Variscan terrane assemblage, south side (facing Paleotethys)
420? 410? Divergent e
410? 370 Passive e
370 320? Convergent North dipping
North Gondwana margin (facing Paleotethys)
420? 410? Divergent e
410? 370 Passive e
370 320 Transform to convergent Dextral, east dipping
*Collision with southern Laurussia at 320 Ma
Mixtexca-Oaxacan terrane, west margin
320 270 Convergent East dipping
Northeast Gondwana (Taurides and east)
Cimmerian terrane, north margin (facing Paleotethys)
420? 410? Divergent e
410? Triassic Passive e
 M. Domeier, T.H. Torsvik / Geoscience Frontiers 5 (2014) 303e350 307

Table 1 (continued )

Margin (sub-domain) Onset (Ma) Termination (Ma) Type Polarity

Cimmerian terrane, south margin (facing Neotethys)
295 275 Divergent e
275 Mesozoic Passive e
North Gondwana margin (facing Neotethys)
295 275 Divergent e
275 Mesozoic Passive e
Southeast Gondwana
390? 380? Convergent? West dipping?
*Accretion of Gamilaroi-Calliope arc at 380 Ma
380 300 Convergent West dipping
300 270 Passive to transform Dextral?
270 250 Convergent West dipping
*Accretion of Gympie-Brook Street terrane at 250 Ma
Gamilaroi-Calliope arc, east side (facing Panthalassa)
Silurian 380 Convergent West dipping
*Accretion to southeast Gondwana at 380 Ma
Gympie-Brook Street terrane, east side (facing Panthalassa)
300 250 Convergent West dipping
*Accretion to southeast Gondwana at 250 Ma
South Gondwana
420? 300? Convergent North dipping
300? 270? Passive to transform? Dextral?
270 250 Convergent North dipping
*Accretion of Gympie-Brook Street terrane at 250 Ma
West Gondwana
420 390 Convergent East dipping?
*Accretion of Chilenia at 390 Ma
390 340 Passive e
340 Mesozoic Convergent East dipping
North Patagonia, south margin (facing South Patagonia)
420? 390? Convergent Northeast dipping
390 340 Passive e
340 310 Convergent Northeast dipping
*Accretion of South Patagonia at 310 Ma
South Patagonia, north margin (facing North Patagonia)
420 310 Passive e
*Collision with North Patagonia at 310 Ma
South Patagonia, southwest margin (facing Panthalassa)
420? 390? ? ?
390 Mesozoic Convergent Northeast dipping
Siberia and Amuria
East Siberia (proto-Verkhoyansk margin)
Cambrian 385 Passive e
380 360 Divergent? e
360 Mesozoic Passive e
Northwest Siberia (Uralian margin and West Siberian Basin)
Cambrian 320 Passive e
*Accretion of northern Taimyr at 320 Ma
Southwest Siberia
420 340 Convergent East dipping
340 270? Transform ?
*Oblique collision with Kazakhstan at 360e310(?) Ma
Southeast Siberia and Amuria
Siberia and Mongolian terranes north of Mongol Okhostsk suture
Silurian 360 Passive e
360 Triassic Convergent North dipping
Amuria, north margin (facing the Mongol Okhostsk Ocean)
Silurian 330 Passive e
330 Triassic Convergent South dipping
Amuria, south margin (facing Panthalassa/Paleoasian Ocean)
Early Paleozoic 250? Convergent North dipping
*Collision with North China at 250(?) Ma
Kazakhstania
Internal’ Kazakhstania
420 310 Convergent West dipping
*Oroclinal bending at 380(?)e310 Ma
External’ Kazakhstania
(Zharma-Saur) 380 320 Convergent South dipping
*Oblique collision with Siberia at 360e310(?) Ma
(Uralian) 420 380 Convergent East dipping
380 360? Passive? e
360? 310 Convergent East dipping
(continued on next page)
308 M. Domeier, T.H. Torsvik / Geoscience Frontiers 5 (2014) 303e350

Table 1 (continued )

Margin (sub-domain) Onset (Ma) Termination (Ma) Type Polarity

*Collision with Baltica at 310 Ma
(Krygyzstan Tian Shan) 420 380 Convergent North dipping
380 320? Passive? e
320? 310 Convergent North dipping
*Collision with Tarim at 310 Ma
(Chinese Tian Shan) 310 250 Transform ?
420 310 Convergent North dipping
*Collision with Tarim at 310 Ma
310 250 Transform ?
North China and Tarim
Northern North China
420 400 ? ?
400 360? Convergent South dipping
360? 330 Passive? e
330 250 Convergent South dipping
*Collision with Amuria at 250 Ma
Beishan
420 250 Convergent South dipping
*Collision with Amuria at 250 Ma
Northern Tarim
Neoproterozoic 310 Passive e
*Collision with Kazakhstania at 310 Ma
Southern Tarim and Qaidam
420? Mesozoic Convergent North dipping
Southern North China
420 330 Convergent North dipping
*Accretion of South Qinling at 330e320(?) Ma
(Southern South Qinling) 320 Triassic Convergent North dipping
South China and Japan
Northwestern South China
420? Triassic Passive e
Southeastern South China
420 410 Divergent e
410 250 Passive e
Southwestern South China
410 390 Divergent e
390 250 Passive e
Proto-Japan
Early Paleozoic Mesozoic Convergent West dipping
Annamia
Northeastern Annamia
410 390 Divergent e
380 280 Passive e
280 Triassic Convergent Southwest dipping
West Annamia
(Sukhothai) 390 380 Divergent e
380 300 Passive e
300 Triassic Convergent East dipping

to fit the observations of other times. When solutions are not margin continued into the Devonian. Following the locally-
unique we have adopted the simplest one which satisfies the defined Silurian Salinic orogeny, the northern proto-Appalachians
existing constraints. Thus, equipped with the continental recon- were affected by polyphase deformation and high-grade
struction model and a network of inferred plate boundaries, we metamorphism associated with the late Silurianeearly Devonian
have built plates with continuously closing polygons (Gurnis et al., Acadian orogeny (van Staal et al., 2009). The accretion of Avalonia
2012), from which emerges a plate model with global coverage that to Laurentia remains the conventional explanation for that
is continuous in both space and time (Appendix 1). Although the eventdand the one we provisionally adoptdbut the apparent
boundaries were implemented at an arbitrary time-stepping of delay between Caledonide and Acadian orogenesis is surprising and
1 Myr, the temporal resolution of the plate model can be scaled the principal reason for alternative interpretations (e.g. Murphy
according to the needs of the user; the same applies to spatial and Keppie, 2005). The occurrence of 423e416 Ma arc magma-
scaling. tism along the trailing edge of the Gander terrane (inboard of
Avalonia; Fig. 1) and 420e416 Ma subduction-related HP-LT
3. Geological observations metamorphism east of that arc provide evidence of late
Silurianeearly Devonian convergence between Avalonia and Lau-
3.1. Laurussia (Laurentia, Baltica and Avalonia) rentia, specifically by westward-dipping subduction (beneath
Laurentia; Table 1) (van Staal et al., 2009). Another constraint on
3.1.1. East/Southeast Laurentia (Alleghanian-Ouachita margin) collision timing and the polarity of subduction is provided by the
The collision between Laurentia and Balonia (Baltica þ Avalonia) appearance of latest Silurian (w421 Ma) foredeep basin sediments
that resulted in the closure of the Iapetus Ocean, the Caledonide on the northern margin of Avalonia. A complementary retroarc
orogeny and the formation of Laurussia (Fig. 1) began in the Silu- basin sequence is found in Laurentia, and during the early Devonian
rian, but protracted orogenesis along the proto-Appalachian that foreland basin migrated westward with the Acadian
 M. Domeier, T.H. Torsvik / Geoscience Frontiers 5 (2014) 303e350 309

deformation front and the locus of regional magmatism (van Staal In southern Laurentia, the Ouachita margin appears to have
et al., 2009). Termination of Acadian deformation was diachronous remained a passive platform in the Cambrian to Mississippian
in the northern proto-Appalachians, ending in the early Devonian (Table 1) (Bradley, 2008). Middleelate Mississippian pyroclastic
in Newfoundland but continuing until the middleelate Devonian in detritus and tuffs have been interpreted to herald the arrival of
Quebec (van Staal et al., 2009). Resumption of magmatism and Gondwana, and with it, the late Mississippian to Pennsylvanian
deformation in the middleelate Devonian to earliest Carboniferous Ouachita orogeny (Mueller et al., in press). Orogenesis was char-
(early Mississippian) is termed the Neo-Acadian orogeny and is acterized there by the construction of a thick, northward-
typically attributed to the collision of the most-outboard Meguma encroaching clastic wedge, and by north-verging thrust sheets
terrane with the trailing edge of Avalonia (Fig. 1). However, the (Thomas, 2004; Nance and Linnemann, 2008).
tectonic narrative of that event is still vague.
Evidence of contemporaneous Acadian orogenesis in the 3.1.2. West Laurentia (Cordilleran margin)
southern proto-Appalachians is absent. Following middle Ordo- Following Neoproterozoic rifting, the Cordilleran margin of
vician to Silurian plutonism and the collision of the Carolina Laurentia remained passive until the middleelate Devonian,
terrane, Devonian plutonism along the margin was diminutive when arc-related magmatism appeared in the eastern Klamath
and deformation was restricted to shear zones in the Carolina and northern Sierra terranes of the southern Cordillera and in the
zone and Blue Ridge province (Murphy and Keppie, 2005). Yukon-Tanana and western Kootenay terranes of the northern
Although a thick clastic wedge developed in the north of the Cordillera (Table 1; Fig. 1) (Bradley, 2008; Colpron and Nelson,
southern proto-Appalachians in the middle Devonian, the sedi- 2011). In the south, that nascent arc magmatism was followed
ment was likely sourced from the orogen to the northeast. In the by the late Devonianeearly Mississippian Antler orogeny, in
late Devonianeearliest Carboniferous, the eastern Iapetus and which oceanic strata (Roberts Mountains allochthon) was thrust
peri-Gondwanan terranes of the southern proto-Appalachians onto the loweremiddle Paleozoic miogeocline and attendant
were affected by intense ductile deformation and high-grade foreland basin deposits advanced eastward upon the former
metamorphism. Like its counterpart to the north, that “Neo- platform (Dickinson, 2009). In the north, a local middle Devonian
Acadian” orogenic event is poorly understood, although Hibbard episode of shortening affected the Purcell Mountains, but was
et al. (2010) conjectured that it resulted from collision of the quickly supplanted by an extensional regime that began in the late
Suwannee (Florida) terrane (Fig. 1). Devonian (Colpron and Nelson, 2009). Extension inboard of the
Devonian to Carboniferous closure of the Rheic Ocean culmi- Yukon-Tanana terrane was highlighted by late Devonianeearly
nated in collision between Laurussia and Gondwana, construction Mississippian bimodal volcanism and the cessation of arc-
of the Alleghanian orogen and the formation of the supercontinent related magmatism all along the parautochthon at about
Pangea. The polarity of Rheic Ocean subduction between Laurussia 354 Ma. In contrast, arc-magmatism intensified within the Yukon-
and Gondwana has long been ambiguous, perhaps in part because Tanana terrane during the early Mississippian, suggesting that
convergence and collision were oblique and the margins were continuing subduction to the west of the Yukon-Tanana terrane
strongly overprinted by later strike-slip motion. Structural clues may have driven back-arc extension to its east (Table 1) (Colpron
from southern Laurentia have been used to argue that Laurentia and Nelson, 2009). Continued extension gave rise to a marginal
was the lower plate during its collision with Gondwana (Thomas, basin (the Slide Mountain Ocean), now preserved as
2004; Cook and Vasudevan, 2006; Nance and Linnemann, 2008), DevonianePermian basinal strata in the Slide Mountain terrane
but continuity of the Appalachian margin with the active margin of and Golconda allochthon (Fig. 1).
southern Baltica (discussed below) alternatively implies that it was By the middle Permian the subduction polarity appears to have
the upper plate prior to collision (Table 1) (Pe-Piper et al., 2010). inverted according to the occurrence of blueschists and ecologites
The DevonianeCarboniferous tectono-magmatic activity in the (w269e267 Ma) on the eastern margin of the Yukon-Tanana
Meguma terrane might also relate to Rheic subduction beneath terrane (Colpron and Nelson, 2009; Beranek and Mortensen,
Laurentia (van Staal et al., 2009). The Carboniferous of the northern 2011). Middle to late Permian calc-alkaline intrusions and infer-
Appalachians was typified by terrestrial to marine clastic sedi- red forearc conglomerates containing blueschist and eclogite clasts
mentation in narrow, NE-trending, fault-bound basins which are consistent with subduction along that margin (Beranek and
developed under a regime of dextral strike-slip motion (Hatcher, Mortensen, 2011). The inception of west-dipping subduction
2010; Hibbard et al., 2010). A notable basin inversion occurred in beneath the peri-Laurentian arc instigated collapse of the Slide
the Canadian Maritimes in the late Mississippianeearly Pennsyl- Mountain Ocean, culminating in east-vergent thrusting of the back-
vanian and was accompanied by a change in sediment provenance arc basinal strata (Golconda allochthon) onto the Laurentian plat-
to include distal sources from the west (Hibbard et al., 2010). In the form and accretion of the peri-Laurentian arcs during the late
southern Appalachians, onset of the Alleghanian orogeny was Permianeearly Triassic Sonoma orogeny (Table 1) (Dickinson,
marked by the onset of shortening and the development of a clastic 2009). Further to the north, closure of the back-arc basin was
wedge in the middle Mississippian (w335e330 Ma) (Hibbard et al., marked by the correlative Klondike orogeny, which is defined by
2010). Sedimentation in the northern part of that clastic wedge was deformation and greenschist to amphibolite facies metamorphism
interrupted by an episode of uplift and erosion in the early Penn- in the Yukon-Tanana terrane (Beranek and Mortensen, 2011). Early
sylvanian (w315 Ma), after which deposition resumed, and locally to middle Triassic foreland basin deposits to the east were sealed
continued into the earliest Permian. As in the north, Alleghanian together with the accreted terranes by a late Triassic overlap
deformation in the southern Appalachian hinterland was accom- assemblage (Colpron and Nelson, 2009; Beranek and Mortensen,
panied by dextral motion on northeast-trending shear zones 2011).
(Nance and Linnemann, 2008). To the east, in the outboard Iapetus
and peri-Gondwanan terranes of Laurentia, granitoid plutonism 3.1.3. North Laurentia (Innuitian margin)
occurred from the middle Mississippian to the mid-Permian The Arctic margin of Laurentia appears to have been passive
(Hibbard et al., 2010). The tectonic origins of those rocks are throughout the lower Paleozoic, finally being interrupted in the
debated, but they probably formed by crustal anatexis in response mid-Paleozoic by the arrival of exotic terranes with reportedly
to both orogenic crustal thickening and post-orogenic extension Baltic affinities (Lane, 2007; Beranek et al., 2010; Miller et al.,
(Mueller et al., in press). 2011). In the east, the collision of the Pearya terrane under a
310 M. Domeier, T.H. Torsvik / Geoscience Frontiers 5 (2014) 303e350

regime of sinistral transpression generated the Clements Mark- To the north, in the Middle and North Urals, the late Ordovician
ham fold belt and the Boothia Uplift (Fig. 1) (Beranek et al., 2010). to Devonian Tagil island arc is preserved in a structural position
The timing of collision is inferred to be late Silurianeearly similar to the Magnitogorsk arc (i.e. the Magnitogorsk-Tagil Zone)
Devonian according to the occurrence of coarse late Silurian and is also inferred to have formed above an east-dipping sub-
clastic rocks in central Ellesmere Island, a late Silurianeearly duction zone, but the timing of its collision with Baltica is less
Devonian unconformity in the Clements Markham fold belt and well-defined. Broadly, Puchkov (2009a) and Brown et al. (2011)
by a w390 Ma post-tectonic pluton that intrudes the Pearya have determined that its accretion was underway in the early
terrane (Colpron and Nelson, 2009). In the west, the Romanzof Carboniferous (Table 1). Yet further north, in the Polar Urals,
orogeny of the Arctic Alaska-Chukotka terrane is similarly Ordovician to Devonian passive margin sediments are found
thought to mark the timing of terrane docking against the arctic juxtaposed with SilurianeDevonian island arc volcanic rocks to
margin of Laurentia (Table 1). There deformation is confined to the east. Together with reports of ophiolitic material and late
the east end of the terrane and was characterized by intense Devonianeearly Carboniferous HP metamorphic rocks to the west
folding and E/NE-directed thrusting (Lane, 2007). Stratigraphic of the arc rocks, the observations there reveal a tectonic setting
observations and cross-cutting late Devonian post-tectonic plu- comparable to that in the south (Puchkov, 2009b; Görz and
tons place the age of deformation in the early Devonian (Lane, Hielscher, 2010).
2007). In the middle to late Devonian, magmatic rocks were After a brief interval of tectonic quiescence following the
emplaced in the Brooks Range of Arctic Alaska, the Seward arc-continent collisions, the principal event of the Uralian
Peninsula, and in Chukotka and Wrangel Island (Fig. 1). Middle orogenydthe closure of the Uralian Ocean and the collision and
Devonian arc-related magmatic rocks in Arctic Alaska (Ambler consolidation of Baltica, Siberia and Kazakhstaniadbegan in the
arc) and the Seward Peninsula seem to indicate the operation late Carboniferous and continued into the earliest Mesozoic. In
of a north-dipping subduction zone beneath the terrane Baltica that was recognized by the development of a westward-
then (Table 1) (Nokleberg et al., 2000; Colpron and Nelson, thickening foreland basin and an associated north-south trending,
2009; Beranek et al., 2010). However, late Devonian bimodal west-verging fold and thrust belt. The latter deformed late
magmatism along that margin has been interpreted to reflect Carboniferous to early Triassic syn-orogenic sediments of the
incipient rifting related to the nascent development of the former (Brown et al., 2006). To the east, in the intensely deformed
DevonianeJurassic Angayucham oceanic basin (Moore et al., and metamorphosed East Uralian zone and the neighboring Trans-
1994; Nokleberg et al., 2000; Amato et al., 2009). Indeed, a Uralian zone in the South and Middle Urals, early and late
regional pre-Mississippian unconformity in the Arctic Alaska- Carboniferous subduction-related granitoids are identified as
Chukotka terrane is overlain by a thick, south-facing passive magmatic arcs that formed on the western margin of Kazakhstania
margin sequence of Mississippian to Jurassic age (Lane, 2007; due to east-directed subduction of the Uralian Ocean (Bea et al.,
Amato et al., 2009; Miller et al., 2010). The late Devonian 2002). After continental collision in the late Carboniferous, the
inception and growth of that back-arc basin is similar to that East Uralian zone acted as a major corridor of strike-slip motion
observed along the Cordilleran margin to the south, and their that persisted into the early Mesozoic, and it was extensively
evolution may thus have been in common. intruded by Permian granites (Bea et al., 2002; Brown et al., 2008;
In the late Devonianeearly Mississippian, the arctic margin from Puchkov, 2009b).
northern Yukon to northern Greenland was affected by the enig- The possible northward continuation of the Uralian orogen from
matic Ellesmerian orogeny, which produced a wide foreland fold the Polar Urals to Severnaya Zemlya, along a sinuous orogenic front
belt and blanketed the region in a thick clastic wedge (Beranek that runs through Pai Khoi, Novaya Zemlya and Taimyr, is conten-
et al., 2010). Structural and sedimentological observations indi- tious (Fig. 1). In common with the Uralian margin to the south,
cate that both tectonic and sediment transport was south-directed, Novaya Zemlya exhibits a Paleozoic succession of platform and
implying that orogenesis was caused by a collision to the north shelf sediments deposited above a CambroeOrdovician unconfor-
(Lane, 2007). Yet, the identity and present location of that northern mity and a west-vergent fold and thrust belt that deforms the
terranedoften called “Crockerland”dremain unknown. On the Paleozoic sequence (Pease and Scott, 2009; Görz and Hielscher,
basis of detrital zircon signatures in the relict clastic wedge, how- 2010). However, unlike the Uralian orogen elsewhere, the defor-
ever, it has been inferred that Crockerland has a Baltic origin in mation in Novaya Zemlya appears to be predominantly
common with the Pearya and Arctic Alaska-Chukotka terranes Triassiceearly Jurassic in age, and clear indications of a
(Anfinson et al., 2012). DevonianeCarboniferous island arc are lacking. In Taimyr, lower
Paleozoic to mid-Carboniferous continental shelf and slope de-
3.1.4. East Baltica (Uralian margin) posits (in South and Central Taimyr, respectively) of the Siberian
Late Cambrian to early Ordovician rifting along eastern Bal- platform are juxtaposed with deformed and metamorphosed
tica established a passive margin that lasted until the Magnito- Neoproterozoic to Cambrian turbidites (North Taimyr) along a
gorsk island arc collided with the South Urals in the middleelate major thrust zone (Gee et al., 2006; Görz and Hielscher, 2010). Yet,
Devonian (Table 1; Fig. 1) (Bradley, 2008). The timing of that there too, contractional deformation developed mainly in the
accretion is constrained by: an eastward shift in the locus of Mesozoic (Torsvik and Andersen, 2002; Buiter and Torsvik, 2007).
island arc magmatism in the Givetian, Frasnian UHP meta- However, notable late Paleozoic thrust faults and
morphism of Baltica-derived crust and the Frasnian-Famennian CarboniferousePermian syn- to post-tectonic granitoids with vol-
deposition of westward-younging foreland basin sediments canic arc geochemistry occur in North and Central Taimyr (Pease
west of the arc (Brown et al., 2011). Together with the pre-late and Scott, 2009; Pease, 2011). Late Devonianeearly Carboniferous
Devonian passive margin of Baltica, that indicates that subduc- folding and thrusting occurred in Severnaya Zemlya, but with an E
tion of the intervening ocean must have been eastward-directed, to NE structural vergence, and allochthonous arcs or ophiolites of
beneath the island arc. The oldest rocks of the Magnitogorsk corresponding age have not been found (Gee et al., 2006; Lorenz
island arc suggest that intraoceanic subduction commenced in et al., 2008). Thus, the relationship between the Uralian orogeny
the early Devonian, and consumption of the ocean basin and the late Paleozoic and Mesozoic tectonism in Severnaya Zemlya
continued until the middleelate Devonian collision (Brown et al., and Taimyr is unclear. Nonetheless, the prevailing model supposes
2011). that Severnaya Zemlya, northern Taimyr and the northeastern Kara
 M. Domeier, T.H. Torsvik / Geoscience Frontiers 5 (2014) 303e350 311

Shelf together (the ‘North Kara terrane’ of Lorenz et al. (2008)) magmatic arc massifs paired with accretionary complexes and
collided with Siberia in the late Paleozoic (Torsvik and Andersen, forearc basins. Rare outcrops and boreholes have yielded few
2002). radiometric ages, but the available data reveal that magmatism was
active in the Carboniferous to early Mesozoic in the east (the
3.1.5. Southeast Baltica (Scythian and Turan platforms) Bukhara and Chardjou units) and in the Devonian to early Mesozoic
The southeastern part of the East European craton includes the in the central and western areas (Karakum, Mangyshlak, Tuarkyr
Ukrainian Shield and the Voronezh Massif, which are separated by and Karabogaz units); older (Silurian) granites are also reported
the Dniepr-Donets Basin and the Donbas fold belt (the now- from the Karabogaz unit (Garzanti and Gaetani, 2002; Natal’in and
inverted Donbas Basin). The basins developed in the late Şengör, 2005). Inferred mid-Paleozoic to early Mesozoic ophiolites,
Devonianeearly Carboniferous during an interval of marked accretionary complexes and forearc sequences could indicate a
intracratonic rifting and attendant volcanism, the origins of which long-lived subduction system spanning that interval, but the details
are puzzling (Stephenson et al., 2006). The craton is flanked to the are vague (Table 1). Existing evolutionary models for the compli-
south by the Scythian platform and to the southeast by the peri- cated present-day mosaic range from terrane agglomeration
Caspian Basin and the Turan platform (Fig. 1). Owing to the (Garzanti and Gaetani, 2002) to the structural duplication of a
extensive sedimentary cover of those platforms, their pre-Mesozoic single south-facing arc (Natal’in and Şengör, 2005).
history is poorly known. Existing tectonic reconstructions of the
region contrast stronglyddespite often being based on the same 3.1.6. Southwest Baltica (Variscan margin)
sparse observationsdand the interpretations drawn from the Prior to the Devonian, late Ordovician closure of the Tornquist
following discussion are thus provisional. Ocean resulted in collision between Baltica and Avalonia, leaving
In the Greater Caucasus, which form the southern boundary of them juxtaposed along the Thor Suture (Fig. 1) (Torsvik and
the Scythian platform, the first appearance of magmatism in the Rehnström, 2003). Following Caledonide orogenesis and exten-
axial part of the range may have been coeval with Devonian to sion, the first expression of Devonian tectonism in that region was
Carboniferous folding and metamorphism in the northern part of the enigmatic “Acadian” (w400e390 Ma) deformation of the
the range, but all are poorly characterized (Saintot et al., 2006). southern British Isles, which folded Cambrian to Silurian marine
Devonian to Carboniferous igneous rocks are also recognized in basinal sediments and left a mid-Devonian unconformity
Crimea and North Dobrogea, which may represent westward con- (Woodcock et al., 2007). A similar but perhaps slightly older event
tinuations of the Scythian platform, but those occurrences are has been recognized in the neighboring Brabant Massif, but is poorly
similarly inadequately constrained (Saintot et al., 2006). A better characterized. A satisfactory explanation for the “Acadian” event has
documented phase of calc-alkaline volcanism and plutonism yet to be reached, but Woodcock et al. (2007) suggested that it could
occurred in the Greater Caucasus in the late Carboniferous and have been due to northward subduction of the Rheic Ocean. They
early Permian, together with the generation of gneisses (Saintot argued that evidence of that subduction is preserved in north-
et al., 2006). Contemporaneous late Carboniferouseearly Permian dipping reflectors in the lower crust of SW England and in the top-
magmatism also occurred to the north (in the Stavropol unit and to-the-east thrust complexes of the Galicia-Trás-os-Montes zone
Donbas fold belt), west (North Dobrogea) and south (in the of Iberia. The latter has commonly been recognized as a succession of
Transcaucasus) (Alexandre et al., 2004; Natal’in and Şengör, 2005; parautochthonous (Gondwanan), ophiolitic (Rheic) and exotic con-
Saintot et al., 2006). In the mid-Permian to Triassic the region tinental (Laurussian) units that were progressively juxtaposed
was characterized by transtension to extension in the formation of above a west-dipping subduction zone in the early to late Devonian
continental basins and the extrusion of basalts in the Greater (Arenas et al., 2007). Correspondingly, the upper (exotic) units of
Caucasus and North Dobrogea (Saintot et al., 2006). that thrust complex were affected by HP metamorphism at
To the south, along the southern flank of the Greater Caucasus, a 400e390 Ma, coeval with the “Acadian” event (Arenas et al., in
Devonian to Triassic sequence of fossiliferous flysch (Dizi Series) press). According to the age of the pre-Carboniferous ophiolities
interspersed with Devonian magmatic rocks has been alternatively and a w370 Ma HP metamorphic event, that entire sequence was
interpreted as an accretionary complex (Natal’in and Şengör, 2005) subsequently accreted to Iberia in the late Devonian, during closure
or a deep marine rift basin (Saintot et al., 2006). To the southwest, of a basin generally presumed to have been the Rheic Ocean. How-
on the southern margin of the Black Sea, the Istanbul zone of the ever, Arenas et al. (in press) reinterpreted the nature of the upper
Pontides exhibits a thick sequence of early Carboniferous flysch (exotic) units of that thrust stack, and argued that they rather rep-
with late Devonianeearly Carboniferous (w390e335) detrital zir- resented the distal extended margin of Gondwana, and that both the
cons inferred to be shed from an unknown magmatic arc (Okay 400e390 Ma and 370 Ma metamorphic events were due to repeated
et al., 2011). In the Sakarya zone of the Pontides, to the east and collisions between Laurussia and Gondwana.
south of the Istanbul zone, granitoids were emplaced in the early The Rheic suture to the south of Avalonia demarcates the divide
Devonian and late Carboniferous, whereas early Carboniferous between Laurussia and the peri-Gondwanan Variscan terranes
granitoids may have intruded the Strandja Massif west of the which accreted during the protracted late DevonianeCarboniferous
Istanbul zone (Okay et al., 2006, 2011). Unfortunately, the early to Variscan orogeny (Fig. 1). Structural relics of that event can be seen
mid-Paleozoic affinity of the Pontides is not yet clearly established to the south of Avalonia, in the Rheno-Hercynian zone: a belt of
(the Istanbul zone in particular), so their relation to the Scythian parauthocthonous and allochthonous nappes constituted by distal
domain is debated. Some authors (e.g. Okay et al., 2011) have continental margin deposits, and perhaps elements from south of
correlated the Istanbul zone with Avalonia, which would imply the Rheic Ocean, which were thrust northward onto the Laurussian
propinquity to the Scythian platform already in the mid-Paleozoic. margin in the late DevonianeCarboniferous (Franke, 2006; Shail
In any case, the Pontides must have been proximal to Baltica by the and Leveridge, 2009). The dominance of north-vergent Variscan
mid-to-late Carboniferous, when Variscan orogenesis folded structures in the Rheno-Hercynian zone and south-dipping re-
Paleozoic rocks of the Istanbul zone and metamorphosed rocks of flectors in its upper crust have been cited as evidence that Avalonia
the Sakarya zone (Okay et al., 2006). was part of the lower-plate during Rheic Ocean closure (Pharaoh
By means of gravity and magnetic survey data, Natal’in and et al., 2006; Woodcock et al., 2007). That is further supported by
Şengör (2005) identified a largely NWeSE oriented regional northward-migrating late DevonianeCarboniferous foreland basin
structural fabric in the Turan platform and inferred the presence of deposits which were derived from orogenic highlands to the south
312 M. Domeier, T.H. Torsvik / Geoscience Frontiers 5 (2014) 303e350
 M. Domeier, T.H. Torsvik / Geoscience Frontiers 5 (2014) 303e350 313

(mid-German crystalline high; see below) (Franke, 2006; Pharaoh telescoped in the DevonianeCarboniferous (e.g. Matte, 2001; Franke,
et al., 2006). Prior to Variscan convergence, the Rheno-Hercynian 2006; Faure et al., 2008; Murphy et al., 2009; Schulmann et al., 2009;
zone underwent an earlyemiddle Devonian phase of extension Faryad and Kachlík, 2013). Northward subduction of the Paleotethys
which resulted in regional subsidence, rift-related sedimentation, Ocean to the south of the Variscan terranes has been conjectured
bimodal magmatism, and the exhumation of mantle peridotites from the occurrence of arc-related igneous rocks and forearc de-
now preserved in the Lizard ophiolite (Franke, 2006; Shail and posits in the southernmost Variscan units and from the incidence of
Leveridge, 2009). As pointed out by Woodcock et al. (2007), the marginal extension ascribed to slab rollback (Stampfli and Borel,
contradictory tectonic environments of the “Acadian” and Rheno- 2002; Broska et al., 2013; von Raumer et al., 2013). According to
Hercynian zones during the earlyemiddle Devonian might sug- those observations, Paleotethys subduction could have started in the
gest that the latter was transported by strike-slip motion to late Devonian and continued into the Permian.
its present position during/after “Acadian” deformation. Continental collision in the early Carboniferous was highlighted
Futhermore, the inferred subduction polarity of the earlyemiddle by a w340 Ma peak in HP/UHP metamorphism, w355e335 Ma
Devonian “Acadian” zone is opposite to that of the late crustal thickening (nappe emplacement), and the intrusion of syn-
DevonianeCarboniferous Rheno-Hercynian zone, ostensibly tectonic plutons between w355 and 340 Ma, followed by signifi-
necessitating a subduction inversion in the late Devonian. Thus the cant post-tectonic plutonism in Bohemia, Moldanubia, South
picture is dynamic, complex and far from resolved, but we Armorica, and Iberia (Franke, 2006; Schulmann et al., 2009). By the
cautiously proceed with this simplified narrative (Table 1). late Visean the prevailing regime of oblique convergence had
The Variscan terranes to the south of the Rheic suture have been evolved to one dominated by dextral translation, in turn giving rise
variously defined, but typically include: Bruno-Silesia, Saxothur- to an extensive series of wrench faults, intra-continental rift basins
ingia, Bohemia, Moldanubia, North and South Armorica, and Iberia, and widespread volcanism that characterized late
the latter of which includes several distinct zones (Fig. 1). To the Carboniferouseearly Permian post-Variscan Europe (Dostal et al.,
east, the Ma1opolska and qysogóry blocks of Poland lie south of the 2003; Wilson et al., 2004; McCann et al., 2006; Torsvik et al., 2008a).
Trans-European suture zone, but they were likely part of Baltica
throughout the Paleozoic. The South Portuguese zone of SW Iberia
3.2. Gondwana
is commonly affiliated with the Rheno-Hercynian zone and/or the
Meguma terrane, implying that it lies to the north of the Rheic
3.2.1. North Gondwana (Paleo/Neo-tethyan margin)
suture, but its lower Paleozoic position is unknown. The location of
It is often assumed that the northern margin of Gondwana
Bruno-Silesia in the lower Paleozoic is yet more ambiguous, with a
experienced a phase of broad and protracted extension in the early
range of postulated correlatives that lie on either side of the Rheic
to mid-Paleozoic, which ultimately led to the opening of the Pale-
suture. The other terranes were more evidently peri-Gondwanan
otethys Ocean and, correspondingly, to the rifting and subsequent
(Pharaoh et al., 2006).
drifting of the Variscan terranes (Table 1). Although widely
In northern Saxothuringia, the mid-German crystalline high
embraced as a conceptual model, the evidence for that event re-
(MGCH) is interpreted to be a late Silurianeearly Devonian intra-
mains poor in many regions. From subsidence patterns along the
oceanic island arc formed above a south-dipping subduction zone,
inferred margins of the Paleotethys, Stampfli (2000) concluded that
perhaps the first acting to close the Rheic Ocean (Franke, 2006). Faure
the ocean opened diachronously in the Ordovician and Silurian.
et al. (2010) suggested that the MGCH may continue west into the
However, von Raumer and Stampfli (2008) revised that timing and
Léon domain of North Armorica, with subduction-related rocks con-
placed the Paleotethys opening in the middleelate Devonian. On a
cealed offshore to the north (see also: Ballèvre et al., 2009). After an
smaller scale, well-preserved mid-Paleozoic sections occur in the
apparent lull in the mid-Devonian, arc-related plutonism recom-
Meseta and Anti-Atlas domains of Morocco, the Tauride domain of
menced in the MGCH in the late Devonian and continued into the
Turkey and the Alborz domain of Iran (Fig. 2), where Silur-
mid-Carboniferous (Table 1). Devonian intraoceanic arc activity
iandDevonian post-glacial black shales give way to carbonate
elsewhere in the Rheic has been inferred on the basis of possibly arc-
rocks and basinal facies, and, more locally, mafic magmatic rocks
related detritus in SW Iberia (Pereira et al., 2012) and from supra-
and conglomerates (Wendt et al., 2005; Moix et al., 2008; Michard
subduction ophiolites in the Galicia-Trás-os-Montes zone (Arenas
et al., 2010). Those sequences have been interpreted to reflect the
et al., 2007); although the latter is interpreted to reflect a north-
progression from sluggish rifting to passive margin drowning,
dipping subduction zone. In the late Devonianeearly Carboniferous
although they offer few specific temporal constraints. Late Silurian
arc magmatism also appeared in Bohemia, but there it represented a
to early Devonian S-type granitoids (415e400 Ma) in the Maya
continental arc that was positioned above a south-dipping subduc-
 et al., 2011). Block (SE Mexico, Guatemala and Belize, Fig. 2; then situated to the
tion zone (Schulmann et al., 2009; Zák
north of the Amazonian Craton) might better constrain those
Although the details remain far from clear, a spatially and
extensional processes, but could alternatively be products of an
temporally broad distribution of DevonianeCarboniferous
active margin (Weber et al., 2012). Inferred rift-related igneous
(w420e340 Ma) HP/UHP metamorphic rocks across the Variscan
rocks of mid-Paleozoic age are also recognized in several areas of
terranes indicates that a complex set of convergent processes
the conjugate (northern) margin of the Paleotethys (i.e. the south
operated throughout that interval (Faryad, 2011; Faryad and
Variscan terranes), in Sardinia, Central Iberia and the Austroalpine
Kachlík, 2013). In particular, the occurrence of HP/UHP meta-
basement (Fig. 2) (Gaggero et al., 2012; von Raumer et al., 2013), but
morphic rocks and ophiolitic complexes within and between the
there too the magmatic events were temporally protracted and the
various terranes (Bohemia, Moldanubia and South Armorica) in-
tectonic context of their emplacement is vague.
dicates that additional, probably minor, oceanic basins existed
Once established, the south Paleotethyan margin in Turkey and
among themdthose were subducted as the terranes were
Iran (and areas further east) remained passive throughout the late

Figure 2. (A) Modern map showing the present-day location of the Paleozoic core of Gondwana (yellow), the various terranes that were accreted to, rifted from, or remobilized
along its margins in late Paleozoic time (various bright colors), and other features discussed in Section 3.2. Brown areas are late Paleozoic terranes not explicitly discussed. Ab-
breviations: Maurit, Mauritanides; NPM, North Patagonian Massif; Transant, Transantarctic. (B) Schematic early Devonian reconstruction of Gondwana showing its margins as we
define and discuss them in Section 3.2.
314 M. Domeier, T.H. Torsvik / Geoscience Frontiers 5 (2014) 303e350

Paleozoic (Table 1). In contrast, the Moroccan margin was affected exhibits a late Carboniferouseearly Permian syn-rift sequence of
by late Devonian to Carboniferous deformation, metamorphism siliciclastics unconformably overlain by middle to late Permian
and magmatism imposed by a dominantly transcurrent tectonic carbonates and basinal facies, reflecting the development and
regime associated with Variscan orogenesis (Hoepffner et al., drowning of a newly-created passive margin (Angiolini et al., 2003).
2006). A notable phase of that episode was the occurrence of Attendant earlyemiddle Permian rift-related basalts are reported
early Carboniferous HP metamorphism in the northern Maur- from northern Southeast Pamir and from the Rushan-Pshart zone
itanide belt (Michard et al., 2010). By the late Carboniferous, which separates the Central and Southeast Pamir (Zhang et al.,
deformation was most prominent in the Meseta, where there was 2012b). Similarly, in the Qiangtang terrane, earliest Permian
NWeSE shortening and dextral wrenching along NE-trending fault glacio-marine deposits, clastic rocks and inferred rift-related mafic
systems. DevonianeCarboniferous polyphase deformation and magmatic rocks were replaced in Artinskian to Kungurian time by
metamorphism also occurred further west in the Mixteca-Oaxacan carbonates, turbidites and island arc type basalts (Zhang et al.,
terrane of Mexico (Fig. 2), which was likely situated along the 2012b, 2013b). Zhang et al. (2012b) concluded that marginal
northwest margin of Amazonia throughout the Paleozoic (Nance breakup initiated in the Sakmarian and progressed until final oce-
et al., 2009). Keppie et al. (2008) and Keppie et al. (2012) inter- anization was achieved in the Kunguriandan evolution analogous
preted a Devonianeearly Carboniferous episode of HP meta- to that seen in Oman. Further to the east, in the complicated and
morphism (and an inferred phase of coeval arc magmatism) to have variably-defined Sibumasu terrane (Fig. 2), comparable late Paleo-
been due to east-dipping subduction beneath the Mixteca-Oaxacan zoic rift-related stratigraphic successions have been recognized in
terrane. Exhumation and retrogression of the HP metamorphic the Tengchong and Baoshan blocks, with the early Permian
rocks followed in the mid-Carboniferous, accompanied by mig- Woniusi basalts in the latter (Zhang et al., 2013b). To the south,
matization and continued deformation (Keppie et al., 2008), widespread early Permian basaltic rocks (Selong Group basalts, Nar
perhaps in a transcurrent tectonic environment. Arc magmatism Tsum spilites, Bhote Kosi basalts) and associated syn- to post-rift
resumed in the Mixteca-Oaxacan terrane in the late Carboniferous sedimentary successions are found along the Tethyan Himalaya,
to mid-Permian and, together with regional transtensional defor- reflecting extension along the conjugate (southern) margin of the
mation, was probably produced by east-dipping, oblique subduc- emergent Neotethys (Garzanti et al., 1999; Zhu et al., 2010).
tion along the western margin of the terrane (Table 1) (Keppie et al., Contemporaneous and voluminous flood basalt volcanism in the
2008; Kirsch et al., 2012). In the east, early Permian syn- to post- High Himalaya (Panjal Traps) has also been related to that regional
orogenic igneous rocks are recognized in the Suwannee terrane rifting (Shellnutt et al., 2011), but is most likely the expression of a
(Heatherington et al., 2010) and the Moroccan Meseta (Michard mantle plume.
et al., 2010).
During the early Permian a second episode of margin-wide 3.2.2. Southeast Gondwana (Australian Gondwanide margin)
rifting occurred along north Gondwana, from Turkey through The late Paleozoic geologic record of eastern Australia chronicles
Tibet to northwest Australia, culminating in the detachment of the a complex spatiotemporal interplay of convergent and extensional
elongate Cimmerian terrane and the opening of the Neotethys tectonism. Yet, in spite of the tangled details of its history, it is now
Ocean (Table 1). Along the Arabian margin, the timing of that event broadly agreed that margin developed behind a long-lived, west-
is best known from the well-studied late Paleozoiceearly Mesozoic dipping subduction system, albeit with intermittent re-locations of
stratigraphy of Oman. The rifting may have started as early as the the subduction zone itself (Glen, 2005, 2013; Champion et al.,
late Carboniferous since indications of southwest-directed sedi- 2009). The alternating and often diachronous episodes of
ment and glacial ice transport imply the presence of an uplifted compression and tension that affected that margin have therefore
area to the northeast then (along the Arabian margin) (Blendinger been related to changes in plate boundary forces (Fergusson, 2010;
et al., 1990; Lee, 1990; Al-Belushi et al., 1996). A subsequent but also see Gray and Foster, 2004). Drawing greatly from the
inversion in the direction of sediment transport has been attributed excellent syntheses of Glen (2005) and Champion et al. (2009), we
to collapse of that crustal uplift (Al-Belushi et al., 1996). A concur- present a cursory review of those major tectonic cycles.
rent change in sediment composition was equated to the detrital The Devonian opened to an extension-dominated regime char-
modes expected in an evolving rift system by Angiolini et al. (2003), acterized by basin development and sedimentation, and wide-
who also identified a mid-Sakmarian unconformity as the temporal spread felsic to bimodal magmatism in the Lachlan and Thomson
marker of incipient breakup (‘breakup unconformity’). However, orogens and northeast Tasmania (Fig. 2). Having followed a sig-
completion of the oceanization process was not evident until the nificant orogenic event in the Silurian, that extensional phase has
middle Permian, when the abrupt appearance of pelagic carbonates often been associated with post-orogenic relaxation, but it could
and deep water radiolarian-bearing shale signaled the drowning of also have been driven by rollback of the subduction zone to the
the rift shoulder (Stampfli et al., 1991; Angiolini et al., 2003; Baud east. Dispersed occurrences of contractional to transcurrent
et al., 2012). That timing is further supported by middle Permian deformation appeared in various areas during the poorly-defined
pillow basalts and volcaniclastics in the Hawasina nappes of the w420e400 Ma Bindian-Bowning orogeny, but only the southeast
coastal mountains of northeastern Oman. Although the origins of Lachlan orogen was markedly affected (Champion et al., 2009;
those rocks are debated (Stampfli et al., 1991; Pillevuit et al., 1997; Fergusson, 2010). The cause of that deformation is uncertain, but
Maury et al., 2003), it is widely agreed that they imply that rifting it could have been due to relative motion between subdomains of
was underway by at least the middle Permian. Unambiguous evi- the Lachlan orogen (Willman et al., 2002). Otherwise, regional
dence for late Paleozoic rifting of the conjugate margin of Iran is tension persisted until the w390e380 Ma Tabberabberan orogeny,
lacking, but the stratigraphic record reveals the development of a a major contractional phase that drove basin inversion in the
carbonate platform in the middle Permian, which is consistent with Lachlan orogen and left Middle Devonian unconformities across
the tectonic framework established in Oman (Berberian and King, much of eastern Australia (Glen, 2005; Champion et al., 2009).
1981; Stampfli et al., 1991; Alirezaei and Hassanzadeh, 2012). Explanations for that event include closure of a marginal basin
Along the margin to the east, there is notable evidence of (Melbourne Trough), final docking and amalgamation of the
Carboniferouseearly Permian extension in the Southeast Pamir, Lachlan orogen subdomains (as well as the union of western and
Qiangtang terrane and along the Tethyan Himalaya (Fig. 2). Much northeastern Tasmania), and/or accretion of a late Silurian to
like in Oman, the late Paleozoic stratigraphy of the Southeast Pamir middle Devonian intraoceanic arc (Gamilaroi-Calliope arc; Table 1)
 M. Domeier, T.H. Torsvik / Geoscience Frontiers 5 (2014) 303e350 315

Figure 3. (A) Modern map showing the present-day location of the Siberian craton and the late Paleozoic core of Amuria (yellow), the various terranes that were accreted to, rifted
from, or remobilized along their margins in late Paleozoic time (various bright colors), and other features discussed in Sections 3.3e3.4. Brown areas are late Paleozoic terranes not
explicitly discussed. Abbreviations: EZ, Ertix shear zone; HC, Hegenshan complex; ML, main Mongolian lineament; MS, Mongol-Okhotsk suture; SS, Solonker suture; UZ, East
Uralian/Trans-Uralian zone. (B) Schematic early Devonian reconstruction of Siberia, Amuria and retro-deformed Kazakhstania (the small inset schematically shows the present-day
form of the orocline), showing their margins as we define and discuss them in Sections 3.3e3.4.
316 M. Domeier, T.H. Torsvik / Geoscience Frontiers 5 (2014) 303e350

(Willman et al., 2002; Gray and Foster, 2004; Glen, 2005; Champion late Paleozoic magmatism appeared in the Western province of the
et al., 2009). Considering the composite nature of Tabberabberan South Island of New Zealand at w371e360 Ma, with the
deformation, it is possible that those processes acted together. emplacement of the Karamea-Paringa paired S/I-type suite. The
With the cessation of the Tabberabberan orogeny, regional temporal association between the individual magmatic events,
stress inverted and basin formation, sedimentation and felsic to their geochemical characteristics and the rapidity of magma pro-
bimodal magmatism recommenced in the Lachlan, Thomson and duction point to a major extensional event in an intra-arc or back-
North Queensland orogens from w380 to 360 Ma. In the New En- arc environment (Tulloch et al., 2009; Scott et al., 2011). A similar
gland orogen to the east (Fig. 2), a forearc basin and accretionary setting has been inferred for the subsequent emplacement of the
wedge first appeared in the late Devonianeearly Carboniferous, Ridge-Tobin paired S/I-type suite, which followed at w355e342 Ma
reflecting the nascent development of an active continental margin, (Tulloch et al., 2009). Afterward, Carboniferous magmatism of the
presumably related to the accretion of the Gamilaroi-Calliope is- Western province was characterized by sporadic A-type granitic
land arc (Champion et al., 2009; Glen, 2013). By the mid-Early plutonism, as was the Median Batholith to the east (Mortimer et al.,
Carboniferous, regional tension in the back-arc was again sup- 1999b; Tulloch et al., 2009). Permian plutonic and volcanic rocks of
planted by an east-west shortening event (Kanimblan orogeny), various composition are known from the Brook Street terrane, an
and another chapter of thrusting and folding was added to the allocthonous terrane of the Eastern province of the South Island
Lachlan and Thomson orogens (Glen, 2005; Champion et al., 2009). (Mortimer et al., 1999a). The Brook Street terrane has been recog-
Continental arc magmatism in the New England orogen endured nized as a Permian intraoceanic arc and probably represents a
through the Kanimblan orogeny, and peaked in the late Carbonif- continuation of the Gympie terrane from the New England orogen
erous (w324e305 Ma), and so that transitory convergence was of Australia. Intervening elements of that arc system have also been
probably related to a changing balance in the marginal plate forces, recognized in New Caldedonia and the West Norfolk Ridge
rather than to collision. The subsequent termination of arc mag- (Mortimer et al., 1999a; Spandler et al., 2005). Like the Gympie
matism and forearc deposition in the latest Carboniferous has been terrane, the Brook Street terrane is thought to have formed above a
interpreted to reflect an oceanward jump of the subduction zone to west-dipping subduction zone outboard of the Gondwanan margin
an intraoceanic complex offshore to the east (early Permian Gympie (Nebel et al., 2007); its accretion in the Permo-Triassic must
island arc; Table 1) (Champion et al., 2009). With that change came therefore have been preceded by the closure of a back-arc basin
the introduction of regional tension and bimodal magmatism to the (Table 1).
New England orogen, indicating that it occupied a backarc envi- Elsewhere among relics of that former margin, episodes of
ronment then. In the Lachlan and southern Thomson orogens, the DevonianeCarboniferous calc-alkaline magmatism are seen in
mid-Carboniferous to early Permian interval was similarly charac- Marie Byrd Land, northern Victoria Land and the Eastern domain
terized by the formation of back-arc and intracratonic basins, which of the northern Antarctic Peninsula (Fig. 2) (Pankhurst et al., 1998;
ultimately led to the early Permian development of the NNWeSSE Boger, 2011). The late Devonianeearly Carboniferous magmatic
trending East Australian rift system (Bowen-Gunnedah-Sydney episodes in New Zealand appear to have broadly contempora-
Basin; Fig. 2) (Glen, 2005, 2013; Champion et al., 2009). Thus, in the neous I-type granitoid counterparts in Marie Byrd Land
latest Carboniferous to late early Permian most of eastern Australia (w375e350 Ma Ford Granodiorite and Fosdick Mountains com-
acted as a broad and actively extending backarc located behind a plex) and northern Victoria Land (w370e350 Ma Admiralty In-
marginal island arc to the east. trusives and Gallipoli Volcanics) (Pankhurst et al., 1998; Siddoway
During the late early to middle Permian the former forearc and and Fanning, 2009). A subsidiary mid-Carboniferous phase of
accretionary wedge of the New England orogen were deformed into granitoid magmatism (w340e320 Ma) is also reported in Marie
the Texas and Coffs Harbour oroclines, perhaps via dextral strike- Byrd Land and northern Victoria Land, but is poorly defined. In the
slip motion (Champion et al., 2009). Shortly afterward the region Eastern domain of the Antarctic Peninsula, early Devonian and
returned to a regime of east-west contraction during the Hunter- mid-to-late Carboniferous igneous and metamorphic have been
Bowen orogeny, which spanned the late middle Permian to mid- found in the Target Hill orthogneiss complex (Millar et al., 2002);
Triassic. In the New England orogen that orogenic episode was Riley et al. (2012) have suggested that their occurrence may be
associated with the development of a west-verging fold-thrust belt locally-restricted, although late Carboniferous calc-alkaline
and conversion of the back-arc rift-system to a foreland basin (Glen, orthogneisses have also been recognized on Thurston Island
2005, 2013; Champion et al., 2009). Collision of the Gympie island (Leat et al., 1993). More widespread metamorphic and magmatic
arc (w250 Ma) and resumption of the continental margin arc activity affected the Antarctic Peninsula (Central and Eastern do-
(w265e230 Ma) also occurred then, reflecting increased conver- mains) during the mid-to-late Permian, and widespread but
gence between eastern Australia and the westward-subducting volumetrically minor Permian granitoid plutonism occurred in
oceanic plate (Table 1) (Champion et al., 2009). Marie Byrd Land which may have represented a magmatic arc
(Pankhurst et al., 1998; Riley et al., 2012). In the foreland, the mid-
3.2.3. South Gondwana (Antarctic Gondwanide margin) to-late Permian was marked by the development of a fold and
The Paleozoic margin of Gondwana that once lay outboard of the thrust belt in the Ellsworth and Pensacola Mountains, which was
present-day Pacific margin of Antarctica was greatly excised in the constructed in a regime of dextral transpression associated with
late Paleozoic, and later fragmented and dispersed, with formerly- the enigmatic Gondwanide orogeny (Curtis, 2001). Also at that
proximal elements now found scattered in southwest New Zealand, time, foreland basin deposits in the Transantarctic Mountains
North Victoria Land and Marie Bryd Land (Fig. 2) (Adams, 2008). recorded a major paleocurrent reversal and the appearance of
Since the latter two areas are remote and largely ice-covered, our magmatic arc detritus (Elliot and Fanning, 2008).
knowledge of that margin is poor, and thus our account, which is A parsimonious interpretation of that sparse data would be that
largely dependent on inferred associations with eastern Australia, the late Paleozoic history of that margin, like that of eastern
is tentative. A lack of DevonianeCarboniferous sedimentary se- Australia, was one of persistent convergence above a north-dipping
quences in those areas precludes the unequivocal recognition of subduction zone, with intermittent changes in regional stress due
subduction-accretion complexes, and leaves tectonic deductions to to adjustments in relative motion along the plate boundary
be drawn from the occurrence and nature of intrusive rocks (Table 1). We may also speculate, on account of the gross similar-
(Tulloch et al., 2009). The earliest and most voluminous phase of ities with eastern Australia, that the absence of early Permian
 M. Domeier, T.H. Torsvik / Geoscience Frontiers 5 (2014) 303e350 317

magmatism outside of the Brook Street terrane may signify that of possibly arc-related to post-orogenic igneous rocks have been
subduction had jumped outboard to that intraoceanic arc system in used to argue for east-dipping subduction (Álvarez et al., 2011;
the latest Carboniferous. Subsequent collapse of the intervening Martínez et al., 2012). For w50e60 Myr following the accretion
remnant basin could explain the mid-to-late Permian magmatism of Chilenia, arc-magmatism and deformation were notably absent
and convergence and accretion of the arc would coincide with the along the entire proto-Andean margin north of Patagonia, leading
deformation observed in the foreland. Intriguingly, the backarc again to the interpretation that the margin may have been passive
dextral transpression inferred for Gondwanide orogenesis there then (Table 1) (Chew et al., 2007; Bahlburg et al., 2009). Late
might be analogous with that responsible for the Texas and Coffs Devonianeearly Carboniferous magmatic rocks are found to the
Harbour oroclines in Australia. east, in the Precordillera and foreland Sierras Pampeanas, but are
predominantly A-type granitoids that were probably emplaced in a
3.2.4. West Gondwana (Proto-Andean margin) regime of prevailing tension (Grosse et al., 2009; Dahlquist et al.,
The late Paleozoic history of Patagonia is controversial. The 2010; Martina et al., 2011). The earliest indications of subduction
occurrence of late Carboniferouseearly Permian NEeSW contrac- resumption appeared in the late-early Carboniferous (w340 Ma),
tional structures with opposing vergence in the northern North with the onset of calc-alkaline magmatism in the Eastern Cordillera
Patagonian Massif and the southern margin of West Gondwana of Peru and the appearance of first-cycle detrital zircons in late
(Cerro de los Viejos, Sierra Australes fold and thrust belt; Fig. 2) Paleozoic accretionary complexes of Chile (Chew et al., 2007;
presents a compelling argument for a late Paleozoic collision be- Bahlburg et al., 2009; Miskovic et al., 2009; Hervé et al., 2013).
tween Gondwana and an allocthonous Patagonia terrane (von However, unambiguous evidence of an active margin has not been
Gosen, 2003; Ramos, 2008; Rapalini et al., 2010). However, late documented before the late Carboniferous (w320 Ma), when HP
Paleozoic paleomagnetic data from the North Patagonian Massif metamorphism and a coeval calc-alkaline magmatic arc in the
correspond with those of Gondwana, implying that the landmasses southern proto-Andes formed a classic paired metamorphic belt
were already proximal by the early Devonian (Rapalini, 2005). (Willner, 2005). High-grade metamorphism also occurred in the
Furthermore, strong magmatic and isotopic correlatives can be central proto-Andes at that time and arc-magmatic activity
drawn between the North Patagonian Massif and West Gondwana conspicuously increased, suggesting that the onset of late Paleozoic
(Pampia block) back into the early Paleozoic (Martínez Dopico et al., subduction may have been rapid across the entire proto-Andean
2011; Rapalini et al., 2013). To resolve that paradox, some models margin (Miskovic et al., 2009). Subduction beneath the proto-
have treated Patagonia as a composite block comprised of a (para-) Andean margin then continued unabated into the Permian
autochthonous northern block and an allochthonous southern (Table 1). During the mid-Permian to Triassic a phase of regional
block (Pankhurst et al., 2006; Ramos, 2008; Rapalini et al., 2010; extension was accompanied by a dramatic change in the
Chernicoff et al., 2013). There are important differences between geochemical character of proto-Andean magmatismdfrom arc-
those models; for example, whether a minor ocean basin existed related to intra-platedand the locus of magmatism shifted
between the northern block and Gondwana and, if so, how it closed. inboard (Kleiman and Japas, 2009; Miskovic et al., 2009). The
But, there appears to be a common consensus that destruction of geodynamic origin of those occurrences remains unclear, but it
the ocean basin separating the northern and southern blocks was could relate to changes in the rate of plate convergence, perhaps
accomplished by late Paleozoic subduction beneath the former (i.e. accompanied or caused by slab break-off.
north dipping subduction; Table 1). The most apparent plutonic
rocks reflecting that subduction in the North Patagonian Massif are 3.3. Siberia and Amuria
from the late early Carboniferous (w335e325), but relics of
possibly subduction-related magmatism and metamorphism 3.3.1. East Siberia (proto-Verkhoyansk margin)
stretch back into the early Devonian (Pankhurst et al., 2006; The eastern margin of Siberia was passive from the Cambrian to
Chernicoff et al., 2013). Interestingly, a case may be made for a the mid-Paleozoic, as evident by the typical passive margin sedi-
magmatic break there between w390 and 340 Ma, as will be dis- mentary sequence in the southern sector of the Mesozoic Ver-
cussed in Section 4. In contrast, northeast-dipping subduction khoyansk fold and thrust belt (Fig. 3) (Khudoley and Guriev, 2003;
beneath the southwest margin of the southern block may have Bradley, 2008). In the middle to late Devonian the passive margin
started at w390 Ma and continued into the Mesozoic (Table 1) was interrupted by a tensional episode, recognized by widespread
(Kato et al., 2008; Chernicoff et al., 2013). Collision of the southern mafic magmatism and rift-related deposits across the east Siberian
and northern blocks commenced in the late Carboniferous and margin and abundant extensional structures in the Sette-Daban
Pankhurst et al. (2006) attributed the subsequent occurrence of zone of the southern Verkhoyansk fold and thrust belt (Table 1)
widespread Permian magmatism to slab breakoff following ter- (Khudoley and Guriev, 2003). Passive margin sedimentation was
minal basin closure. re-established in the early Carboniferous and continued into the
Along the proto-Andean margin to the west and north of Pata- Mesozoic; shortening associated with Verkhoyansk orogenesis
gonia, the apparent absence of a typical Andean-type magmatic arc began in the Jurassic (Bradley, 2008).
of early to middle Devonian age has led many to conclude that the
margin was passive at that time, following widespread arc- 3.3.2. Northwest Siberia (Uralian margin and West Siberian Basin)
magmatism and terrane collision during the Famatinian orogenic Much about the Paleozoic history of the northwestern margin of
cycle (Bahlburg et al., 2009). However, the recognition of middle Siberia is unknown due to the thick and expansive Jurassic to
Devonian HP metamorphic rocks adjacent to a discontinuous belt Recent sedimentary cover of the West Siberian Basin, which ex-
of ultramafic bodies in the Frontal Cordillera and North Patagonian tends from the Altai-Sayan fold belt in the southeast, north to the
Andes of Argentina supports a w390 Ma collision between Gond- Arctic Ocean, and along the Uralian orogen to the west (Fig. 3)
wana and a poorly-characterized allochthonous terrane (‘Chilenia’; (Vyssotski et al., 2006). Nevertheless, a window into that margin is
Fig. 2) (Ramos et al., 1986; Massonne and Calderón, 2008; Willner found in central and southern Taimyr, where Paleozoic rocks are
et al., 2011; Martínez et al., 2012). The polarity of subduction exposed on the Taimyr Peninsula to the north of the Mesozoic to
associated with pre-collisional convergence of Gondwana and Recent sediments of the Yenisey-Khatanga depocenter. There, the
Chilenia is equivocal, but indirect clues from detrital zircon ages (in occurrence of lower Paleozoic to mid-Carboniferous continental
detritus inferred to be derived from Chilenia) and the distribution shelf and slope deposits imply that the northwestern margin of
318 M. Domeier, T.H. Torsvik / Geoscience Frontiers 5 (2014) 303e350

Siberia was passive then (Bradley, 2008). The passive margin was and Charysh-Terekta zones (Buslov et al., 2004; Buslov, 2011). That
destroyed by the accretion of allochthonous northern Taimyr, episode of regional transcurrent motion, coupled with attendant
which may have arrived in the late Carboniferous according to the contractional deformation and magmatism, was associated with a
occurrence of thrusting, metamorphism and granitoid magmatism protracted oblique collision between Siberia and Kazakhstan,
of late CarboniferousePermian age in central Taimyr (Table 1) which may have begun as early as the late Devonian and which
(Pease and Scott, 2009; Pease, 2011). However, we reiterate that continued into the early Permian (Briggs et al., 2007; Buslov, 2011;
most of the contractional deformation in Taimyr was generated Wilhem et al., 2012).
during the Mesozoic (Torsvik and Andersen, 2002; Buiter and
Torsvik, 2007). 3.3.4. Southeast Siberia and northern Amuria
From at least Silurian to mid-Mesozoic time, the southeastern
3.3.3. Southwest Siberia (Altai-Sayan margin) margin of Siberia was flanked by the Mongol-Okhotsk Ocean (MOO),
The southwest margin of the Siberian craton is flanked by the the vestiges of which are recognized in and along a WSW/ENE-
notoriously complex Altai-Sayan area: a consolidation of micro- trending suture that runs from central Mongolia to the Sea of
continental blocks, island arcs, backarc basins and accretionary Okhotsk (Fig. 3). Relics of that ocean basin include: late Silurian to
complexes that largely amalgamated with the Siberian craton in the early Carboniferous typical ocean plate stratigraphy (basaltic rocks
late Neoproterozoic to Ordovician (Fig. 3). By the mid-Paleozoic, the overlain by Pridolian to Frasnian radiolarian chert passing upward
active southwest margin of greater Siberia had relocated to the into shale and turbidite) in the Khangay-Khentey basin,
western edge of that Altai-Sayan tectonic mosaic. In the northern Devonianeearly Carboniferous intraoceanic Onon arc rocks, the
(Siberian) and southern (Chinese) Altai, Devonian subduction- dismembered mid-Carboniferous (w325 Ma) Adaatsag ophiolite,
related granitoid magmatism occurred in the Rudny-Altai/Altai- and coarsening Permianeearly Mesozoic marine sediments in the
Mongolian zones and the inboard Western-Altai zone (including suture zone (Tomurtogoo et al., 2005; Kurihara et al., 2009; Bussien
the Charysh-Terekta and Gorny-Altai zones) (Xiao et al., 2004; et al., 2011). That ocean separated Siberia from the so-called ‘Amuria’
Wang et al., 2009; Cai et al., 2011; Glorie et al., 2011a, 2012). That terrane, which includes elements of the Tuva-Mongolian and Altai-
magmatic activity appears to have peaked at w410e400 Ma Mongolian microcontinents that had purportedly accreted to Siberia
(perhaps diachronously, younging to the northwest) and by in the early Paleozoic (Fig. 3) (Wilhem et al., 2012). That implies that
w370e360 Ma intrusions become sporadic and volumetrically the MOO opened in the late-early to mid-Paleozoic, dividing the
limited (Cai et al., 2011; Glorie et al., 2011a). To the west of the collage of terranes previously assembled against the southeast
Rudny-Altai zone, across the Ertix (or Irtysh or Erqis) shear zone, margin of the Siberian craton. Additionally, the abrupt western
the Kalba-Narym and Chara zones have been recognized as a termination of the suture zone in central Mongolia suggests that the
forearc basin and accretionary complex corresponding to the ocean basin did not continue into the Altai-Sayan realm; rather the
Devonian magmatic arc (Fig. 3) (Wilhem et al., 2012). The accre- early Paleozoic-accreted terranes there remained coherent with the
tionary complex contains elements of late Devonianeearly Siberian craton. Therefore, the MOO was probably wedge-shaped
Carboniferous island arc rocks and oceanic crust and was sealed and narrowed to the west.
by late Carboniferous volcaniclastic rocks and intrusions (Buslov On the northern (Siberian) margin of the MOO, mid-
et al., 2004; Safonova et al., 2012). To the northwest those zones Carboniferous to Triassic subduction-related igneous rocks are
are obscured by deposits of the West Siberian Basin, but likely recognized in the Angara-Vitim, Khangay and Khentey batholiths
continue into the Ob-Saisan-Surgut area, where a late and the Selenga (Western Transbaikalian) volcano-plutonic belt
Devonianeearly Carboniferous accretionary complex has been and have been ascribed to north-dipping subduction beneath
identified from boreholes and geophysical surveys (Fig. 3) (Cocks Siberia (Table 1) (Tomurtogoo et al., 2005; Donskaya et al., 2013).
and Torsvik, 2007). Collectively, those observations imply that the Because of the prevalence of Devonianeearly Carboniferous detrital
southwest margin of greater Siberia was positioned above an east- zircons in late Paleozoiceearly Mesozoic sediments of the
dipping subduction zone during the Devonianeearly Carbonif- Khangay-Khentey accretionary wedge to the south of the arc,
erous, and this is reflected in most paleogeographic models of the Bussien et al. (2011) argued that subduction and arc magmatism
region (Table 1). Some models significantly differ in arguing that may have started in the Devonian. Mid-Carboniferous to Triassic
the Altai-Mongolian microcontinent and/or an island arc to its subduction-related igneous rocks are also recognized in the Middle
south collided with greater Siberia in the earlyemiddle Devonian Gobi volcano-plutonic belt along the southern (Amurian) margin of
or late Devonianeearly Carboniferous (Buslov et al., 2004; Xiao the MOO, signifying that subduction of the MOO was also south-
et al., 2004; Glorie et al., 2011a, 2012). Although structural obser- directed and thus bivergent (Tomurtogoo et al., 2005; Bussien
vations and the occurrence of ophiolitic bodies may support some et al., 2011). However, unlike the northern margin of the MOO,
such argument (the details remain vague), the restricted distribu- there are no strong indications that subduction beneath the
tion of the Tuvaella brachiopod fauna to the north of the Ertix southern margin began prior to the Carboniferous.
boundary implies that the affected zones were already proximal to
Siberia in the Silurian (Cocks and Torsvik, 2007). The observations 3.3.5. Southern Amuria
may thus be better explained by the strike-slip relocation of ter- South of the Mongol-Okhotsk suture, the constituents of
ranes and/or the opening and closing of a marginal back-arc basin Amuriadwhich include microcontinents, island- and continental
in the Devonian (Wilhem et al., 2012). magmatic arcs, back-arc basins, and ophiolitic- and accretionary
Late CarboniferousePermian magmatism (w320e250 Ma) of complexesdexhibit a general trend of southward-younging,
the Siberian and Chinese Altai was characterized by small, A-type reflecting significant southward growth of that terrane during the
intrusives that first invaded areas near the Ertix shear zone and Paleozoic. In particular, a major EeW trending structural divide that
later appeared across the entire Altai-Sayan region; they are bisects Amuria, the ‘main Mongolian lineament’, separates a prin-
commonly classified as post-orogenic to intraplate (Wang et al., cipally early Paleozoic domain to the north from a predominantly
2009; Cai et al., 2011; Glorie et al., 2011a, 2012). Partly concurrent late Paleozoic domain to the south (Fig. 3) (Windley et al., 2007). To
with that magmatic phase, major transcurrent motion occurred in the south of that lineament, Silurian to Carboniferous island arc
the late Carboniferouseearly Permian along the Ertix shear zone magmatic rocks in the Tseel, Edren, Zoolen, Gurvansayhan and
and other parallel strike-slips systems, notably within the Chara Enshoo zones of Badarch et al. (2002) (Trans-Altai zone of Kroner
 M. Domeier, T.H. Torsvik / Geoscience Frontiers 5 (2014) 303e350 319

Figure 4. (A) Modern map showing the present-day location of the Tarim, North China, South China and Annamia cratons (yellow), the various terranes that were accreted to, rifted
from, or remobilized along their margins in late Paleozoic time (various bright colors), and other features discussed in Sections 3.5e3.7. Brown areas are late Paleozoic terranes not
explicitly discussed. Abbreviations: AS, Ailaoshan suture; CI, Changning-Menglian-Inthanon suture; DQ, Dian-Qiong suture; HS, Hongshishan belt; HX, Hongliuhe-Xichangjing belt;
QH, North Qaidam belt; NQ, North Qilian belt; NS, Nan-Sra Kaeo suture; SM, Song Ma suture; SS, Solonker suture; TS, Tian Shan suture. (B) Schematic early Devonian reconstruction
of North China-Tarim, South China and Annamia, showing their margins as we define and discuss them in Sections 3.5e3.7.

et al., 2010) are flanked by contemporaneous continental arc-back- and continental arcs. Wainwright et al. (2011) have argued that
arc successions to the north (Gobi Altai, Mandalovoo and Nuhet- xenocrystic zircons found in juvenile DevonianeCarboniferous is-
davaa zones) and forearc/accretionary complexes to the south land arc rocks from the south Gurvansayhan zone indicate that the
(Fig. 3) (Helo et al., 2006; Yarmolyuk et al., 2008; Demoux et al., arc could not have been far from the continental margin. Collec-
2009; Blight et al., 2010; Wainwright et al., 2011; Wilhem et al., tively, those observations are consistent with a north-dipping
2012; Rippington et al., 2013). Mafic-ultramafic bodies inferred to DevonianeCarboniferous subduction zone that alternately retrea-
be fragments of a DevonianeCarboniferous ophiolite occur in the ted and advanced to open and close a backarc basin behind a
Zoolen and Gurvansayhan zones (Rippington et al., 2008, 2013), marginal island arc (Table 1) (Kroner et al., 2010). During the late
and could represent a basin of such age that separated the island- Carboniferous to Permian the character of magmatism in southern
320 M. Domeier, T.H. Torsvik / Geoscience Frontiers 5 (2014) 303e350

Mongolia changed from calc-alkaline to A-type to bimodal, pre- 3.4.1. ‘Internal’ (central and east) Kazakhstania
sumably due to the cessation of subduction and the onset of In East Kazakhstan, the strongly NW-concave structural trend of
transtensive tectonics (Hanzl et al., 2008; Blight et al., 2010; the orocline is delineated by an earlyemiddle Devonian continental
Yarmolyuk et al., 2008). However, Economos et al. (2012) argued magmatic arc that exhibits a w180 change in strike between the
that subduction-related magmatism continued into the early southwest and northeast arms of the belt. Paleomagnetic data
Permian in the South Gobi zone of southernmost Mongolia, which indicate that belt was nearly linear in the early Devonian and that
has been contentiously identified as either an allochthonous Pre- the northeast arm was subsequently rotated clockwise to its pre-
cambrian microcontinent (Badarch et al., 2002; Kroner et al., 2010) sent position (with respect to the southwest arm) during the
or a Paleozoic accretionary complex (Taylor et al., 2013). middle Devonian to late Carboniferous (Abrajevitch et al., 2008;
To the east, in northeast China (Inner Mongolia), the Levashova et al., 2012). The presence of forearc accretionary com-
DevonianeCarboniferous Uliastai continental magmatic arc repre- plexes in the core of the present orocline (or outboard of the
sents a continuation of the Nuhetdavaa zone of Mongolia (Fig. 3) restored earlyemiddle Devonian magmatic arc) indicates that
(Xiao et al., 2003, 2009b). As in Mongolia, the late Paleozoic Bao- subduction was dipping beneath Kazakhstania (Table 1) (Windley
lidao island arc is located to the south of the continental arc, and the et al., 2007; Levashova et al., 2012; Wilhem et al., 2012). In the
two are separated by the late Paleozoic Hegenshan backarc late Devonian the continental magmatic arc migrated east-
ophiolite-accretion complex of disputed age (Miao et al., 2008; warddpartly overlapping the former (earlyemiddle Devonian)
Chen et al., 2009; Liu et al., 2013). To the south of the Baolidao forearcdwhere it remained active throughout the Carboniferous as
arc is the Xilinhot metamorphic complex, which exhibits the Balkhash-Yili arc (Fig. 3) (Windley et al., 2007; Levashova et al.,
middleelate Devonian blueschists and has been interpreted to 2012). Levashova et al. (2012) speculated that relocation of the
constitute a mid-to-late Paleozoic forearc accretionary complex magmatic arc could reflect a sudden jump of the subduction zone,
(Chen et al., 2009; Xiao et al., 2009b; Liu et al., 2013). Interestingly, which may have been forced to adopt a more ocean-ward position
the high-grade metamorphic rocks of the Xilinhot complex, like by the tightening of the orocline.
those of the South Gobi zone, have led to controversial suggestions The Balkhash-Yili arc of east Kazakhstania may continue into
that it may represent a Precambrian microcontinent (Xiao et al., West Junggar, where late Devonian to late Carboniferous magmatic
2003). arc rocks have been found to the northwest of the attendant Kar-
The late Paleozoic tectonic history of southern Mongolia and amay arc-accretionary complex (Geng et al., 2011; Choulet et al.,
northeast China are thus highly-similar, but many critical details of 2012b; Yang et al., 2012). Although a minor mid-to-late Paleozoic
their evolution remain vague and contested. For example, the back-arc basin may have opened and closed behind the Karamay
inception and duration of the marginal backarc(s) (Miao et al., complex (as suggested by the Darbut ophiolitic mélange), it is
2008; Liu et al., 2013), or even its existence (Jian et al., 2012), generally agreed that the prevailing subduction zone was located
are matters of continuing debate. Nonetheless, it is clear that the outboard of that unit and that subduction was northwest-directed,
southern margin of Amuria was active in the Devonian and beneath central West Junggar. Subduction beneath that margin
Carboniferous and that the locus of arc magmatism periodically probably ceased in the late Carboniferous, according to the
migrated, either due to the opening and closing of one or more appearance of regionally widespread latest Carboniferous to late
marginal backarc basins or to a change in the angle of subduction. Permian alkaline magmatism and the early Permian deposition of
Similarly critical, but also controversial, is the timing of collision coarse terrestrial molasse and nonmarine volcanics (Choulet et al.,
between Amuria and North China along the Solonker (Sulinheer) 2012b; Xu et al., 2013). Along the opposing internal margin of the
suture zone (Fig. 3). Late Carboniferouseearly Permian relics of orocline, latest Carboniferous to Permian magmatism in the Yili arc
subduction and accretion offer a lower age constraint on the was similarly characterized by post-collisional granitoids and
timing of final basin closure, but an unambiguous upper age nonmarine volcanics, and the youngest oceanic material incorpo-
constraint is not provided until w234 Ma, when the suture zone rated into the neighboring accretionary complex to the north was
was stitched by the Halatu granites (Xiao et al., 2003; Chen et al., mid-Carboniferous in age (w325 Ma) (Han et al., 2010). Addition-
2009). More equivocal ages on bimodal magmatism and meta- ally, a w316 Ma stitching pluton crosscut the North Tian Shan su-
morphism from the northern periphery of the suture zone have ture zone between the DevonianeCarboniferous accretionary
likewise been used to propose that collision broadly occurred in complex and the adjacent Junggar terrane to the north, thereby
the late Carboniferous to Triassic (Blight et al., 2010; Zhang et al., providing an upper age constraint on the closure of the intervening
2011a; Li et al., 2013), but there is no strong consensus on finer ocean basin then (Han et al., 2010).
constraints. A second late Devonian to Carboniferous magmatic belt in West
Junggar has been identified in the Saur arc to the north and
correlated with the coeval Zharma arc of east Kazakhstan (Fig. 3).
3.4. Kazakhstania Together, those magmatic belts are thought to be the products of a
south-dipping subduction zone that helped to close the ocean basin
Kazakhstania is a complicated and highly-deformed terrane between Kazakhstania and Siberia (Table 1) (Chen et al., 2010;
collage of microcontinents, island arcs and accretionary complexes Choulet et al., 2012a; Xu et al., 2013). Thus, the Zharma-Saur arc
which largely amalgamated prior to the Devonian (Windley et al., constituted part of the ‘external’ margin of Kazakhstania. As in the
2007). In the Devonian and Carboniferous that entire composite south, latest Carboniferous to Permian magmatism in the Zharma-
terrane was deformed in a crustal-scale process that transformed Saur region was dominated by post-collisional A-type granitoids
the previously-rectilinear feature into an orocline (Fig. 3) and bimodal volcanics, suggesting that subduction there had also
(Abrajevitch et al., 2008; Levashova et al., 2012). The geometry of ceased in the late Carboniferous (Chen et al., 2010). Accordingly, the
the pre-Permian margins of Kazakhstania were profoundly Chara suture zone between Kazakhstania and the Siberian/Chinese
modified during that event, thus complicating our margin-by- Altai was stitched by a w307 Ma pluton and locally sealed by early
margin style of discussion; here we group the present-day cen- Permian molasse (Chen et al., 2010; Han et al., 2010). In the
tral and east areas (the ‘internal’ margin of the deforming oro- Permian, many of the regional suture zones acted as major strike-
cline) and the west and south areas (the ‘external’ margin of the slip faults during an interval of protracted transcurrent tectonism
orocline). (Choulet et al., 2012b; Levashova et al., 2012).
 M. Domeier, T.H. Torsvik / Geoscience Frontiers 5 (2014) 303e350 321

3.4.2. ‘External’ (west and south) Kazakhstania 2007b, 2009a,b; Bai et al., 2013). Those subduction-related intru-
In the west, the Devonian margin of Kazakhstania runs parallel to sive rocks, which have yielded ages of w330 to 270 Ma, have been
the Urals, along the East Uralian suture zone in Russia and interpreted to represent a continental magmatic arc that developed
Kazakhstan (Fig. 3). To the south, the strike of that margin follows the above a southward-dipping subduction zone. Late Paleozoic arc-
arcuate shape of the orocline, curving through Uzbekistan and related volcanic rocks and volcanic detritus have also been docu-
northern Tajikistan into an EeW orientation that continues into mented across the northern margin of the North China craton (Cope
Kyrgyzstan and China; there the Devonian margin is demarcated by et al., 2005; Zhang et al., 2007a). Cope et al. (2005) concluded from
the boundary between the Kyrgyzstan Middle Tian Shan/Chinese detrital zircon age distributions in CarboniferousePermian strata
Central Tian Shan and the Kyrgyzstan/Chinese South Tian Shan. At that magmatic arc was active from w400 to 275 Ma, although
the dawn of the Devonian that entire margin is thought to have been perhaps with an early Carboniferous hiatus (Table 1). Continental
active, from relics of a Silurian to earlyemiddle Devonian continental arc magmatism appears to have ceased in the mid-Permian, and was
magmatic arc identified in the Turgai belt of Kazakhstan (Bykadorov succeeded in the late Permian to mid-Triassic by a more spatially
et al., 2003; Windley et al., 2007), the Kyrgyzstan North and Middle distributed phase of plutonism with a post-orogenic geochemical
Tian Shan (Biske and Seltmann, 2010; Glorie et al., 2011b; Seltmann character (Zhang et al., 2009b). To the north of the late Paleozoic
et al., 2011), and the Chinese Central Tian Shan (Fig. 3) (Gao et al., continental magmatic arc, the mid-Paleozoic margin of North China
2009; Dong et al., 2011b; Long et al., 2011; Ren et al., 2011; Ma is delineated by the Ondor Sum subduction-accretion complex,
et al., in press-b). In the middle to late Devonian, arc magmatism which formed outboard of the early Paleozoic Bainaimiao arc (Fig. 4)
appears to have waned or ceased altogether across much of the (Xiao et al., 2003). Although the Ondor Sum complex had already
western and southwestern margin. In Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan been developing in the early Paleozoic, the occurrence of mid-to-
that magmatic hiatus has been associated with the establishment of late Permian metamorphic rocks and ophiolitic fragments reflect
a passive margin (Table 1) (Windley et al., 2007; Biske and Seltmann, its continued development in the late Paleozoic (Miao et al., 2007;
2010; Wilhem et al., 2012). In the early Carboniferous arc magma- Xiao et al., 2009b). To the north of the Ondor Sum complex lies
tism continued in the Chinese Central Tian Shan (having been largely the diffuse collisional boundary between North China and Amuria,
uninterrupted in the late Devonian) and re-appeared in the Valer- the Solonker (Sulinheer) suture (Xiao et al., 2003, 2009b). The
ianovsky arc of Kazakhstan (Bea et al., 2002; Windley et al., 2007), timing of their collision is contentious, but may be late
but apparently did not resume in the Kyrgyzstan Tian Shan until the PermianeTriassic (Cope et al., 2005; Miao et al., 2007; Xiao et al.,
late Carboniferous (Biske and Seltmann, 2010; Seltmann et al., 2011). 2009b; Zhang et al., 2009b; Wilhem et al., 2012). However,
The late Carboniferous (w320 Ma) recommencement of subduction- following clear relics of Early Permian subduction, unequivocal ev-
related magmatism in Kyrgyzstan was short-lived, and broadly idence of basin closure has not been documented before w234 Ma,
synchronous with the termination of arc magmatism in Kazakhstan when granites crosscut the suture (Chen et al., 2009).
and the Chinese Central Tian Shan.
The Kyrgyzstan/Chinese South Tian Shan is an accretionary zone 3.5.2. Beishan
that delineates the suture between Kazakhstania to the north and Beishan, located between the Precambrian Dunhuang Block to
Tarim to the south (Fig. 3). Within it, remnants of the formerly the south and the peri-Siberian terranes of southern Mongolia to
intervening Turkestan Ocean have been recognized in ophiolitic the north, is a collage of volcanic arcs, accretionary complexes,
mélanges that yield material of late Ordovician to early Carbonif- ophiolitic belts and, controversially, microcontinent blocks (Fig. 4).
erous age, indicating that final basin closure post-dated the early We begin our discussion by cautioning that the origins of the mafic-
Carboniferous (Han et al., 2011). Tighter constraints on the age of ultramafic belts in Beishan are contentious and their ophiolitic
collision are provided by the timing of peak UHP metamorphism nature is not unequivocally demonstrated. Correlations between
(w319 Ma) and the earliest occurrence of stitching plutons the various belts are likewise debated and here we simply adopt
(w300 Ma) in the South Tian Shan, which together limit that event one prevailing interpretation. Of the numerous Paleozoic ocean
to the late Carboniferous (w319 to 300 Ma) (Table 1) (Han et al., basins inferred from the region, at least one, corresponding to the
2011). Correspondingly, regional subduction-related magmatism Hongliuhe-Xichangjing belt (Fig. 4), closed by the early Devonian
in the Kyrgyzstan Middle Tian Shan and Chinese Central Tian Shan according to the occurrence of cross-cutting and undeformed
ceased in the mid- to late Carboniferous (as discussed above), and granitoids of that age (Zhang et al., 2011b). The closure of that basin
was succeeded by a latest Carboniferous to mid-Permian episode of may correspond to the poorly characterized late Silurianeearly
widespread post-collisional magmatism which affected the entire Devonian ‘Beishan orogeny’, which has been attributed to either
Tian Shan as well as the northern margin of Tarim (Konopelko et al., an intraoceanic amalgamation of island arcs (Xiao et al., 2010) or to
2007; Gao et al., 2009; Ren et al., 2011; Seltmann et al., 2011; Ma collision along the margin of the Dunhuang block (Wilhem et al.,
et al., in press-a). Following continental collision, the Tian Shan 2012). The Xingxingxia-Xiaohuangshan belt further to the north
region was dominated by large-scale EeW transcurrent motion in has previously been thought to represent another ocean basin that
the Permian, resulting in trans-crustal shear zones that may have closed in the early to middle Paleozoic, but Zheng et al. (2013a)
controlled the emplacement of post-collisional plutons and accel- have reported early Carboniferous ages (w345e336) from basalts
erated regional post-orogenic exhumation (Laurent-Charvet et al., and gabbros of that unit. Carboniferous to Permian-age mafic-ul-
2003; Konopelko et al., 2007; Glorie et al., 2011b; Seltmann et al., tramafic rocks occur in the northernmost Hongshishan belt (Xiao
2011). et al., 2010; Song et al., 2013a) and the southernmost Liuyuan-
Yin’aoxia belt (Mao et al., 2011; Zhang et al., 2011b). Ill-defined
3.5. North China and Tarim episodes of Devonian and Carboniferous arc-related magmatism
reported from the variously-defined Mazongshan and Hanshan
3.5.1. Northern North China units (between the Hongliuhe-Xichangjing and Hongshishan belts;
Our understanding of the late Paleozoic history of the northern Fig. 4) have been related to subduction of one or more of those
margin of North China has been advancing rapidly, following the inferred ocean basins, but corresponding reconstructions vary
recognition that a belt of plutonic rocks exposed along the margin of considerably (e.g. Xiao et al., 2010; Wilhem et al., 2012; Zhang et al.,
the North China craton is Carboniferous to Permian in age, rather 2012a; Zheng et al., 2013a). Complex, multi-phase deformation
than Precambrian, as had been previously supposed (Zhang et al., chronicled the progressive consolidation of the Beishan orogenic
322 M. Domeier, T.H. Torsvik / Geoscience Frontiers 5 (2014) 303e350

collage, but final collision between the Dunhuang block and the northwest, probably from a then newly-emergent Tian Shan
southern Amuria is constrained in central Beishan to have occurred region (Carroll et al., 2001; Xiao et al., 2013). In the context of a
between w273 and 227 Ma (Tian et al., 2013). Post-orogenic plu- passive margin approaching a subduction zone, those features have
tonism appeared in Beishan in the middle and late Triassic (Li et al., been attributed to the development of a flexural forebulge followed
2012a). by foreland basin sedimentation (Carroll et al., 2001; Han et al.,
We proceed here with a simplistic interpretation that draws 2011). Thus, the conventional late Paleozoic model supposes that
reference from the neighboring regions. Following the interpretation the northern passive margin of Tarim was destroyed by its collision
of an early Paleozoic closure of the Hongliuhe-Xichangjing basin, we with Kazakhstania, driven by north-dipping subduction beneath the
assume that the Beishan orogeny was the result of a collision between South Tian Shan (Table 1). That is supported by the presence of a
the Dunhuang block and the Mazongshan-Hanshan unit by the Devonian to late Carboniferous magmatic arc in the Central Tian
earliest Devonian. The constituents of the Mazonghsan-Hanshan unit Shan to the north, which ceased at w320 Ma (Section 3.4.2).
have traditionally been considered microcontinents of Tarim or Correspondingly, eclogite-facies metamorphism occurred in the
Kazakhstania affinity, but that association is challenged by geochro- South Tian Shan suture zone from w345 to 320 Ma, and the younger
nological and geochemical data (Song et al., 2013a,b), and they may dates have been interpreted to represent the age of peak HP meta-
rather be an agglomeration of island arcs. To the north of the morphism (Gao et al., 2011; Han et al., 2011) Exhumation and
Mazongshan-Hanshan unit, the Hongshishan basin was existent prior retrograde metamorphism of those HP metamorphic rocks followed
to the Devonian and remained open until at least the late Permian. in the latest Carboniferouseearly Permian, and locally they were
Consumption of the Honshishan basin was achieved by south- intruded by early Permian dikes and unconformably overlain by
dipping subduction beneath the Mazongshan-Hanshan unit, giving Permian molasse (Gao et al., 2011; Glorie et al., 2011b; Han et al.,
rise to the widespread late Paleozoic magmatic arc rocks there. 2011). Early Permian plutonsdwhich are generally undeformed
Carboniferous mafic-ultramafic rocks in the Xingxingxia- and intrusive to late Paleozoic thrusts and ophiolitic mélanges of the
Xiaohuangshan belt may signify the opening and closing of a minor suture zonedinvaded a wide region in both the greater Tian Shan
backarc basin within the Mazonshan-Hanshan unit then. Similarly, and the northern margin of Tarim (Han et al., 2011). Together with an
Permian mafic-ultramafic rocks in the Liuyuan-Yin’aoxia belt and early- to mid-Carboniferous age for the youngest ophiolitic rocks in
Permian rift-related sedimentation in the northern Dunhuang block the South Tian Shan suture zone, that suggests that the passive
(Li et al., 2012a) and Mazongshan unit (Tian et al., 2013) may reflect margin of Tarim collided with the South Tian Shan in the late
the evolution of a successor backarc basin. To the east, the Carboniferouseearliest Permian (Gao et al., 2011; Han et al., 2011).
Xingxingxia-Xiaohuangshan and Liuyuan-Yin’aoxia belts may Alternative interpretations of the late Paleozoic history of
continue as the Devonian to Carboniferous Engger Us and late northern Tarim remain controversial. Arguments for south-dipping
Carboniferous to Permian Quaganchulu ophiolitic belts respectively subduction beneath northern Tarim have been made according to
(Feng et al., 2013; Zheng et al., 2013b). observations of structural vergence in the South Tian Shan (Charvet
Even assuming that the various mafic-ultramafic belts of et al., 2011; Wang et al., 2011) and inferred arc-related Devonian
Beishan are ophiolites, it is important to note that the true location plutonism in northern Tarim (Ge et al., 2012). However, the evi-
of the ‘principal’ Paleoasian Ocean basin between the Dunhuang dence for a late Paleozoic arc in northern Tarim is spatiotemporally
block and Amuria is not well-established, despite being critical for restricted, and the significance of the structural observations and
an accurate reconstruction of that region. We have adopted the their relationship to the regional subduction polarity are debated
Hongshishan belt as the marker of the former Paleoasian Ocean, but (Xiao et al., 2009b, 2013). The timing of collision between Tarim and
if, for example, the Liuyuan-Yin’aoxia belt represents the true Kazakhstania is also contested; for example, a late Permian to
boundary, the Mazongshan-Hanshan unit would have been on the Triassic event has been asserted, in part, on the basis of disputed
far side of the main ocean from the Dunhuang block. In such a case late Permian radiolaria and PermianeTriassic HP metamorphic
the Mazongshan-Hanshan unit could be correlative with the Bao- rocks in the South Tian Shan suture zone (Xiao et al., 2009a,b, 2013;
lidao arc of southern Amuria. As another alternative, Xiao et al. Gao et al., 2011; Han et al., 2011).
(2010) considered the Mazongshan-Hanshan unit to be an amal-
gamation of intraoceanic island arcs that bisected the Paleoasian 3.5.4. Southern Tarim and Qaidam (Kunlun orogen)
Ocean and thus remained independent of both the Dunhuang block The Kunlun belt, which fringes the southern margins of Tarim
and Amuria until the Permian. Still others would place the main and Qaidam (but is offset by the Altyn Tagh fault into the West and
ocean between the Mazongshan-Hanshan arcs (Zheng et al., East Kunlun; Fig. 4), is a composite orogen that was built along an
2013a,b). Obviously, additional work is urgently needed there to active margin in the early and late Paleozoic. Most tectonic models
improve our understanding of that complicated region, and our agree that there was an Ordovician to early Devonian collision be-
present interpretation must be considered provisional. tween Tarim and some Precambrian constituent of the Kunlun belt
(‘South Kunlun’), leaving them juxtaposed along the Oytag-Kudi
3.5.3. Northern Tarim ophiolitie-bearing suture zone (Mattern and Schneider, 2000; Xiao
In the northwest Tarim basin, thick Neoproterozoic to Permian et al., 2005; Jia et al., 2013). That is broadly consistent with the
sedimentary sequences of marine platform carbonates and terres- occurrence of Silurian to mid-Devonian deformation and meta-
trial siliciclastic rocks have conventionally been interpreted to morphism and subsequent post-orogenic magmatism in the Kunlun
reflect a long-lasting passive margin along the north Tarim craton belt, and with the deposition of late Devonian molasse above a
then (Table 1) (Carroll et al., 2001; Bradley, 2008). A major angular regional mid-Paleozoic unconformity (Mattern and Schneider,
unconformity divides the late Paleozoic sedimentary sequence, 2000; Cowgill et al., 2003; Xiao et al., 2005; Ye et al., 2008). In the
separating gently folded Silurian and Devonian strata from a Carboniferous to early Mesozoic, a southward-growing accretionary
deepening-upward Carboniferous sequence, which is in turn complex developed along the southern margin of the Kunlun belt,
sharply overlain by early Permian coarsening-upward nonmarine reflecting the operation of a north-dipping subduction system (Xiao
rocks and intercalated basaltic lavas (Carroll et al., 2001; Xiao et al., et al., 2005, 2002). The timing of corresponding late Paleozoic arc
2013). Notable changes in sedimentary provenance and transport magmatism in the Kunlun belt is very poorly resolved, but may have
accompanied the transition in depositional environment during the spanned the late Paleozoic to early Mesozoic (Schwab et al., 2004;
early Permian, reflecting an influx of volcanic-derived material from Xiao et al., 2005). Detrital zircon age-distributions suggest there
 M. Domeier, T.H. Torsvik / Geoscience Frontiers 5 (2014) 303e350 323

was a magmatic lull in the late Devonian to early Permian sequence were sourced from both the North and South Qinling (Wu
(w380e280 Ma) (Cowgill et al., 2003; Ding et al., 2013), although and Zheng, 2013), which, together with the cessation of regional
sparse plutonic and volcanic rocks of that age have been reported metamorphism and magmatism at w400 Ma and contempora-
along the margin from the northern Pamir to the eastern Kunlun neous transpressive wrenching of the units north of the suture
(Schwab et al., 2004; Xiao et al., 2005; Jiang et al., 2013). In the mid- (Ratschbacher et al., 2003; Liu et al., 2012b), could signify that the
Permian to early Mesozoic, arc magmatism was more clearly intervening ocean closed in the early Devonian (Dong et al., 2011a).
established along the Kunlun belt: in the Sailiyak arc of the West In contrast, the Liuling Group has also been interpreted as a com-
Kunlun and the north Kunlun batholith of the East Kunlun (Xiao posite unit, in which a northern forearc-accretionary complex that
et al., 2002, 2005; Schwab et al., 2004). Thus, following the mid- was deposited along the active margin of the North Qinling was
Paleozoic collision of the ‘South Kunlun’, the southern margin of juxtaposed with sediments derived from the South Qinling during
Tarim may have remained active above a north-dipping subduction closure of the basin that separated them (Ratschbacher et al., 2003;
zone throughout the late Paleozoic (Table 1). Yan et al., 2012). That interpretation, in conjunction with possibly
late Devonian plutonic rocks in the North Qinling (Yan et al., 2012;
3.5.5. Southern North China (Qilian and Qinling-Dabie orogen) Wang et al., 2013b) and late Carboniferous HP metamorphism in
Between the Alashan block (here considered coherent with the the Huwan shear zone (Peters et al., 2013; Wu and Zheng, 2013),
North China craton from the mid-Paleozoic) and the northern Qai- alternatively implies a post-Devonian collision.
dam block lies the Qilian orogen, which has been treated in various An understanding of the tectonic evolution of that margin is
ways, but is usually subdivided into a North Qilian arc-accretionary further complicated by the identification of a second ophiolitic belt
belt, a Central/South Qilian block and a North Qaidam UHP meta- in the Mianlue area, which has been proposed to represent a suture
morphic belt (Fig. 4) (Song et al., 2013c). Early Paleozoic subduction between the South Qinling and the South China craton (Dong et al.,
resulting in a Silurian collision along the North Qilian belt is evident 2011a). Because those two blocks exhibit strong early Paleozoic
by the occurrence of Cambrian to late Ordovician ophiolites, lithostratigraphic similarities, it is probable that any late Paleozoic
w500e440 Ma arc volcanic rocks, w454e446 Ma HP metamorphic ocean that appeared between them had originally opened by their
rocks, and Silurian flysch and post-orogenic Devonian molasse separation. A mid-Paleozoic rifting event could explain an episode
(Wang et al., 2005; Song et al., 2013c). To the south, collision along of rapid sedimentation and coincident mafic to ultramafic mag-
the North Qaidam belt may have been slightly younger, as UHP matism that occurred in the South Qinling in the Silurian to early
metamorphism associated with northward-directed continental Devonian, and would accord with the oldest rocks identified in the
subduction of the Qaidam block is dated to w430e420 Ma (Xiao Mianlue ophiolite, which are upper Devonian to Carboniferous
et al., 2009a; Song et al., 2013c). Thus, the Qilian orogen may have radiolarian cherts (Dong et al., 2011a; Wu and Zheng, 2013).
been fully assembled by the latest Silurian. Alternatively, due to The basin(s) between North and South China must have closed
continued granitoid magmatism through the Devonian in the Qilian by the time those two continental blocks collided in the Triassic. A
block and North Qilian belt, Xiao et al. (2009a) proposed that wealth of research on the HP/UHP metamorphic rocks of the Dabie
southward subduction beneath the Qilian block had endured until orogen (Fig. 4) has established that South China occupied the lower
the late Devonian, and ended with the collision of the Qilian and plate during that collision, indicating that the preceding destruc-
Alashan blocks. We note, however, that the tectonic environment of tion of the intervening basin (at least shortly before collision) was
those granitoids remains to be established; Song et al. (2013c) have accomplished by north-dipping subduction (Hacker et al., 2006).
speculatively treated them as syn- to post-orogenic. However, the time at which that subduction initiated is unclear. If
To the southeast, along the southern margin of the North China the Shangdan Ocean basin had remained open until the Triassic
craton, the composite Qinling-Dabie orogen may be broadly collision, subduction beneath the North Qinling unit may have been
correlative with both the Qilian and Kunlun orogens (Fig. 4). As in continuous from the early Devonian, punctuated by Carboniferous
the Kunlun, the Qinling orogen experienced subduction-accretion HP metamorphism (Ratschbacher et al., 2003; Liu et al., 2011). In
and collisional events throughout the Paleozoic and into the early that case the basin represented by the Mianlue belt could have been
Mesozoic. In the early Paleozoic, the Kuanping, Erlangping and minor. Alternatively, if the Shangdan Ocean closed in the early
North Qinling units of the Qinling orogen are thought to have Devonian, subduction would have ceased beneath the North Qin-
amalgamated together with the North China craton, resulting in ling unit and later initiated south of the South Qinling unit at some
several episodes of high-grade metamorphism and magmatism time prior to the Triassic collision, perhaps coincident with late
then (Ratschbacher et al., 2003; Dong et al., 2011a; Wu and Zheng, Carboniferous HP metamorphism in the Huwan shear zone (Dong
2013). Consolidation of those units may have continued into the et al., 2011a). Yet another possibilitydand the one that we tenta-
late Silurianeearly Devonian, according to the persistence of high- tively adoptdis that north-dipping subduction of the Shangdan
grade metamorphism and magmatism until w420e400 Ma. How- Ocean ended with a mid-to-late Carboniferous collision between
ever, the regional mid-Paleozoic subduction-related magmatic North China and the South Qinling unit, whereupon subduction
rocks may be composite in origin, since they have also been attrib- jumped to the southern (previously passive) margin of the latter
uted to north-dipping subduction of a southern ocean basin beneath (Table 1) (Wu and Zheng, 2013). Magmatism in the southern Qin-
the North Qinling unit (Ratschbacher et al., 2003; Dong et al., 2011a). ling orogen was virtually absent in the late Paleozoic, but
Ophiolitic remnants of that ocean basin in the Shangdan fault Ratschbacher et al. (2003) have suggested that a manifestation of
delineate a first-order boundary in the Qinling orogen, separating mid-Carboniferous to early Permian subduction-related magma-
the North and South Qinling units. Notably, early Paleozoic to early tism may be located further inboard, in a NE-trending belt of
Devonian magmatic arc rocks appear near-exclusively north of that andesitic volcanics in the eastern North China craton.
suture, thus supporting a north-dipping polarity of subduction
(Ratschbacher et al., 2003; Wang et al., 2013b). 3.6. South China and Japan
The closure timing of that ‘Shangdan’ Ocean remains a subject of
debate, largely hinging on differing interpretations of the middle 3.6.1. Northwestern South China (Longmen Shan and Qinling-Dabie
Devonianeearly Carboniferous Liuling Group clastic rocks which lie orogens)
along the boundary between the North and South Qinling units. In the late Neoproterozoic to Ordovician the basement of the
Provenance studies have indicated that the sediments of that western Sichuan Basin was host to the deposition of shallow-
324 M. Domeier, T.H. Torsvik / Geoscience Frontiers 5 (2014) 303e350

Figure 5. (A) 410 Ma (early Devonian) paleogeographic reconstruction showing simplified plate boundaries and labels of some major features. Abbreviated continental units: A,
Annamia; AC, Arctic Alaska-Chukotka; Am, Amuria; Ch, Chilenia; K, Kazakhstania; NC, North China; q, South Qinling; SC, South China; SP, South Patagonia; T, Tarim; VT, Variscan
terranes; oceanic domains: Mo, Mongol-Okhotsk Ocean; Tu, Turkestan Ocean. (B) Plate velocity field.

marine carbonate and siliciclastic rocks, reflecting the passivity of 3.6.2. Southern South China
the northwest margin of South China during that interval (Bradley, In southeastern South China the Devonian opened to the waning
2008). In contrast, Silurian and Devonian rocks are missing from stages of the late OrdovicianeSilurian Kwangsian (or Wuyi-Yunkai)
most of the western Sichuan Basin, but are preserved as a thick orogeny, which was associated with intra-continental closure of the
clastic sequence along its northwestern Longmen Shan margin failed Precambrian Nanhua rift between the Yangtze and Cathyasia
(Burchfiel et al., 1995; Jia et al., 2006). That westward-thickening blocks (Li et al., 2010; Wang et al., 2013a,c). That event caused
deposition, together with seismically-imaged mid-to-late Paleo- regional deformation and widespread magmatism between w460
zoic extensional grabens in the western Sichuan Basin, argues for a and 420 Ma and left a broad SilurianeDevonian unconformity. In the
SilurianeDevonian episode of rifting along the Longmen Shan Devonian, southeastern South China was affected by an episode of
margin (Jia et al., 2006). That timing is broadly coincident with the regional transtension, which first manifested in the early Devonian
onset of rapid sedimentation and concurrent mafic to ultramafic with the appearance of major NEeSW trending strike-slip faults and
magmatism in the South Qinling (Wu and Zheng, 2013), and may intervening NWeSE oriented extensional basins that locally hosted
reflect a continuous rifting event along the entire northwestern submarine volcanism (Xun et al., 1996; Chen et al., 2001). That
margin of South China then. A passive margin was reestablished in episode probably denoted the rifting of South China from northeast
the Carboniferous to Permian and remained until South China Gondwanadfrequently conjectured to have been conjugate mar-
collided with North China in the Triassic. gins in the mid-Paleozoicdwhere an analogous Devonian episode of
 M. Domeier, T.H. Torsvik / Geoscience Frontiers 5 (2014) 303e350 325

Figure 6. (A) 390 Ma (middle Devonian) paleogeographic reconstruction showing simplified plate boundaries and labels of some major features. Abbreviated continental units: A,
Annamia; Am, Amuria; Ch, Chilenia; K, Kazakhstania; Mg, Magnitogorsk arc; NC, North China; q, South Qinling; SC, South China; SP, South Patagonia; T, Tarim; VT, Variscan terranes;
oceanic domains: Mo, Mongol-Okhotsk Ocean; Tu, Turkestan Ocean. (B) Plate velocity field.

transtension-extension has been recognized (Shen et al., 2008). lower Paleozoic flysch-type sediments (Cai and Zhang, 2009; Jian
Subsequent to Devonian extension, shallow to deep marine sedi- et al., 2009a). That sequence has been interpreted to reflect a
mentation persisted in southeastern South China until the Permian Devonian rifted margin, but its conjugate margin was inferred to lie
(Table 1) (Wang et al., 2013c). Middle to late Permian arc-related along Simao, where a similar middle Devonian basal conglomerate
magmatism in Hainan Island (Li et al., 2006) and Mindoro Island overlies early Paleozoic sediments (Table 1).
(Knittel et al., 2010) (Fig. 4), and the discovery of late Paleozoic
detrital zircons in Permian sedimentary rocks from Cathyasia (Hu 3.6.3. Japan
et al., 2012; Li et al., 2012b), may indicate that the margin of south- The Japanese islands are now recognized as a complex of sub-
eastern South China was active in the Permian. However, Cai and horizontal nappes stacked with a general downward/oceanward-
Zhang (2009) have interpreted the Hainan Island igneous rocks as younging polarity that reflects a long history of convergence and
products of subduction directed beneath Annamia (see Section growth along an active margin. In southwest Japan, specific in-
3.7.1), and Wang et al. (2013c) cautioned that the detrital zircons tervals of active convergence/orogenesis in the mid-to-late Paleo-
alone do not provide unambiguous evidence of a magmatic arc. zoic have been recognized in the accretionary complexes and HP
In southwestern South China a late Devonian to Permian passive metamorphic belts of the SilurianeDevonian Oeyama and Kur-
margin sequence with intercalated mafic volcanics occurs above a osegawa belts, the CarboniferousePermian Nedamo and Renge
middle Devonian basal conglomerate lying unconformably on belts and the PermianeTriassic Akiyoshi, Maizuru, Suo, and Ultra-
326 M. Domeier, T.H. Torsvik / Geoscience Frontiers 5 (2014) 303e350
 M. Domeier, T.H. Torsvik / Geoscience Frontiers 5 (2014) 303e350 327

Figure 8. (A) 370 Ma (late Devonian) paleogeographic reconstruction showing simplified plate boundaries and labels of some major features. Abbreviated continental units: A,
Annamia; Am, Amuria; K, Kazakhstania; NC, North China; q, South Qinling; SC, South China; SP, South Patagonia; T, Tarim; VT, Variscan terranes; oceanic domains: Mo, Mongol-
Okhotsk Ocean; Rh, Rheic Ocean; Tu, Turkestan Ocean. (B) Plate velocity field.

Tamba belts (Oh, 2006; Isozaki et al., 2010; Wakita, 2013). Atten- uncertain and has been assigned both to eastern North China and
dant magmatic activity was recorded in the Hida belt to the eastern South China; however, we believe the physiographical,
northwest, where SilurianeDevonian, mid-to-late Carboniferous, paleontological and geochemical arguments make a stronger case
and mid-to-late Permian igneous rocks have been inferred to for its proximity to South China (Isozaki et al., 2010; Jahn, 2010).
represent products of a continental margin arc (Fig. 4) (Oh, 2006;
Wakita, 2013). Tectonic erosion along the long-active margin of 3.7. Annamia (Indochina þ Simao)
Japan was likely substantial and the true extent of Paleozoic
accretionary/collisional orogenesis and arc-related magmatism 3.7.1. Northeast margin
may be greatly underrepresented by the documented remnants Although debated, the Song Ma and Ailaoshan sutures have
(Isozaki et al., 2010; Charvet, 2013). Thus, the margin may have usually been accepted as the principal tectonic boundary sepa-
been continuously active from the early Paleozoic, with the afore- rating Annamia from South China to the north (Fig. 4). Within the
mentioned units representing peak episodes of orogenesis and/or Song Ma suture zone, greenschist- to lower amphibolite-facies re-
exceptional preservation (Table 1). The Paleozoic affinity of Japan is sidual mantle peridotites and mafic rocks with MORB-type

Figure 7. (A) 390 Ma (middle Devonian) paleogeographic reconstruction as in Fig. 6, but shown in an orthogonal projection centered on the South Pole. Abbreviations as in Fig. 6.
(B) Plate velocity field.
328 M. Domeier, T.H. Torsvik / Geoscience Frontiers 5 (2014) 303e350

Figure 9. (A) 350 Ma (early Carboniferous) paleogeographic reconstruction showing simplified plate boundaries and labels of some major features. Abbreviated continental units: A,
Annamia; Am, Amuria; K, Kazakhstania; Mx, Mixteca-Oaxacan; NC, North China; q, South Qinling; SC, South China; SP, South Patagonia; T, Tarim; Tg, Tagil arc; VT, Variscan terranes;
oceanic domains: Mo, Mongol-Okhotsk Ocean; SA, Slide Mountain-Angayucham Ocean; Tu, Turkestan Ocean. (B) Plate velocity field.

geochemical affinities have been recognized as an ophiolitic suite of right-lateral translation (Lepvrier et al., 2008; Van Vuong et al.,
(Zhang et al., 2013a). The mafic rocks from that suite have yielded 2012). However, the polarity of preceding subduction along that
middle Devonian to late Carboniferous ages (387e313 Ma)d boundary is more equivocal and both northeast-dipping (beneath
inferred to date the timing of crystallizationdand late Permian to South China) and southwest-dipping (beneath Annamia) models
early/middle Triassic metamorphic ages (265e240 Ma) (Van Vuong have been proposed. To the southwest of the Song Ma suture, the
et al., 2012). Jian et al. (2009a, b) reported middleelate Devonian NWeSE trending, Truong Son granitoids and Song Ca volcanics
ages (w387e374 Ma) from the Ailaoshan ophiolite. Northeast of have been recognized as a Permian to Triassic magmatic arc lying
the Song Ma ophiolite suite, in the Nam Co antiform (Fig. 4), HP along the northern margin of the Truong Son metamorphic belt (Liu
metamorphic rocks yielded middle Triassic ages which are thought et al., 2012a). The early Permian to middle Triassic magmatic rocks
to reflect the timing of peak metamorphism (Nakano et al., 2010; (w280e245 Ma) have a subduction-related geochemical affinity,
Zhang et al., 2013a). Together, those observations suggest that whereas the geochemistry of the middle to late Triassic rocks has
Annamia and South China collided along the Song Ma-Ailaoshan been inferred to reflect post-collisional extension (Liu et al., 2012a).
suture in the late Permianeearly Triassic. From the structure and Equivalently, middle Permian subduction-related volcanism has
kinematic indicators of metamorphic rocks along that suture and in been recognized to the southwest of the Ailaoshan ophiolite in the
shear zones in the Truong Son metamorphic belt to the south, it has Yaxianqiao arc (Jian et al., 2009a, b). Permian to Triassic volcanism
been inferred that collision was oblique, with a strong component has also been recognized in the Song Da belt to the northeast of the
 M. Domeier, T.H. Torsvik / Geoscience Frontiers 5 (2014) 303e350 329

Figure 10. (A) 330 Ma (mid-Carboniferous) paleogeographic reconstruction showing simplified plate boundaries and labels of some major features. Abbreviated continental units: A,
Annamia; Am, Amuria; K, Kazakhstania; NC, North China; q, South Qinling; SC, South China; SP, South Patagonia; T, Tarim; oceanic domains: Mo, Mongol-Okhotsk Ocean; SA, Slide
Mountain-Angayucham Ocean; Pa, Paleoasian Ocean. (B) Plate velocity field.

Song Ma suture, where a PermianeTriassic volcano-sedimentary late Devonian to early Permian deep-water siliceous rocks with
sequence exhibits mafic to ultramafic early Permian to early radiolarians of Paleotethyan affinity. Late Permian continental arc
Triassic volcanics and middle to late Triassic felsic volcanics (Liu granitoids are also documented in Hainan Island south of the Dian-
et al., 2012a). There, early Permian to early Triassic volcanism was Qiong suture (Li et al., 2006). In the Nanpanjiang basin to the north
associated with rifting rather than subduction, but that rifting has of the Dian-Qiong suture, middle Devonian to Permian carbonate
been ascribed to back-arc extension due to north-directed sub- platform to deep marine sedimentary rocks have been attributed to
duction (Lepvrier et al., 2008). Cai and Zhang (2009) proposed that the establishment of a passive margin on the southern margin of
the Dian-Qiong suture to the north of the Song Da belt is a struc- South China, which was interrupted by the deposition of late
tural duplication of the Song Ma-Ailaoshan suture that developed Permian terrestrial molasse and S-type granites (Cai and Zhang,
by sinistral strike-slip in Cenozoic time (Fig. 4), which would allow 2009).
southwest-dipping subduction to account for both the Truong Son
arc magmatism and marginal rifting along the Song Da belt. Along 3.7.2. West margin
the Dian-Qiong suture Cai and Zhang (2009) reported Carbonif- The western boundary of Annamia is juxtaposed with Sibu-
erous (and presumed Devonian to early Permian) ophiolitic mate- masu along the Changning-Menglian (and correlative Inthanon)
rial with MORB-type and OIB-type geochemical affinities, late suture zone (Fig. 4). The suture zone contains ophiolitic mélange,
Permian (w261 Ma) mafic and minor felsic island arc volcanics, and Devonian to late Permian mafic volcanics and associated shallow
330 M. Domeier, T.H. Torsvik / Geoscience Frontiers 5 (2014) 303e350

Figure 11. (A) 310 Ma (late Carboniferous) paleogeographic reconstruction showing simplified plate boundaries and labels of some major features. Abbreviated continental units: A,
Annamia; Am, Amuria; K, Kazakhstania; Mx, Mixteca-Oaxacan; NC, North China; SC, South China; SP, South Patagonia; T, Tarim; oceanic domains: Mo, Mongol-Okhotsk Ocean; SA,
Slide Mountain-Angayucham Ocean; Pa, Paleoasian Ocean. (B) Plate velocity field.

marine carbonates, and radiolarian-bearing deep marine sedi- Nanzuo arc may be a continuation of the Sukhothai arc (Jian
mentary rocks of middle Devonian to middle Triassic age. et al., 2009a, b).
Ophiolitic rocks are also found in the parallel Nan-Sra Kaeo su-
ture zone to the east, but are thought to represent a marginal
back-arc basin restricted to the latest Carboniferouselate 4. Plate model
Permian (Sone and Metcalfe, 2008; Ridd et al., 2011). Between
those parallel suture zones, in the Sukhothai terrane, Per- In the following we present and discuss our plate model,
mianeTriassic paired metamorphic belts and magmatic arc rocks drawing both from our compiled geological observations and from
have been interpreted to reflect the operation of an east-dipping the paleogeographic data used to construct the continental rotation
subduction system beneath it (Table 1). The oldest dated model. Because it is helpful to use both reference systems in our
magmatic arc rocks are late early Permian (w280 Ma), but if east- presentation, we use italics for model-based directions to distin-
dipping subduction gave rise to the Nan-Sra Kaeo back-arc basin, guish them from present-day directions (in normal font). The plate
subduction possibly started earlier, in the latest Carboniferous reconstructions (Figs. 5e14) are here shown in 20-Myr intervals
(Sone and Metcalfe, 2008; Ridd et al., 2011). North of the 25th and in a paleomagnetic reference frame (not corrected for true
parallel, the 311e277 Ma Gicha complex may be correlative with polar wander). The complete digital plate model accompanying this
the Nan-Sra Kaeo back-arc basin, whereas the Permian Tuoba- paper is described in Appendix 1.
 M. Domeier, T.H. Torsvik / Geoscience Frontiers 5 (2014) 303e350 331

Figure 12. (A) 290 Ma (early Permian) paleogeographic reconstruction showing simplified plate boundaries and labels of some major features. Abbreviated continental units: A,
Annamia; Am, Amuria; NC, North China; SC, South China; T, Tarim; oceanic domains: Mo, Mongol-Okhotsk Ocean; SA, Slide Mountain-Angayucham Ocean; Pa, Paleoasian Ocean. (B)
Plate velocity field.

4.1. Devonian paleomagnetic data from Gondwana are particularly sparse for the
Silurian to middle Devonian). During the early Devonian, Laurussia
4.1.1. Closing of Rheic Ocean drifted slowly south and rotated slightly counter-clockwise, closing
At the dawn of the Devonian, continental crust was largely the Rheic Ocean as it approached west Gondwana, which was
collected into four landmasses: Gondwana, Laurussia, Siberia and pivoting about the South Pole. The polarity of Rheic Ocean sub-
North China-Tarim (Fig. 5). Laurussia had formed through the duction is an open question, especially since magmatic arc rocks are
amalgamation of Baltica, Avalonia and Laurentia via terminal largely missing. HP metamorphic rocks in the Frontal Cordillera of
closure of the intervening Tornquist and Iapetus Oceans in the late Argentina argue for south-dipping subduction of the southwestern
Ordovician and Silurian. Paleomagnetic data reveal that Laurussia Rheic (Álvarez et al., 2011), but in the northeast, deformation and
was located in low southerly latitudes in the earliest Devonian and magmatism in the northern Appalachians and structural observa-
kimberlite occurrences in western Laurentia and northern Baltica tions in southern Avalonia have been interpreted to reflect north-
allow its reconstruction over the eastern arm of the Pacific LLSVP. dipping subduction of the Rheic (Woodcock et al., 2007). Pe-Piper
To the southeast, across the Rheic Ocean, which had opened be- et al. (2010) reconciled those observations by invoking a large
tween Avalonia and Gondwana in the latest Cambrianeearliest intra-Rheic transform (approximately at the Gulf of Maine) across
Ordovician, western Gondwana laid at high southerly latitudes which subduction polarity inverted. Such a transform could have
with the South Pole in south-central South America (Fig. 5) (but been a primary feature installed by the drift of Avalonia (in which
332 M. Domeier, T.H. Torsvik / Geoscience Frontiers 5 (2014) 303e350

Figure 13. (A) 270 Ma (middle Permian) paleogeographic reconstruction showing simplified plate boundaries and labels of some major features. Abbreviated continental units: A,
Annamia; Am, Amuria; NC, North China; SC, South China; T, Tarim; oceanic domains: Neo, Neotethys Ocean; Mo, Mongol-Okhotsk Ocean; SA, Slide Mountain-Angayucham Ocean;
Pa, Paleoasian Ocean. (B) Plate velocity field.

case the southwestern “Rheic” would rather be remnant Iapetus) collision, if not the preceding subduction that gave rise to it
and merits further study. But here we have adopted a simpler ki- (Woodcock et al., 2007; Arenas et al., in press). Importantly, the
nematic scenario in which subduction was bivergent and active relative orientation of Laurussia and Gondwana at that time was
along the entirety of both margins (Fig. 5). According to our kine- very different than that of their final configuration in Pangea,
matic scenario, the southwestern Rheic closed at w390 Ma, coin- precluding the possibility that accretion of the Suwannee terrane
cident with the accretion of the Chilenia terrane to west Gondwana was responsible for Neo-Acadian deformation in the southern Ap-
(Figs. 6 and 7) (Willner et al., 2011; Martínez et al., 2012). Sugges- palachians (Figs. 6 and 7), as suggested by Hibbard et al. (2010).
tions that Chilenia has a Laurentian affinity are thus in strong Sparse middleelate Devonian paleomagnetic data (one paleo-
accordance with our model (Keppie and Ramos, 1999; Álvarez et al., magnetic pole at 370 Ma) and kimberlite occurrences from Laur-
2011). The accretion of the (Gondwana-derived) Meguma terrane ussia suggest that it drifted northeast during that interval, returning
to Laurentia was likewise concomitant with southwestern Rheic to 0e30 S by w360 Ma (Fig. 8). Comparatively more numerous
closure in that scenario (van Staal et al., 2009), and thus “Neo- paleomagnetic data from Gondwana reveal that it remained rela-
Acadian” deformation could be ascribed to an initial, soft collision tively stationary about the South Pole during that time (the pole
with peri-Gondwana. Further afield, the 400e390 Ma “Acadian” remained near Angola from 390 to 360 Ma; Fig. 7), while late
deformation of the southern British Isles and HP metamorphism of Devonian kimberlites in Australia enable its reconstruction in
the upper allochthons of NW Iberia could also be related to that soft longitude above the western margin of the Pacific LLSVP. In our
 M. Domeier, T.H. Torsvik / Geoscience Frontiers 5 (2014) 303e350 333

Figure 14. (A) 250 Ma (Permo-Triassic) paleogeographic reconstruction showing simplified plate boundaries and labels of some major features. Abbreviated continental units: A,
Annamia; Am, Amuria; NC, North China; SC, South China; T, Tarim; oceanic domains: An, Angayucham Ocean; Mo, Mongol-Okhotsk Ocean. (B) Plate velocity field.

model, relative motion between Laurussia and Gondwana in the in the early Devonian, with initial spreading of the ocean occurring
middleelate Devonian was slightly divergent to transcurrent, at 410 Ma in our model (Fig. 5). Stampfli et al. (2013) alternatively
requiring an ephemeral spreading center along the former Rheic delayed the opening of the Paleotethys until the middleelate
suture that rapidly evolved into a transform boundary (Fig. 8). That Devonian, although other models placed the event in the Ordovi-
time frame corresponds with an interval of intra-plate extension cian to Silurian (Stampfli and Borel, 2002). According to the relative
and possibly the installation of a passive margin along the proto- longitudinal positioning of Laurussia and Gondwana in our model,
Andean margin (Bahlburg et al., 2009; Grosse et al., 2009; a middleelate Devonian opening of the Paleotethys would neces-
Martina et al., 2011). Similarly, the southern margin of the north- sitate that the Variscan terranes moved at an unreasonably high
ern block of Patagonia may have experienced a w50 Myr magmatic plate speed in order to have reached southern Baltica by the early
hiatus beginning then, reflecting an interruption of subduction. Carboniferous. As an aside, such a condition highlights a potential
Contemporaneously, along the Appalachian margin, Neo-Acadian opportunity by which to evaluate our reconstructed paleo-
deformation was supplanted by a protracted regime of dextral longitudes, but requires further detailed work on the evolution of
strike-slip motion that continued through the early Carboniferous. the Paleotethys.
Contemporaneous with the Paleotethys opening, southeast-
4.1.2. Opening of Paleotethys Ocean dipping intraoceanic subduction of the Rheic may have initiated to
Rifting of the Variscan terranes and the corollary opening of the the northwest of the Variscan terranes (Fig. 5), as evident by the
Paleotethys Ocean along the northern margin of Gondwana began rocks preserved in the MGCH and, speculatively, offshore in the
334 M. Domeier, T.H. Torsvik / Geoscience Frontiers 5 (2014) 303e350

Léon domain of North Armorica (Franke, 2006; Faure et al., 2010). platforms, which may have eventually grown through accretion of
Further relics of that intraoceanic subduction zone may be pre- the outboard Paleotethys intraoceanic arc.
served in Devonian supra-subduction ophiolites of the Galicia-Trás- Paleomagnetic, paleobiologic and sedimentologic data suggest
os-Montes zone of NW Iberia (Arenas et al., 2007) and/or in that South China was adjacent to northeast Gondwana in the mid-
Devonian arc-related detritus in SW Iberia (Pereira et al., 2012). Paleozoic (Shen et al., 2008; Cocks and Torsvik, 2013). However,
Notably, the structure of the allochthonous thrust stack of the early Devonian regional strike-slip faults and extensional basins in
Galicia-Trás-os-Montes zone is antithetic to that expected from a South China are understood to denote the initiation of its rifting
southeast-dipping subduction zone, and may instead reinforce the from Gondwana. Along the southwestern margin of South China
notion of bivergent subduction of the Rheic. To the southwest of the and the northeastern margin of Annamiadwhich were likely then
Variscan terranes, along the northwest margin of Gondwana, early conjugatedan early Devonian unconformity and middle Devonian
Devonian granitoids in the Maya block may reflect the continuation to Permian ophiolitic and passive margin rocks have been inter-
of that southeast-dipping subduction zone, if not early Devonian preted to signify a near-contemporaneous separation of Annamia
extension (Fig. 5) (Weber et al., 2012). and South China (Jian et al., 2009a, b). In western Annamia, similar
Devonian paleomagnetic data from Armorica, Bohemia, Iberia late Paleozoic rocks reflect the respective early Devonian separa-
and Saxothuringia are few, but indicate that the Variscan terranes tion of that continent from Gondwana. Thus, we implemented a rift
remained at relatively constant latitude throughout the period (Tait system that separated South China þ Annamia and northeast
et al., 1996, 2000; Tait, 1999; Zwing and Bachtadse, 2000). Thus, in Gondwana in the early Devonian (Fig. 5); by the middle Devonian
order to realize Devonian convergence and early Carboniferous the system progressed to include the separation of South China and
collision with southern Baltica, the Variscan terranes must have Annamia (Fig. 8). Given the broad spatio-temporal concurrence of
drifted almost due westward. To accomplish that we have modeled those events with the development of the Paleotethys, it is
the Paleotethys opening via a triple-junction of spreading ridges, tempting to directly link those rift systems. However, the paleo-
with a NNWeSSE-oriented ridge-axis meeting the margin of magnetic (though sparse) and geologic data from South China are
northern Gondwana just to the east of the Variscan terranes (Fig. 5) enough to demonstrate that it cannot have moved passively with
(technically here “Paleotethys” then refers to a composite ocean). the (northeastern) Paleotethys as modeled, and we have instead
Spreading along the NNWeSSE ridge continued until the mid-late decoupled them with an intraoceanic transform boundary. During
Devonian (w370 Ma) when nascent interactions began between the Devonian we also included the South Qinling terrane as a
the Variscan terranes and southern Baltica (Fig. 8); at that time the passive element of the greater South China plate, the former having
ridge inverted to become a west-dipping intraoceanic subduction been previously rifted from the northwest margin of South China in
zone (Fig. 9). Importantly, our modeling of the Variscan terranes is the Silurian.
distinct from the ‘Hun superterrane’ concept of Stampfli (2000) and
Stampfli and Borel (2002) in that we do not include continental 4.1.3. The northern hemisphere
elements from the so-called Asiatic Hunic terranes (including Throughout the Devonian, Siberia and North China-Tarim
Tarim, Qiangtang and North China). In our model those ‘Asiatic’ remained isolated at low latitudes in the northern hemisphere.
units are either already in the northern hemisphere (i.e. Tarim- The paleolatitude of Siberia is almost entirely interpolated for the
North China) or are separated from the departing Variscan ter- Devonian as there are no reliable data from the mid-Silurian
ranes by the NNWeSSE-oriented Paleotethys ridge and instead rift (w430 Ma) to the latest Devonian (360 Ma) (Cocks and Torsvik,
from Gondwana later during opening of the Neotethys. Another 2007). Nonetheless, those data indicate that Siberia was ‘upside
Paleotethys opening scheme by Stampfli et al. (2013) is more down’ (azimuthally inverted) at the beginning of the Devonian and
similar to our own, but the starting distribution of the Variscan centered at about 15 N (Fig. 5). As the Devonian progressed, Siberia
terranes (termed ‘Galatian superterrane’ by them) is considerably rotated clockwise and drifted north to become centered at w30 N
different. by 360 Ma (Figs. 6 and 8). Early Devonian kimberlites in east Siberia
The notorious complexities of the late Devonianeearly and the w400 Ma Altai-Sayan LIP in its southwest support the
Carboniferous Variscan orogeny are beyond the scope of our global reconstruction of that continent above the northwest arm of the
model and we have thus adopted a representation which is African LLSVP. Abundant late Devonian kimberlites and the
simplistic. Preceding the first direct interaction between the w360 Ma Yakutsk LIP in east Siberia indicate that the continent
Variscan terranes and southern Baltica in the late Devonian, remained over the LLSVP throughout the Devonian, perhaps drift-
northwest-dipping subduction beneath Baltica and southeast-dip- ing only slightly east.
ping subduction beneath the intraoceanic MGCH arc ceased with Given that positioning, the Uralian margin of Baltica progres-
the closure of the main Rheic Ocean. Contemporaneously, sub- sively approached the northern margin of Siberia (south-facing in
duction initiated along the northwest margin of Bohemia, where the early Devonian) through the Devonian. That is interesting
southeast-dipping subduction of the remnant Rheic (or some minor because the Uralian margin of Baltica records the accretion of the
basin internal to the Variscan terranes) continued into the early Magnitogorsk island arc in the middleelate Devonian (and later the
Carboniferous (Fig. 8). Following the closure of the main Rheic, Tagil island arc in the early Carboniferous) (Brown et al., 2011),
relative motion between Baltica and the Variscan terranes was whereas the northern margin of Siberia was passive during the
increasingly accommodated by a major transpressive zone between Devonian, according to observations from central and southern
them (Fig. 9). The occurrence and importance of such early trans- Taimyr (Bradley, 2008). To satisfy those different observations we
form motion has been established by Martínez Catalán et al. (2007), hypothesize that the Devonian Magnitogorsk island arc was situ-
Woodcock et al. (2007) and Braid et al. (2011), among others. In ated above a north-dipping intraoceanic subduction zone to the
conjunction with the effective closure of the Rheic Ocean between south of northern Siberia (Fig. 5). The island arc would have initi-
the Variscan terranes and Baltica and the inversion of the Paleo- ated on oceanic crust on the outboard passive margin of northern
tethys NNWeSSE-oriented ridge, the Paleotethys also began to Siberia, but, as Siberia rotated clockwise in the early Devonian, a
subduct westward beneath the margin of the Variscan terranes in back-arc basin opened behind the island arc and it became an in-
the mid-late Devonian (Fig. 9) (Stampfli et al., 2002; von Raumer dependent plate (Fig. 6). By the late middle Devonian, north-dipping
et al., 2013). That DevonianeCarboniferous westward-dipping sub- subduction had destroyed the basin separating Baltica and the
duction zone continued to the north along the Scythian and Turan Magnitogorsk arc and the latter was accreted in the early late
 M. Domeier, T.H. Torsvik / Geoscience Frontiers 5 (2014) 303e350 335

Devonian (Fig. 8). We further posit that the Tagil island arcdwhich 4.1.4. Marginal seas and the Panthalassa
was also active in the Devoniandwas the eastward continuation of The Panthalassa, like the present-day Pacific, was a vast ocean.
the Magnitogorsk arc, and so also sat above a north-dipping intra- But despite covering a hemisphere throughout the late Paleozoic,
oceanic subduction zone outboard (to the south) of northern little is known about that composite basin due to the complete
Siberia. To the northeast, that intraoceanic subduction zone would destruction of its constituent plates. Moreover, a near-continuous
have continued into the Altai-Sayan active margin of southwest subduction zone encircled the Panthalassa along its boundary
peri-Siberia (Fig. 5). The Altai-Sayan margin remained active with the continents, thereby limiting the inferences that can be
through the Devonian, first subducting oceanic crust of the Rheic drawn about its late Paleozoic kinematics. We have adopted the
Ocean and then, during the late Devonian, crust of the Paleotethys simplest scenario that allows us to meet that condition of near-
Ocean. Further to the north the Turkestan Ocean was also sub- constant convergence all along the boundary of the domain: a
ducting beneath the southwest margin of Siberia until the end of stable triple-junction of spreading ridges, but it is important to note
the Devonian. that this model of the Panthalassa is grossly naïve. As it is first
The southeastern margin of Siberia (northwest-facing in the necessary to correctly reconstruct the continental domaindfrom
early Devonian) was passive through nearly the entire Devonian, which we have a wealth of observational datadwe have not yet
facing the slowly-spreading MOO which had opened in the Silurian attempted a realistic construction of the Panthalassa, but we
(Figs. 5e7) (Bussien et al., 2011). In the latest Devonian (360 Ma) the discuss potential avenues for such future work in Section 5.2.
passive margin collapsed and south-dipping subduction The western margin of Laurentia exhibits no indicators of an
commenced beneath Siberia (Fig. 9). The margin of east Siberia was active margin prior to the middleelate Devonian. Accordingly, our
likewise passive throughout the Devonian, save for a middleelate Panthalassa model begins with one ridge of the three-plate system
Devonian episode of extension that was probably due to the aligned near-orthogonally to the western margin of Laurentia, with
impingement of a plume (Cocks and Torsvik, 2007). strike-slip motion occurring along the Laurentia-Panthalassa
Paleomagnetic data from Kazakhstania reveal that the boundary (Figs. 5 and 6). Strike-slip motion predominated along
present-day orocline was rectilinear in the earlyemiddle Devo- that margin until the middle Devonian, when we initiated relative
nian, oriented NWeSE and located at mid-low northern latitudes convergence to coincide with the first appearance of arc-related
above a southwest-dipping subduction zone (Figs. 5 and 6) magmatism there (Fig. 8) (Colpron and Nelson, 2009). In the late
(Abrajevitch et al., 2007; Bazhenov et al., 2012). Given its early Devonian we adjusted the relative motion to become more
interaction with the Altai-Sayan region of Siberia and their obliquely convergent, in anticipation of the latest Devon-
similar paleolatitude, it is likely that Kazakhstania was already ianeCarboniferous opening of the Slide Mountain and Angayu-
proximal to southwestern Siberia in the early Devonian and we cham Oceans (Fig. 9).
speculate that their active margins were contiguous. Incessant The Innuitian margin of Laurentia is more challenging to un-
Devonian arc magmatism in Kazakhstania indicates that south- derstand. Bearing in mind the Baltic affinities of the Pearya and
west-dipping subduction endured throughout that period, as it Arctic Alaska-Chukotka terranes and their late Silurianeearly
did in the neighboring Altai-Sayan region (Windley et al., 2007; Devonian arrival by sinistral transpression, we consider their ac-
Glorie et al., 2011a; Wilhem et al., 2012). Along the ‘external’ cretion to have been a continuation of Caledonide orogenesis. The
margin of Kazakhstania (opposite the one just discussed), oblique persistence of their motion after peak-Caledonide orogenesis could
subduction of the Rheic Ocean had occurred in the early Devo- be attributed to the lack of an immediate ‘backstop’; or in other
nian but ceased in the middle Devonian with the passage of an words, their accretion could have been delayed because of the
intraoceanic subduction zone that heralded the expansion of the irregular shape of the converging margins. Accordingly, we treated
Paleotethys (Figs. 5e7). In the middle to late Devonian the those terranes as a small, unified plate that detached from Baltica
margin remained passive behind an outboard transform bound- when the latter collided with Laurentia, only to continue slowly
ary. That scenario is compatible with the observation that late drifting for w20 Myr until colliding with Laurentia itself (Figs. 5 and
Silurianeearly Devonian arc-related magmatism along that 6). The late Devonianeearly Carboniferous Ellesmerian orogeny is
margin waned by the middle to late Devonian (Windley et al., yet more mystifying, and here we can only speculate that it was an
2007; Biske and Seltmann, 2010). expression of convergence between northern Laurussia and its
Devonian paleomagnetic data from North China (Cocks and conjugate plates (Siberia and Panthalassa).
Torsvik, 2013) and Tarim (Li et al., 1990) are sparse, but indicate To the north of southern Siberia, the MOO slowly widened
that those blocks occupied the same mid-low latitudes in the throughout the Devonian as Amuria drifted away from Siberia.
northern hemisphere. In considering also the geological data that Kravchinsky et al. (2002) and Zhao et al. (2013) have published the
suggest that the Qilian orogen was assembled by the latest Silu- only paleomagnetic studies of Devonian rocks from Amuria, but
rian and that the composite Qinling-Dabie orogen is correlative their results are unfortunately ambiguous. Although Kravchinsky
with the Qilian and Kunlun orogens, we contend that Tarim and et al. (2002) interpreted their four paleomagnetic poles (from
North China were drifting as one tectonic unit by the early Devonian rocks) as primary, we note that the associated foldtests
Devonian (although not in their present-day relative positioning) for three of them were statistically inconclusive and the fourth
(Fig. 4). Throughout the Devonian the passive northern margin of peaked at 78% unfolding. The Devonian formations studied by Zhao
Tarim faced the Turkestan Ocean, which was subducting westward et al. (2013) likewise yielded negative to inconclusive foldtests.
beneath Kazakhstania and Siberia (Figs. 5e7). Along the shared Since the age of folding is very poorly constrained (Permian to
Kunlun-Qinling-Dabie margin of North China-Tarim, north-dip- Cenozoic), and the paleomagnetic poles are very similar to Permian
ping subduction of the Paleotethys was continuous through the results from the same areas, we regard those Devonian data as
Devonian, following a brief interval of minor transform motion in untrustworthy. Thus, the location of Amuria in the Devonian is not
the earliest Devonian. Simultaneous southward-directed subduc- directly constrained, but following the assumption that western-
tion of the Panthalassa occurred to the north beneath northern most Amuria was loosely contiguous with the Altai-Sayan region of
North China and Beishan until 370 Ma, when the neighboring Siberia, its position can be partly fixed. We thus treated Amuria as
intraoceanic subduction zone of the South China plate passed by semi-coupled to Siberia, but allowed the widening MOO to slowly
northern North China, converting its active margin into a trans- separate their eastern margins (Figs. 5e7). The MOO must have
form boundary. been expanding in the Devonian as its north and south margins
336 M. Domeier, T.H. Torsvik / Geoscience Frontiers 5 (2014) 303e350

were both passive until the latest Devonian, when subduction Appalachians in the late Mississippianeearly Pennsylvanian,
began along the southern margin of Siberia (Fig. 9). On the southern including basin inversion in the Canadian Maritimes and the
margin of Amuria (north-facing in the Devonian) subduction of the development of a clastic wedge in the southern Appalachians
Panthalassa continued unabated through the Devonian. (Hatcher, 2010; Hibbard et al., 2010). Analogously, pronounced
In the Silurian to early Devonian, subduction of the Panthalassa regional shortening and dextral wrenching of that same age has
along the southeast margin of Gondwana was occurring beneath been recognized in the Moroccan Meseta (Michard et al., 2010). In
the outboard Gamilaroi-Calliope arc (Figs. 5 and 6). During the passing, we note that the absence of late DevonianeCarboniferous
middleelate Devonian Tabberabberan orogeny, the backarc of the arc magmatism and other clear indications of subduction along the
Gamilaroi-Calliope arc collapsed and the arc was accreted to the former Rheic margins may have been due to the dominance of
continental margin by 380 Ma. Subsequently, west-dipping sub- transcurrent vs. convergent tectonics (see also: Mueller et al., in
duction of the Panthalassa began directly beneath the continental press), which enhances the difficulty in establishing which was
margin of eastern Australia, where it persisted through the the upper plate.
Carboniferous (Fig. 8). Elsewhere along the perimeter of the Pan- Variscan orogenesis culminated in the early Carboniferous
thalassa, relative motion remained predominantly convergent (350e340 Ma) with a series of terrane collisions marked by HP/
throughout the Devonian; a continuous subduction zone operated UHP metamorphism and pronounced crustal thickening. The
from south to east Gondwana, along the northern margin of North detailed kinematic evolution of the Variscan orogen is beyond our
China-Tarim and further on across the southern margin of Amuria present scope, but we note that strike-slip tectonics continued to
and the northern extension of Laurussia. play a key role through the Carboniferous (Martínez Catalán et al.,
2007; Azor et al., 2008). In our simplified model, the Variscan
4.2. Carboniferous terranes continued to move relative to Baltica by means of a major
zone of dextral transpression until 340 Ma, when the terranes
4.2.1. Formation of Pangea coalesced with Laurussia (Figs. 9 and 10). To the south, the
In the Carboniferous, paleomagnetic data from Laurussia and boundary between the Variscan terranes and northwest Gond-
Gondwana remain few in number for the first 20 Myr, but become wana remained a pure transform fault for most of the early
more abundant after 340 Ma. At the start of the Carboniferous, Carboniferous, but became slightly transpressive in the mid-
Laurussia was positioned at low latitude in the southern hemi- Carboniferous during the final convergence between Laurussia
sphere (Fig. 9). It drifted northward throughout the period, crossing and Gondwana. In the east, west-dipping subduction of the Pale-
the Equator in the mid-to-late Carboniferous and accelerated otethys beneath the Variscan terranes and the Scythian-Turan
northward after 320 Ma (Figs. 10 and 11). By the end of the domains continued (from the late Devonian) until at least the
Carboniferous Laurussia occupied the latitudes w0e30 N. With late Carboniferous (Figs. 9 and 10).
respect to the drift of Gondwana during the Carboniferous, the Siberia has no reliable paleomagnetic data between 360 Ma
South Pole moved across southern Africa during the early and 275 Ma, and we are faced with a span of precarious interpo-
Carboniferous and to the central Transantarctic Mountains region lation for most of the Carboniferous and early Permian. However,
of East Antarctica by the end of the Carboniferous. No LIPs were an abundance of early Carboniferous kimberlites in east Siberia
erupted into either Laurussia or Gondwana during the Carbonif- (continuing from the numerous Devonian occurrences) suggests
erous, but late Carboniferous kimberlites were emplaced in that the continent lingered above the northwest arm of the Afri-
northern Baltica and western Australia. The constraints imposed by can LLSVP then. Proceeding with such a reconstruction, the rela-
those kimberlites can be satisfied by placing Baltica on the north- tive motion between Siberia and Laurussia was obliquely
eastern margin of the African LLSVP and Australia on the south- convergent in the early Carboniferous, following an interval of
eastern tip. That positioning requires Laurussia to move strongly transcurrent relative motion in the late Devonian. Destruction of
eastward in the early Carboniferous (Figs. 9 and 10), whereas a the basin between Siberia and Laurussia was achieved initially by
comparatively minor westward-drift of Gondwana is only broadly northeast-dipping subduction beneath the Tagil island arc and the
constrained to the Carboniferous. then-inverted ridge that once lay behind the Magnitogorsk island
Associated with that strong eastward-drift of Laurussia, and arc (Fig. 9). By 345 Ma the Tagil island arc had accreted to the
continuing from the late Devonian, relative motion between Laur- Uralian margin of Baltica (Puchkov, 2009a; Brown et al., 2011) and
ussia and Gondwana was dominated by dextral strike-slip through the polarity of subduction had flipped to allow closure of the
the early Carboniferous (Figs. 9 and 10). However, transpression to remnant (backarc) basin by subduction beneath Baltica. However,
highly oblique subduction was locally important along the trans- that latter phase of convergence was short-lived, and by 340 Ma
form system, as evident in the Mauritanide belt of Morocco and motion along the boundary became transcurrent to weakly
Mixteca-Oaxacan terrane of Mexico where there was Devon- divergent, producing a minor but long-lived basin between Baltica
ianeearly Carboniferous HP metamorphism (and, in the latter, and west Siberia that later filled to form the West Siberian Basin
perhaps coeval arc magmatism) (Fig. 9) (Keppie et al., 2008, 2012; (Fig. 10). To the northwest along that boundary, from 340 to
Michard et al., 2010). Arc magmatism recurred in the Mixteca- 320 Ma, transcurrent to transpressive motion between the ‘Kara
Oaxacan terrane in the late Carboniferous, when it reached the terrane’ (kept coherent with Baltica in our model, following
east-dipping subduction zone fringing the Panthalassa along the Lorenz et al., 2008) and north Siberia would have been responsible
western margin of Pangea (Fig. 11). for the late Paleozoic deformation in Severnaya Zemlya and Tai-
We stress that our implementation of considerable dextral myr, which would therefore have been kinematically distinct from
transform motion between Laurussia and Gondwana during the Uralian orogenesis to the south. At 320 Ma relative motion along
early Carboniferous is not tantamount to the adoption of Pangea “B” the Siberia-Laurussia plate boundary ceases in our model. In re-
(Muttoni et al., 2009a; Domeier et al., 2012), since Pangea did not ality, sluggish convergence and transform motion between Siberia
form until w320 Ma. At 320 Ma relative motion between Laurussia and Laurussia continued into the early Mesozoic (Buiter and
and Gondwana ceases in our model, and the Pangea “A-type” Torsvik, 2007; Cocks and Torsvik, 2007), but, for simplicity, we
reconstruction that is reached persists through the Permian considered that as intra-plate deformation and treated Siberia,
(Fig. 11). Such timing for Pangea’s ultimate amalgamation is Laurussia and Gondwana together as one plate (Pangea) after
corroborated by evidence of regional shortening along the 320 Ma (Fig. 11).
 M. Domeier, T.H. Torsvik / Geoscience Frontiers 5 (2014) 303e350 337

4.2.2. Solitary continents consolidation (for example, note the active margin of south
Having rifted both from Gondwana and from each other in the Kazakhstania in Fig. 10).
Devonian, South China and Annamia continued to drift in isolation Like many previous models, we contend that consumption of
during the Carboniferous, being situated between the Paleotethys the Paleotethys in the Carboniferous was partly achieved by sub-
(to the southwest) and the Panthalassa (to the northeast) and duction beneath the southern (Kunlun-Qinling-Dabie) margin of
otherwise surrounded by marginal seas (Figs. 9e11). Unfortunately, North China-Tarim (Figs. 9e11), although the geological evidence
there are no quantitative Carboniferous constraints on paleo- remains vague. On the opposite side of the terrane, along Beishan
latitude or paleolongitude for either of those continents, so their and northern North China, the Devonian active margin was pro-
exact positions are unknown for that period and their reconstruc- gressively supplanted in the early Carboniferous by a passive
tion is based on interpolation. In accordance with the geological margin via the passage of the intraoceanic arc (proto-Japan) of the
observations, we maintained passive margins all around both eastern South China plate and the growth of the Paleoasian Ocean
continents for the whole of the Carboniferous, with the exception behind it (Figs. 9 and 10). However, by the beginning of the late
of the east margin of South China, where the proto-Japanese islands Carboniferous, subduction had recommenced along the Beishan/
were positioned above a subduction zone consuming the Pan- northern North China margin and the young Paleoasian Ocean
thalassa (Figs. 9e11). At the beginning of the Carboniferous, active began subducting beneath it (Fig. 11). That short-lived early
divergence in the region was largely restricted to a branch of the Carboniferous subduction hiatus in northern North China is
Paleotethys to the southwest of Annamia and along a slowly- consistent with the w360e330 Ma gap in detrital zircon ages from
spreading ridge between South China and Annamia. In the early CarboniferousePermian strata across that margin (Cope et al.,
Carboniferous, northwest-dipping subduction beneath southeast 2005).
North China brought that continent very close to South China and Paleomagnetic data place Kazakhstania in mid-low latitudes in
Annamia, but at 340 Ma the west-dipping segment of the subduc- the northern hemisphere during the Carboniferous, permitting its
tion zone converted to a sinistral transform boundary, perhaps due reconstruction to a position adjacent to southwest Siberia
to its impingement on the South China-Annamia ridge (Figs. 9 and (Abrajevitch et al., 2008; Levashova et al., 2012). The oroclinal
10). Continued subduction beneath the southern margin of North bending of Kazakhstania may have begun already in the mid-
China resulted in the accretion (and translation) of the South Qin- dleelate Devonian, but was certainly underway by the earliest
ling unit to the North China margin in the mid- to late Carbonif- Carboniferous. We simplistically modeled the evolution of that
erous (Figs. 10 and 11). On the north side of North China, a backarc orocline by dividing Kazakhstania into two discrete units and
basin started to develop behind the intraoceanic South China rotating them semi-independently (Figs. 8e11). Subduction of the
(proto-Japan) subduction zone in the earliest Carboniferous (Fig. 9). Turkestan Ocean beneath the ‘Internal’ margin of Kazakhstania
By the mid-Carboniferous that basin had substantially grown to continued during the early Carboniferous as the orocline tightened
become the Paleoasian Ocean, which separated North China-Tarim (Fig. 9). Following the initial collision of Tarim at 340 Ma, oroclinal
and Kazakhstania from Amuria and the Panthalassa (Fig. 10). bending proceeded more rapidly through the mid-Carboniferous
Sparse paleomagnetic data from North China suggest that it until its conclusion at 310 Ma, at which time subduction along
rotated clockwise during the Carboniferous (although vertical axis the ‘internal’ margin also ceased (Figs. 10 and 11). Along the
rotations in the Hexi corridor are a concern) but remained at low ‘external’ margin of Kazakhstania, subduction of the Paleotethys
latitude in the northern hemisphere (Zhao et al., 1996; Huang et al., beneath the Chinese Tian Shan continued throughout the late
2001). Though no Carboniferous LIPs or kimberlites were emplaced Devonian and mid-Carboniferous, whereas in the Kyrgyzstan Tian
into North China, its possible paleolongitude is restricted by its Shan subduction did not recommence (following its middleelate
snug positioning between Kazakhstania and Siberia to the west and Devonian interruption) until the mid-Carboniferous (Figs. 9 and
South China and east Gondwana to the east (Figs. 9e11). Following 10). That resumption of subduction in the Kyrgyzstan Tian Shan
subduction of the Turkestan ridge in the late Devonian, continued approximately coincided with the time at which Kazakhstania
subduction of the Turkestan Ocean beneath Kazakhstania and began to override the young ocean basin developing between
southern Amuria drew North China-Tarim progressively westward Siberia and Baltica. The subduction of that basin was short-lived, as
in the early Carboniferous (Fig. 9). By the mid-early Carboniferous Kazakhstania docked with Baltica along the Uralian margin at
the Turkestan Ocean had been consumed between Tarim and east 310 Ma; the remnant basin to the northwest formed the West Si-
Kazakhstania and direct interaction between those terranes began berian Basin (Fig. 11). Following complex transpressive motion
at w340 Ma (Fig. 10). That timing is consistent with the occurrence between Kazakhstania and the Altai-Sayan margin of Siberia
of early to mid-Carboniferous (w345e320 Ma) eclogite-facies throughout the early to mid-Carboniferous, we treat Kazakhstania
metamorphism in the South Tian Shan suture zone and the and Siberia as consolidated after 310 Ma; Kazakhstania thus con-
waning of arc magmatism in Kazakhstan and the Chinese Central stitutes part of Pangea from then on.
Tianshan by the mid-Carboniferous (Gao et al., 2009, 2011; Han
et al., 2011; Ren et al., 2011). Additionally, Abrajevitch et al. 4.2.3. Marginal seas and the Panthalassa
(2008) suggested that the impingement of Tarim on Kazakhstania Prior to the mid-early Carboniferous, the proto-Andean and
could have driven (or assisted in driving) oroclinal bending of the north Patagonian margins remained passive following the closure
latter, which was underway by the early Carboniferous. Alterna- of the Rheic Ocean and the collision of Chilenia (Chew et al., 2007;
tively, the occurrence of early Carboniferous ophiolitic material in Bahlburg et al., 2009). We suppose that was due to an extension of
the South Tian Shan suture may indicate that our preferred timing the Laurussian plate that separated those margins from the Pan-
for both ridge subduction and final collision is slightly too early thalassa, which could have been subducting beneath an outboard
(Han et al., 2011); nevertheless, post-340 Ma convergence between (partly intraoceanic) boundary during the late Devonianeearly
North China-Tarim and Kazakhstania must have been minor ac- Carboniferous (Figs. 8 and 9). At 340 Ma the proto-Andean and
cording to the paleolongitude constraints imposed by the plates to north Patagonian passive margins collapsed to form a subduction
the east (South China, Annamia and east Gondwana). It is also zone that linked with the one fringing southeast Gondwana
possible that some of the ophiolitic material in the South Tian Shan (Fig. 10). That subduction zone first began to consume the young
suture was extracted from the Paleotethys Ocean after initial con- oceanic plate which was created by the divergence of Laurussia and
tact between Tarim and Kazakhstania, but prior to their final south Gondwana in the late Devonianeearly Carboniferous (Figs. 9
338 M. Domeier, T.H. Torsvik / Geoscience Frontiers 5 (2014) 303e350

Figure 15. Average number of plates per 10-Myr interval in our model.

and 10). Considering the timing, it is possible that the allochtho- and post-dated it. As in the late Devonian, the subduction zone
nous (southern) block of Patagonia was resident on that young along the perimeter of the Panthalassa was near-continuous during
oceanic plate and that its late Carboniferous accretion was due to the Carboniferous, and so there was little direct communication
the operation of the east-dipping proto-Andean subduction zone between the Panthalassa and the continental domain.
(Figs. 10 and 11). Working backwards, that interpretation would
place south Patagonia proximal to southern Laurentia in the late 4.3. Permian
Devonian, and we speculate that they may have been united prior
to the late Devonianeearly Carboniferous spreading (i.e. the ridge 4.3.1. Drift of Pangea and opening of Neotethys Ocean
cleaved south Patagonia from peri-Laurentia) (Figs. 8 and 9). We Paleolatitude and paleolongitude constraints for Pangea are
note that there are some indications that south Patagonia had a excellent for the Permian. A wealth of paleomagnetic data reveal
Laurentian affinity (Chernicoff et al., 2013). Furthermore, the that the supercontinent drifted north and rotated counterclockwise
possible inception of subduction along the southwest margin of during that period (Figs. 12e14), such that its center of mass moved
south Patagonia at 390 Ma would have been coincident with the from w30 S at 300 Ma to w10 S at 250 Ma (Torsvik et al., 2012).
onset of subduction along western Laurentia. Hence, we modeled Early Permian paleolongitude constraints are provided by kimber-
the south block of Patagonia as a detached fragment of Laurentia lites in northwest Laurentia and by the Skagerrak LIP (w297 Ma)
which later collided with north Patagonia at 310 Ma (Figs. 8e11). and the Panjal Traps (w285 Ma). Late Permian kimberlites were
With the closure of the intervening basin between north and south emplaced in northwest Laurentia, southern Africa and eastern
Patagonia, western Gondwana began to directly override oceanic Australia, and the Siberian Traps erupted at w251 Ma. Those oc-
lithosphere of the Panthalassa. currences allow Pangea to be reconstructed such that its overall
Along the western margin of Laurentia the start of the Carbon- longitudinal drift from 300 to 250 Ma was eastward, resulting in a
iferous roughly coincided with the opening of the Slide Mountain progressive centering of the supercontinent above the African
Ocean between the Laurentian parautochthon and the outboard LLSVP (Figs. 12e14).
Yukon-Tanana arc terrane and its correlatives. With the Panthalassa In the early to mid-Permian a large area of the Pangean plate
persistently, if obliquely, subducting beneath the Yukon-Tanana consisted of the south Paleotethys Ocean (southwest of the Paleo-
terrane along its western margin, the back-arc spreading of the tethys ridge) (Fig. 12). By the beginning of the middle Permian that
Slide Mountain Ocean continued unabated throughout the oceanic lithosphere had become independent through the rifting of
Carboniferous and into the Permian (Figs. 9e12). Further to the the Cimmerian terranes from northeast Gondwana and the corol-
northeast, along the Arctic-Alaska-Chukotka terrane, the Angayu- lary opening of the Neotethys Ocean (Fig. 13). The prevailing
cham Ocean also opened in the late Devonianeearly Carboniferous. explanation for that event postulates that rifting was instigated by
The contiguity of and similarities between those basins have pre- slab-pull forces transmitted from the northward subduction of the
viously led to the interpretation that they were unified, and we south Paleotethys (beneath Baltica and proto-Asia), following
embraced this simplifying concept in our model (Figs. 9e12). subduction of the Paleotethys ridge (Stampfli and Borel, 2002;
Between Siberia and Amuria the wedge-shaped MOO continued Gutiérrez-Alonso et al., 2008). We have adopted that scenario,
to spread during the Carboniferous. In the early Carboniferous, but note the great uncertainties in the timing and style of ridge
subduction of that ocean only occurred along the southeast margin subduction. Many interpretations of that event have been drawn
of Siberia, but in the mid-Carboniferous it also began along the from the late Carboniferous and early Permian stratigraphy and
northern margin of Amuria (Figs. 9e11). On the opposite side of magmatism of southern Baltica, but the kinematic and geometric
Amuria, along its southern margin, subduction of the Panthalassa constraints imposed by our model necessitate that the Paleotethys
continued uninterrupted throughout the Carboniferous. Unfortu- ridge was at high-angle to the southern margin of Baltica then
nately, we had to dismiss the Carboniferous paleomagnetic data (Figs. 10e12). Furthermore, following final consolidation of Pangea
from Amuria (Xu et al., 1997; Kravchinsky et al., 2002; Zhao et al., at 320 Ma, the motion between the south Paleotethys and Baltica
2013), for the same reasons outlined above, so the reconstructed must have ceased, and the relative motion between Baltica and the
position of Amuria was again constrained only by its western north Paleotethys would have been highly oblique to transcurrent.
continuation into the Altai-Sayan region. The widespread late Carboniferouseearly Permian rifting and
Elsewhere along the perimeter of the Panthalassa, subduction magmatism across southern Baltica has been attributed to sub-
was sustained and consistently outward-dipping (i.e. beneath the duction of the Paleotethys ridge (Dostal et al., 2003; Gutiérrez-
continents) during the Carboniferous, with specific relative motion Alonso et al., 2008), but we speculate that it could rather have
that ranged from orthogonal to highly oblique. Along eastern been a consequence of margin-wide break-off of the Paleotethys
Australia the relative motion of the Panthalassa changed several slab following the abrupt cessation of convergence at 320 Ma. In
times during the course of the Carboniferous, giving rise to the our model the Paleotethys ridge was subducted beneath the
Kanimblan orogeny and the regimes of regional tension that pre- northeast-dipping subduction zone flanking southern North China
 M. Domeier, T.H. Torsvik / Geoscience Frontiers 5 (2014) 303e350 339

Figure 16. 10-Myr averaged speeds (cm/yr) for the continental and Panthalassa plates, calculated from their approximate centroids. (A) Before correction for true polar wander
(TPW). (B) After correction for TPW.

and western Annamia in the Early to mid-Permian (Figs. 12 and 13). resolve such detail, particularly given the rapid rate of drift of the
Subduction beneath those margins could have continued uninter- terranes. We have simply modeled the drift of the Cimmerian ter-
rupted during initial rifting and subsequent spreading of the Neo- ranes by a single, time-varying rotation defined by the paleomag-
tethys, whereas subduction beneath the southern margin of Baltica netic data from Iran. However, to avoid a premature (Permian)
must have recommenced following the opening of the Neotethys. collision between Annamia and Sibumasu we have delayed the
Subduction of the Paleotethys and the corollary expansion of the drifting of the latter from northeast Gondwana (by 7 Myr), and
Neotethys continued throughout the Permian and into the Triassic therefore invoked a short-lived transform between Qiangtang and
(Fig. 14). Sibumasu (Fig. 13).
Paleomagnetic studies of late Paleozoic and Triassic rocks from
Iran provide strong support for its Permian-Triassic northward drift 4.3.2. Proto-Asia
(Besse et al., 1998; Muttoni et al., 2009b), whereas hints of corre- The early Permian position of South China is unconstrained, but
sponding motion have been gleaned from meager paleomagnetic the 258 Ma Emishan LIP has provided both paleomagnetic data and
results from other Cimmerian terranes (Huang et al., 1992; Muttoni a paleolongitude constraint (Torsvik et al., 2008b; Cocks and
et al., 2009a; Ran et al., 2012). Although future work may corrob- Torsvik, 2013). Together those data indicate that South China was
orate variable rates of spreading along the Neotethys ridge positioned on the Equator and most likely above the westernmost
(Muttoni et al., 2009a), the available data are not yet sufficient to margin of the Pacific LLSVP (Figs. 13 and 14). No paleogeographic
340 M. Domeier, T.H. Torsvik / Geoscience Frontiers 5 (2014) 303e350

constraints are available from Annamia for the Permian, but its dipping subduction zone that closed the basin separating Annamia
possible locations are limited by the positions of neighboring and South China (Figs. 13 and 14). The age of HP metamorphic rocks
continents. As in the Carboniferous, the northwest and southwest as well as the youngest ophiolitic and magmatic arc rocks along the
margins of South China remained passive through the Permian, now-juxtaposed margins of those continents indicates that their
while west-dipping subduction of the Panthalassa continued collision occurred in the late Permianeearly Triassic.
beneath the proto-Japan arc outboard of the east margin Early to late Permian paleomagnetic data from Tarim (Bai et al.,
(Figs. 12e14). In contrast, both the western and eastern passive 1987; Li et al., 1988; McFadden et al., 1988; Sharps et al., 1989;
margins of Annamia failed during the Permian: the former Gilder et al., 1996) and North China (Cocks and Torsvik, 2013)
collapsed already at the start of the period and the latter developed reveal that those continents remained stable at mid-low latitudes
into an active margin by 280 Ma (Figs. 12 and 13). Along the during the early Permian, but began to drift north after w280 Ma
western margin, the occurrence of Permian subduction is indicated (Figs. 12e14). North China also underwent a counterclockwise
by the paired metamorphic belts and magmatic arc rocks of the rotation in the middleelate Permian that is not reflected in the
Sukhothai terrane, which we have modeled as an independent unit paleomagnetic data from Tarim, so we have allowed the two blocks
beginning in the earliest Permian. To accord with the latest Car- to move relative to one another by transform motion roughly along
boniferouseLate Permian basinal deposits to the east of the the Altyn Tagh fault (Fig. 13). Relative motion also occurred be-
Sukhothai terrane, we opened an ephemeral back-arc basin behind tween Tarim and Pangea during the Permian, so the northwest
the Sukhothai arc that collapsed by the latest Permian (Figs. 12e14). extension of the Tarim plate is also bounded by transform faults.
In eastern Annamia, early Permian to Triassic arc-magmatic rocks in Due to the dextral motion between Pangea and Tarim and the
the Truong Son-Yaxianqiao arc reflect the operation of a west- encroachment of Amuria on the latter, the oceanic lithosphere to

Figure 17. 10-Myr average rotations (degrees/Myr) for the continental and Panthalassa plates. (A) Before correction for true polar wander (TPW). (B) After correction for TPW.
 M. Domeier, T.H. Torsvik / Geoscience Frontiers 5 (2014) 303e350 341

the northwest of northern Tarim was progressively destroyed dur- with subduction to the south in the latest Permian to Triassic, leaving a
ing the Permian, so that only the remnant Junggar Basin survived at remnant basin to the east that survived until the mid-Mesozoic
250 Ma (Figs. 12e14). Along the Kunlun-Qinling-Dabie margin, (Fig. 14). Furthermore, we have adjusted the mid-to-late Permian
subduction of the Paleotethys continued throughout the Permian; relative motion between the Yukon-Tanana arc and the Panthalassa
terminal subduction of the Paleotethys ridge occurred in the mid- so as to be nearly-orthogonal in the south and highly oblique in the
early Permian, just prior to the opening of the Neotethys. In north; in that scenario, the accretion of the southern segment of the
Beishan and northern North China, subduction of the Paleoasian arc terrane could have disrupted the continuation of subduction to
Ocean continued from the Carboniferous until the end-Permian, the north (Figs. 13 and 14).
when the basin closed and North China collided with Amuria Bivergent subduction of the MOO continued during the
(Figs. 12e14). To accommodate the counterclockwise rotation of Permian, but as in the Carboniferous, spreading outpaced subduc-
North China in the late early Permian we have allowed the opening tion and the ocean basin widened then (Figs. 12e14). Along its
of a minor backarc basin along the margin of Beishan; intriguingly, northeastern edge, the wedge-shaped MOO rode over the Pan-
the Liuyuan-Yin’aoxia belt could represent the preserved relics of thalassa upon an intraoceanic subduction zone which had pro-
that ephemeral basin (Fig. 13). By the late Permian, subduction had gressively lengthened throughout the late Paleozoic. The southern
also begun along the east margin of North China due to the margin of Amuria also remained active throughout the Permian,
convergence of South China and Annamia, and ultimately led to the first consuming the Panthalassa and later the Paleoasian Ocean,
amalgamation of the three blocks in the early Mesozoic. until terminal closure of the latterdwhich thus instigated collision
between Amuria and North Chinadat the end of the Permian
4.3.3. Marginal seas and the Panthalassa (Figs. 12e14).
Following on from the Carboniferous, the Slide Mountain Ocean In the latest Carboniferous, southwest-dipping subduction of the
continued to widen between western Laurentia and the Yukon- Panthalassa jumped outboard from the margin of southeast
Tanana arc terrane during the early Permian (Fig. 12). However, the Gondwana to the intraoceanic Gympie-Brook Street island arc.
mid-Permian appearance of a magmatic arc and HP metamorphic However, at 270 Ma the remnant basin behind the Gympie-Brook
rocks on the east side of the Yukon-Tanana terrane indicates that Street terrane began to collapse by west-dipping subduction
formerly-passive margin had collapsed by then, and that the Slide beneath the continental margin of Antarctica and Australia and by
Mountain Ocean had begun subducting to the west (Fig. 13). By the the end of the Permian the basin had been entirely consumed. The
end of the Permian the Slide Mountain Ocean had been consumed arc terrane accreted to the margin of Gondwana in the earliest
and the arc terranes of the upper plate were thrust eastward onto Mesozoic during the Gondwanide/Hunter-Bowen orogeny. Along
western Laurentia during the Sonoma orogeny (Fig. 14) (Dickinson, the west margin of Gondwana, subduction of the Panthalassa
2009). In contrast, passive margin sediments deposited in the continued throughout the Permian (Figs. 12e14). Although we have
Angayucham Ocean to the north reveal that it remained open until the not attempted to model it, an important episode of dextral trans-
Jurassic, suggesting either that the two systems had become decou- pression affected the entire margin of south Gondwana (from Chile
pled in the mid-Permian (i.e. west-dipping subduction of the to east Australia) during the Permian, producing a wide variety of
Angayucham Ocean did not commence in the mid-Permian) or that tectonomagmatic features which are collectively associated with
subduction was interrupted in the north before the basin was entirely the nebulous “Gondwanides” orogeny. Future work in detailed
destroyed. We have adopted the latter scenario and speculate that modeling of the Panthalassa is necessary to decipher that tectonic
west-dipping subduction of the Angayucham Ocean ceased together puzzle.

Figure 18. Plate speed of Africa (¼Pangea before 200 Ma; ¼Gondwana before 320 Ma) through time, both before and after correction for true polar wander (TPW). Solid line
segments highlight the late Paleozoic interval studied in this paper (410e250 Ma). Background polynomial curves highlight a trend of increasing plate speed with increasing age
(solid/dashed ¼ with/without TPW correction).
342 M. Domeier, T.H. Torsvik / Geoscience Frontiers 5 (2014) 303e350

Figure 19. Net rotation of the lithosphere with and without correction for true polar wander (TPW).

5. Discussion those blocks are poorly known before and after that interval, it is
likely that better constraints on their paleogeography would also
5.1. Model aspects and comparisons see their speeds fall.
The most notable plate that moved in excess of 15 cm/yr is
The plates in our model number between 15 and 19 through Laurussia, which, before TPW correction, moved an average of
time (Fig. 15), which is similar to the w14e25 moderate-to-large 15.9 cm/yr between 360 and 320 Ma. Because the movement of
sized plates today (Bird, 2003; DeMets et al., 2010) and to the Laurussia in the early Carboniferous was dominantly east-west
12e26 plates specified by Seton et al. (2012) for the Mesozoic. An (Figs. 9 and 10), its relatively high speed has not hitherto been
important aspect of any plate modeldbut one rarely considered in recognized. That east-west movement of Laurussia must have been
Paleozoic paleogeographydis the speed of the specified plates. accommodated by dextral strike-slip along the northwest margin
Observational data and geodynamic considerations suggest that of Gondwanadand is substantiated by the widespread early
large continental plates should not generally exceed speeds of Carboniferous dextral structures found in southeast Laurentia. We
w15e20 cm/yr, whereas smaller oceanic plates may be capable of reiterate that the apparent difficulty of determining the ‘upper-
moving faster (Meert et al., 1993; Gurnis and Torsvik, 1994). In plate’ during Rheic Ocean closure could be a reflection of great
Fig. 16 we show the 10-Myr average speeds of the major plates in obliquity in the convergence of the continents, which would imply
our model (those with continents and the Panthalassa plates), as significant east-west motion of Laurussia (and/or Gondwana). With
determined at their approximate centroids (re-calculated every 10- TPW correction, the speed of Laurussia dropped slightly over that
Myr). Presented in cm/yr, those results communicate an intuitive interval to an average of 15.6 cm/yr. Likewise, the speeds of
metric of speed, but they do not fully describe plate motion as ro- 15e20 cm/yr exhibited by the Variscan terranes, Amuria, South
tations do, and so we also show 10-Myr average rotation rates Patagonia and the Cimmerian terranes were reduced with TPW
(Fig. 17). correction, although as small continents occupying larger oceanic
In Figs. 16 and 17 plate motions are shown with and without plates, their pre-corrected speeds were not unreasonable.
correction for true polar wander (TPW)dwhich, if non-zero, should To put the plate speeds observed in our model into a broader
diminish the resultant motion of the global plate system. Prior to temporal context, in Fig. 18 we compare the mean plate speed for
TPW correction most of the plates in our model already moved less Pangea/Gondwana with that of the equivalent plate (Africa before
than 15 cm/yr (Figs. 5e14). Five plates exhibited transient bursts of 200 Ma, Gondwana after 320 Ma) from Torsvik et al. (submitted for
speed greater than 20 cm/yr, but three of those were Panthalassa publication) for the whole of the Phanerozoic. Ideally, we would
plates, which are highly simplistic. Thus, those speeds could very compare the global mean plate speed over time, but that is not yet
likely be reduced through future work on the Panthalassa. The two possible without a plate model for the early Paleozoic; we have
other plates (South China and Annamia) were not constrained by thus opted to use the largest continental plate. It would be pre-
any quantitative data during the interval of their shared high-speed mature to draw any firm inferences about global tectonics from the
(370e360 Ma), and so were semi-coupled to Gondwana through a time-dependent behavior of that single plate, but we cautiously
transform boundary at that time. During that 10-Myr interval, note two prominent features of Fig. 18: the amplitude of plate speed
Gondwana rotated very strongly about an Euler pole located in increased dramatically for times prior w300 Ma and the back-
eastern Amazonia (Fig. 17), which was nearly 90 from South China ground trend shows increasing plate speed with increasing age. We
and Annamia and nearly along strike of their mutual transform think these features are probably manifestations of the uncertainty
boundary with Gondwana. Thus, South China and Annamia were in the Paleozoic plate reconstructions (increasing uncertainty with
required to move at a relatively high-speed in order to maintain the age) and/or unaccounted TPW corrections, and that plate speeds in
transform boundary; otherwise it would have been necessary to the Paleozoic could prove comparable to those of today. This
invoke an ephemeral subduction zone. Because the positions of highlights the need to routinely consider plate speeds in Paleozoic
 M. Domeier, T.H. Torsvik / Geoscience Frontiers 5 (2014) 303e350 343

reconstructions, and suggests that the apparently fast-moving could aim to meet specified theoretical criteria, such as a particular
plates in our model require further scrutiny. Speculatively, higher global rate of subduction or oceanic crust production, or minimized
pre-Pangean plate speeds could alternatively be related to a more net lithosphere rotation (as described above), but are themselves ad
dynamic Earth. hoc.
Because our polygon coverage is global, another geodynamic Direct checks on the veracity of the underlying continental
consideration that we have used to evaluate the model is the net reconstruction model are also important. One of the exciting as-
rotation of the lithosphere. In a spherical convective system with a pects of our plate model is the ease with which it can offer testable
viscosity structure that is uniform or only radially heterogeneous predictions. For example, even in the absence of paleomagnetic
(stratified), the surface flow field will be purely poloidal (divergent- data, the model can generate a synthetic apparent polar wander
convergent). On Earth, however, lateral variations in viscosity occur path (APWP) for any plate. In lieu of paleomagnetic data, such a
in the upper mantledparticularly between suboceanic and sub- synthetic APWP would be predicated entirely on the other data-
continental lithospheredand are responsible for the toroidal types built into the model (geology, paleobiology, derivative kine-
(transform) component of plate motion (O’Connell et al., 1991; matics), but would be directly testable by newly-acquired paleo-
Ricard et al., 1991). Net rotation corresponds to the degree one magnetic data.
harmonic of that toroidal field, and it, if calculated from an absolute Applications of our plate model will be important for numerical
mantle reference frame, describes the rigid rotation of the entire simulations of mantle convection (as a surface kinematic input),
lithosphere with respect to the underlying mantle. Models of recent specifically in expanding their temporal reach (Bower et al., 2013;
(30 Ma) plate motion reveal that net rotation is currently directed Bull et al., submitted for publication). Work is on-going to
westward and estimates of its rate of drift mostly fall below 0.2 / develop oceanic age-grids for the model, which should further
Myr (Conrad and Behn, 2010; Torsvik et al., 2010a,b). Broadly expand its utility as an input, in serving geodynamic considerations
comparable estimates of net rotation have been deduced from in mantle models but also in providing possible paleo-bathymetry
numerical models and observations of seismic anisotropy (Becker, for paleo-ocean/climate simulations. Future efforts will be focused
2008; Conrad and Behn, 2010). Using a global polygon model, on the temporal expansion of the plate model back to the early
Torsvik et al. (2010a,b) computed net rotation back to 150 Ma and Paleozoic and on merging it with plate models for younger times
recognized a linear trend (increasing with age) superimposed on an (Seton et al., 2012).
otherwise fluctuating amplitude with an average of w0.12 /Myr. By
further considering the net rotation of different sub-sets of plates, 6. Conclusions
they demonstrated that the linear trend was likely an artefact of
increasing uncertainty with increasing model age (60% of the Paleogeography is fundamental to our understanding of the
lithosphere is missing by 150 Ma), which implies that net rotation history of plate tectonics and thus vital in efforts to link plate ki-
for the past 150 Ma has been similar in magnitude to that in the nematics and mantle dynamics. Unfortunately, the relentless
recent past. operation of subduction has obliterated Paleozoic and early
In our model, net rotation ranged from 0.25 /Myr (at 255 Ma) to Mesozoic oceanic lithosphere, making pre-Cretaceous ‘full-plate’
1.53 /Myr (at 335 Ma), with an average of 0.77 /Myr (Fig. 19). paleogeographic reconstructions exceptionally challenging. How-
Comparably, in the similarly-constructed 0e200 Ma global plate ever, with the development of new geodynamic concepts and
polygon model of Seton et al. (2012), rates of net rotation reached analytical tools, it is now feasible to construct, test and share such
up to 1.0 /Myr in the Cretaceous. Under the assumption that net models, even though they can only be considered provisional. Here
rotation in the Paleozoic and Mesozoic was broadly similar in we present a global plate model for the late Paleozoic
magnitude to today, the rates predicted by these models are (410e250 Ma), together with a review of the underlying data and
excessive. However, considering the degree of uncertainty in the interpretations. We trust that this model will be useful in extending
reconstruction of now-subducted oceanic basins and that neither the temporal reach of mantle models, but also hope that it may
model was explicitly designed to minimize net rotation, the rela- serve more broadly as a late Paleozoic tectonic framework for
tively high values are unsurprising. In our model, the Panthalassa future testing and further improvement.
constitutes an entire hemisphere and so strongly influenced net
rotation; however, as the model of that basin is presently naïve, the
high rates of net rotation are not especially concerning. This does, Acknowledgements
however, suggest that future work seeking to improve upon the
reconstruction of the Panthalassa could exploit net rotation, by We thank Editor M. Santosh for extending an invitation for this
striving to reduce the rates to something more comparable to review, and reviewer Joseph Meert for providing constructive
modern estimates. feedback. Robin Cocks is thanked for discussions and for reading
the manuscript. The European Research Council under the Euro-
5.2. Future directions pean Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013)/
ERC Advanced Grant Agreement Number 267631 (Beyond Plate
Opportunities for further testing and future improvement of our Tectonics) and the Research Council of Norway through its Centres
model are abundant. The most glaring over-simplification is our of Excellence funding scheme, project number 223272 (CEED) are
reconstruction of the Panthalassa, but improvements to our rudi- acknowledged for financial support.
mentary kinematics could be achieved through consideration of
ophiolite formation/emplacement ages or from inferences of rela- Appendix A
tive motion drawn from the upper (continental) plates along the
Panthalassa margin (for example, Kleiman and Japas, 2009; Our plate model is shown in 20-Myr increments in Figs. 5e14
Fergusson, 2010). During the Mesozoic, several substantial ter- but a plate model can be generated at any age between 410 and
ranes were accreted to west Laurentia and east Siberiadthey were 250 Ma using the supplementary data. Visualization of the data
omitted from our model but must have been in the Panthalassa in requires the latest version of Gplates (version 1.3.0 or newer; www.
the late Paleozoic; their reconstruction would thus provide more gplates.org). Download the supplementary data: http://www.
kinematic constraints for the Panthalassa. Broader approaches earthdynamics.org/data/Domeier2014_data.zip and unzip all files
344 M. Domeier, T.H. Torsvik / Geoscience Frontiers 5 (2014) 303e350

to a common subdirectory. Six files contain the supplementary Badarch, G., Dickson Cunningham, W., Windley, B.F., 2002. A new terrane subdi-
vision for Mongolia: implications for the Phanerozoic crustal growth of Central
data:
Asia. Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 21 (1), 87e110.
Bahlburg, H., Vervoort, J.D., Du Frane, S.A., Bock, B., Augustsson, C., Reimann, C.,
1. LP TPW.rot is a standard format Gplates rotation file for 2009. Timing of crust formation and recycling in accretionary orogens: insights
410e250 Ma. The header (top 14 lines) includes our true polar learned from the western margin of South America. Earth-Science Reviews 97
(1e4), 215e241.
wander (TPW) corrections. Bai, X., Liu, S., Wang, W., Yang, P., Li, Q., 2013. UePb geochronology and LueHf
2. LP land.shp (and other extensions) is an ARC-GIS shapefile that isotopes of zircons from newly identified PermianeEarly Triassic plutons in
contains select, present-day continent outlines (coastlines). western Liaoning province along the northern margin of the North China
Craton: constraints on petrogenesis and tectonic setting. International Journal
3. LP ridge.gmpl, LP subduction.gpml, and LP transform.gpml are of Earth Sciences, 1e15.
Gplates feature datafiles (in Gplates markup language format) Bai, Y., Chen, G., Sun, Q., Sun, Y., Li, Y., Dong, Y., Sun, D., 1987. Late Paleozoic polar
containing our interpreted spreading ridge, subduction zone wander path for the Tarim platform and its tectonic significance. Tectonophy-
sics 139 (1), 145e153.
and transform plate boundaries, respectively. Ballèvre, M., Bosse, V., Ducassou, C., Pitra, P., 2009. Palaeozoic history of the
4. LP. topos.gpml is a Gplates feature datafile (in Gplates markup Armorican Massif: models for the tectonic evolution of the suture zones.
language format) containing the topological plate polygons Comptes Rendus Geoscience 341 (2e3), 174e201.
Baud, A., Richoz, S., Beauchamp, B., Cordey, F., Grasby, S., Henderson, C.M.,
built from the ridge, subduction and transform plate boundary Krystyn, L., Nicora, A., 2012. The Buday’ah Formation, Sultanate of Oman: a
polyline files. Middle Permian to Early Triassic oceanic record of the Neotethys and the late
Induan microsphere bloom. Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 43 (1), 130e144.
Bazhenov, M.L., Levashova, N.M., Degtyarev, K.E., Van der Voo, R., Abrajevitch, A.V.,
At Gplates start-up, select all the unzipped files (‘File’ > ‘Open
McCausland, P.J., 2012. Unraveling the earlyemiddle Paleozoic paleogeography
Feature Collection’). Gplates defaults to a mantle reference frame of Kazakhstan on the basis of Ordovician and Devonian paleomagnetic results.
(plate ID ¼ 0) and reconstructions will be displayed as TPW- Gondwana Research 22 (3), 974e991.
corrected because of our header in the rotation file. To show re- Bea, F., Fershtater, G.B., Montero, P., 2002. Granitoids of the Uralides: Implications
for the Evolution of the Orogen, vol. 132, pp. 211e232.
constructions with respect to the spin-axis (i.e. a paleomagnetic Becker, T.W., 2008. Azimuthal seismic anisotropy constrains net rotation of the
reference frame), as in Figs. 5e14, change the Anchored Plate ID to 1. lithosphere. Geophysical Research Letters 35, L05303.
(‘Reconstruction’ > ‘Specify Anchored Plate ID’). For further infor- Beranek, L.P., Mortensen, J.K., 2011. The timing and provenance record of the Late
Permian Klondike orogeny in northwestern Canada and arc-continent collision
mation on gplates and instructions on its use, visit www.gplates.org along western North America. Tectonics 30, TC5017.
Beranek, L.P., Mortensen, J.K., Lane, L.S., Allen, T.L., Fraser, T.A., Hadlari, T.,
Zantvoort, W.G., 2010. Detrital zircon geochronology of the western Ellesmerian
clastic wedge, northwestern Canada: Insights on Arctic tectonics and the evo-
lution of the northern Cordilleran miogeocline. Geological Society of America
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