| Session Details | |
| Section | SE - Solid Earth Sciences |
| Session Title | Accretionary and Collisional Orogenesis of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt |
| Main Convener | Prof. Keda Cai (China University of Geosciences, China) |
| Co-convener(s) | Prof. Misha Buslov (Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Russian Federation) Prof. Bo Wang (Nanjing University, China) Dr. Bo Wan (Chinese Academy of Sciences, China) Dr. Shan Li (Institute of Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, China) |
| Session Description | The Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB) is known for its long-lived evolutionary history and remarkably continental crust growth on our earth. At present, the Central Asian orogens occur as intra-continental belts because they are located far from convergent margins. In contrast, its tectonic evolution during the Paleozoic has typical features of accretionary orogenesis generated at convergent boundaries related to oceanic subduction, which was accompanied by amalgamation of diverse tectonic fragments of island arcs, ophiolites, accretionary prisms, seamounts, oceanic plateaus and micro-continents. Therefore, understanding its tectonic processes responsible for the formation of the CAOB is crucial for us to know how the plate tectonics operated and how the continents were formed, amalgamated and dispersed. A lot of great progresses have been made on these topics. For instance, recent anatomy of the western CAOB has documented that it primarily consists of three major collage systems: Mongolia in the north, Tarim-North China in the south, and the intervening Kazakhstan (e.g., Xiao et al., 2015). However, there still remain many fundamental problems to be resolved. For example, when and how did these separate collage systems amalgamate mutually? What was the tectonic process in detail for these amalgamations? In addition, the CAOB is characterized by the formations of the Kazakhstan and Mongolian Oroclines, however, little is known about their formation process and their function on the orogenesis of the CAOB. This session wants to summarize and present new research outcomes associated with these topics. |