A Paleo-Mesoproterozoic supercontinent and its record
in North China - A project won State Natural Science
Award (Second Class) in 2014
Professors Guochun Zhao & Min Sun, Department of Earth Sciences, HKU
Introduction
B
A supercontinent forms when nearly all continental plates on Earth
coalesce into a single landmass. The youngest supercontinent in
Earth’s history is Pangea that formed about ~250 million years (Ma)
ago (see Figure A). Since the 1990’s, geologists have confirmed that
Pangea’s components were drifted fragments of a ~1.0 billion years
(Ga) old supercontinent, named “Rodinia” (see Figure B), which was
believed to be the first supercontinent in Earth’s history. In 2000,
however, we proposed a pre-Rodinia supercontinent that formed
about ~1.8 billion years ago (see Figure C; Zhao et al., 2000), based on
the research outcomes of our Hong Kong RGC and China NSFC projects on the Paleoproterozoic amalgamation of the North China
Craton and the extensive review and comparison of the 2.1-1.8 Ga
continent-continent collisional belts and associated cratons combined with paleomagnetic data.
S
G
AM
AUS
Eurosia
NA
(A)
(B)
EA
IND
Laurentia
M
Africa
South
America
K
C
India
Australia
East
Antarctica
Pangea formed ~250
million years ago
(Unrug, 1992)
Rodinia formed ~1.0
billion years ago
(Dalziel, 1997)
SC
S
?
T
B
AUS
IND
(C)
NA
?
NC
G
?
K
EA
AM
M
AF
Columbia (Nuna) formed ~1.8 billion years ago
Zhao et al. (2000, 2002, 2004)
Findings and Achievements
Our studies on the North China Craton led to discoveries of two
1.95-1.85 Ga Himalaya-type continental collisional belts in the craton,
named “Trans-North China Orogen” and “Khondalite Belt” (see Figure D;
Zhao et al., 2001, 2005; Zhao, 2014). Later, we found that similar-aged
continent-continent collisional belts exist in all other cratonic blocks in
the world. This led us to have proposed that these collisional belts recorded global-scale collisional events that led to the assembly of a
pre-Rodinia supercontinent. In 2002 and 2004, we presented comprehensive overviews on the assembly, outgrowth and breakup of the proposed pre-Rodinia supercontinent in two classic papers published in
Earth-Science Reviews (See Figure E; Zhao et al., 2002, 2004)
(D)
g
an
g
g
n
Lo
Yinshan Block
ck
lo
B
im
r
g
Lan
Beijing
lt
Khondalite Belt
iao
o-L
Eastern
Block
Jia
Trans-North
China Orogen
-Ji
Be
Yinshan
Block
Western
Block
ck
o
l
B
Shanghai
Wuhan
Representative Publications
South China
(E)
Zhao, G.C., Wilde, S.A., Cawood, P.A., Sun, M., 2000. Review of 2.1-1.8 Ga orogens and cratons in North America, Baltica, Siberia, central Australia, Antarctica, and North China: a
pre-Rodinia supercontinent? Geological Society of Australia, Abstracts Volume 59,
p.565
Zhao, G.C., Wilde, S.A., Cawood, P.A., Sun M., 2001. Archean blocks and their boundaries in
the North China Craton: lithological, geochemical, structural and P-T path constraints
and tectonic evolution. Precambrian Research 107, 45–73.
Zhao, G.C., Cawood, P.A., Wilde, S.A., Sun, M., 2002. A review of the global 2.1–1.8 Ga orogens: implications for a pre-Rodinian supercontinent. Earth-Science Reviews 59,
125-162.
Zhao, G.C., Sun, M., Wilde, S.A., Li, S.Z., 2004. A Paleo-Mesoproterozoic supercontinent:
Assembly, growth and breakup. Earth-Science Reviews 67, 91-123.
Zhao, G.C., Sun, M., Wilde, S.A., Li, S.Z., 2005. Late Archean to Paleoproterozoic evolution of
the North China Craton: key issues revisited. Precambrian Research, 136 177-202.
Zhao, G.C., 2014. Precambrian evolution of the North China Craton. Elsevier, Amsterdam,
194p.
Siberia
?
Tarim
Greenland
?
South Africa
Baltica
Australia
North America
India
?
North China
East
Antartica
South America
West Africa
Burried Archean-Paleoproterozoic Basement
Exposed Archean-Paleoproterozoic Basement
2.0-1.8 billion years old collisonal belts
1.8-1.3 billion years old continental margin arcs
Awards
With the achievements of this project, Profs. Zhao
and Sun won the State Natural Science Award
(Second Class) in 2014, and Prof. Zhao has been
selected as one of the laureates for the 29th Khwarizmi International Award (First Class) in 2016.
State Natural Science Award (2nd Class)
29th Khwarizmi International Award
Project Code: 7058/04P, 7055/05P, 7063/06P, 7066/07P, 7057/08P, 7069/12P, 7063/13P and 17301915