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The Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB) was generated through multiple collisional and accretionary events in the Paleo-Asian Ocean, a major global ocean that existed from the late Neoproterozoic into the late Paleozoic. Nevertheless, the question of when the Paleo-Asian Ocean finally closed has notoriously been enigmatic, especially due to the absence of large-scale investigations. The South Tianshan-Solonker Suture, is the largest and southernmost suture within the CAOB, and records the ultimate collision between the Tarim-North China cratons with the Siberia craton, and is commonly interpreted as marking the eventual closure of the Paleo-Asian Ocean. In this paper, we synthesize and evaluate relevant Chinese papers on the area, which are not readily available to an international audience, and extend this across the full length of the suture zone. Based on this review, we can divide the suture zone into four distinct segments, which are, from west to east: the South Tianshan Belt, the Beishan Belt, the Solonker Belt and the Yanji Belt. This enables us to provide a more systematic understanding of the nature and development of the South Tianshan-Solonker suture. Geochronological data from Paleozoic cover rocks and high-pressure metamorphic rocks show that during the late Carboniferous, the western section of the Paleo-Asian Ocean closed when the Tarim Craton moved northward to collide with the Kazakhstan-Yili Block, thus marking the initial development of the South Tianshan Belt. The Beishan Belt to the east formed when the Dunhuang-Alxa blocks were transported northward to collide with the Tuva-Mongolia Block, with the youngest zircon U Pb data from ophiolites indicating that closure of the local Beishan Ocean was in the early-middle Permian, although its final closure may not have been until the early late Permian along the northern margin of the Alxa Block, thus making it slightly younger than the South Tianshan Belt. Further to the east, the available petrographic, geochronological and paleontological data from the Solonker Belt indicate that this belt was formed in the middle-late Permian, during which time bi-directional subduction occurred and the North China and Siberia cratons were amalgamated during an 'Appalachian-type' orogeny. Furthermore, we observe that a transition in polarity from northward to bi-directional subduction occurred along the boundary between the Beishan and Solonker belts, which may be related to the East Gobi Transform Fault. In contrast, under the influence of the westward subduction of the Paleo-Pacific Ocean, the Jiamusi-Khanka Block moved southwestward along the Yilan-Yitong Fault in the middle-late Triassic (230–220 Ma) to amalgamate with the North China Craton. The formation of the South Tianshan-Solonker Suture can be characterized by four distinct west-to-east accretion/collision events that lasted from the late Carboniferous to the late Permian. The South Tianshan Belt, the Beishan Belt and the Solonker Belt therefore demarcate, respectively, the amalgamation between the Tarim Craton and the Kazakhstan-Yili Block, the Dunhuang-Alxa Block and the Tuva-Mongolia Block, and the North China Craton with the Siberia Craton, representing the final closure of the Paleo-Asian Ocean. During the middle-late Triassic, the Yanji Belt in the far east was influenced by the Paleo-Pacific tectonic domain as a result of amalgamation between the Jiamusi-Khanka Block and the North China Craton. • South Tianshan-Solonker Suture marks the final collision between Tarim-North China and Siberian cratons. • The Suture includes four segments, and closed form Late Carboniferous to Middle Triassic from west to east, respectively. • The Yanji belt was influenced by the Paleo-Pacific tectonic domain during the Middle Triassic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

East Asia is exceptionally rich in diverse geological phenomena related to processes of major global significance in Earth history. Its tectonic evolution is closely related to the subduction of the Izanagi and Pacific plates and the India-Eurasia collision. Thus, this domain presents a vast natural laboratory within which some of the most topical and fundamental problems in Pacific-Asian Tectonics can be addressed. Recent breakthroughs in understanding the tectonic evolution of East Asia have been achieved, involving intraplate deformation, plate fragmentation, plate boundary processes, orogenic collapse, and craton destruction. These advances have been achieved via multidisciplinary work including structural geology, basin research, land and marine geophysics, thermochronology, numerical modeling, geochemistry and classical field geology. In the current context of research in East Asia the time is ripe for a thematic volume of review papers. This special issue is focused on the theme "Pacific-Asian Tectonics". It describes interdisciplinary methods adopted to study Meso-Cenozoic basin-forming mechanisms and evolutionary processes, unravels the timing and characteristics of major intraplate deformation, depicts the spatial-temporal distribution of Meso-Cenozoic igneous rocks, discusses the deep lithospheric structures overlying the subducting oceanic plates, and probes the natures and fates of subduction or collision processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thermal regime and thermal history are of significant important in basin dynamics and hydrocarbon generation of source rocks. The sedimentary basins in three typical cratons of China, North China Craton (NCC), Yangtze Craton (YC) and Tarim Craton (TC), underwent completely different tectonic background and dynamic mechanism, which resulted in the differentials of their thermal regimes. In this paper, the thermal regimes of the Bohai Bay Basin in the eastern NCC, Tarim Basin in TC, and Sichuan basin in the Upper YC were studied. There has some lower thermal background in the area of western China than eastern side of the NCC. The mean heat flow value of Tarim basin is 42.5 mW/m2, 53.8 mW/m2 in the Sichuan basin and 66.7 mW/m2 in the eastern NCC. And the temperature at 10000 m ultra-depth in the Tarim Basin also shows lower values than that of Sichuan and Bohai Bay basins. The thermal history, modeled from thermal indicators of vitrinite reflectance (R o), equivalent vitrinite reflectance data (R equ), fission track and (U Th)/He data of apatite and zircon, evolved differently because of the different tectonic history in these basins. The Tarim basin underwent a cooling history with the heat flow of 55–65 mW/m2 in the Cambrian decreasing to the present-day of 40–50 mW/m2. The Meso-Cenozoic thermal history of the Bohai Bay basin experienced four evolutionary stages with two heat flow peaks in the late Early Cretaceous and in the Middle to Late Paleogene, which correspond to the destruction peaks of the eastern NCC and had heat flow values of 82–86 mW/m2 and 81–88 mW/m2, respectively. The Sichuan basin was stable with heat flow value of less than 65 mW/m2 from the Late Sinian to Late Paleozoic, and the heat flow increased rapidly to the peak value (75–100 mW/m2) at the end of Early Permian by thermal effect of the Emeishan mantle plume. From Mesozoic to present, the heat flow decreased to the present value (60–70 mW/m2). In addition, the comparation of thermal characteristics of typical cratons around the world, including heat flow, thermal history, lithospheric thermal structure and thermal lithospheric thickness, also have been caried out. The differential thermal histories of Tarim and Sichuan basins resulted in the different thermal evolution of Cambrian source rocks. This study may provide some new geothermal evidence for hydrocarbon generation and phase distribution of oil and gas in the deep and/or ultra-deep basin. Thermal regime and thermal history of typical sedimentary basins in three typical cratons of China underwent completely different evolution. The Tarim basin underwent a cooling history, the Bohai Bay basin experienced four evolutionary stages with two heat flow peaks, and the Sichuan basin was stable with heat flow but to a peak at the end of Early Permian. Nansheng Qiu, Chang Jian, Zhu Chuanqing, Liu Wen, Zuo Yinhui, Xu Wei, Li Dan. [Display omitted] • Three typical cratons of China show great differences in heat flow and deep-temperature. • Three typical cratons of China show great differences in lithospheric thickness from 76–170 km. • Thermal histories of Bohai Bay, Sichuan and Tarim basins are summarized. • Thermal regime between stable and destabilized cratons are compared. • Three thermal evolution patterns of source rocks are obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Meso-Neoproterozoic period, sometimes referred to as the 'boring billion' or 'Earth's middle age', spans the interval between the formation of the Columbia and Rodina supercontinents. It is regarded as a stable era of the Earth. However, from a global perspective, there are many intensive events of mafic volcanism, dyke intrusions and formation of rift basins recorded in different cratons during this period. This paper focuses on rift basins that developed in three cratons in China (North China, South China and Tarim cratons), because large-scale primary gasfields, as one of the deep resources, have been discovered recently in rocks of Meso-Neoproterozoic age. The formation mechanisms and tectonic settings of these rift basins as the targets of Deep Earth are discussed, based on the restoration of global positions of the three cratons by pre-existing paleomagnetic data and plate reconstruction. We recognise that the rift basins of the North China Craton are related to extrusion tectonics in the southwest Ordos Block or are pull-apart basins along the northern and southern sides of the Ordos Block. The rift basins of the South China Craton are derived from mantle lithospheric delamination of the Jiangnan Orogen in the eastern South China Craton or subduction retreat and backarc opening in the western South China Craton, respectively. The rift basins of the Tarim Craton originated from the backarc opening along the margin of the Supercontinent Rodinia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]