Pairing extreme metamorphism – A Tale of East Pangea supercontinent assembly
The construction of East Pangea resulted from amalgamation of the Tarim-North China collage (TNCC), Mongolian collage (MC) and Kazakhstan collage (KC). In the late Paleozoic, the TNCC recorded the interior-type collision between Tarim and the KC and Carboniferous UHP metamorphism in the South Tianshan. Meanwhile, to the north, the Altai orogenic belt (MC) recorded UHT metamorphism associated to back-arc opening between the KC and the MC. However, the corresponding deformational, metamorphic and temporal relationships remain unresolved. In order to fill the gap, a multidisciplinary approach is proposed based on: i) metamorphic studies, ii) garnet Lu–Hf and Sm–Nd and zircon and monazite U–Pb
geochronology, iii) quantitative microstructural analysis. The new data will allow the characterization P–T–t–D evolutions of the two orogens and provide constraints on: 1) interactions between interior-exterior systems, 2) mechanisms of late Paleozoic suturing and pairing of UHP-UHTmetamorphic provinces and 3) processes controlling final stages of the assembly of the Pangea supercontinent.
Project in collaboration with Institute of Geological Sciences, Polish Academy of Sciences, principal investigator Jérémie Soldner.