| Abstract: |
The geological and tectonic evolution of East and Southeast Asia is essentially one of dispersion of continental terranes from the margin of Gondwana, their northwards drift and subsequent amalgamation and accretion to form present-day Asia. Dispersion of terranes, as three elongate continental slivers, from the Margin of Gondwana took place in three episodes in the Devonian, Early-Middle Permian, and late Triassic-Late Jurassic. The separation of the three continental slivers was accompanied by the opening of three successive Tethyan ocean basins, the Palaeo-Tethys, Meso-Tethys and Ceno-Tethys. These ocean basins were subsequently destroyed by subduction as the continental slivers drifted northwards and remnants of them are now found in the various suture zones of Asia. Amalgamation and accretion of the Gondwana-derived terranes took place progressively between the Carboniferous and the Cenozoic and palaeogeographic reconstructions are presented which illustrate the spatial evolution of the various East and Southeast Asian continental terranes during the Phanerozoic.
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