Neoproterozoic paleogeography of the Tarim Block: An extended or alternative “missing-link” model for Rodinia?

Abstract

Recent reconstructions of the Rodinia supercontinent and its breakup incorporate South China as a “missing link” between Australia and Laurentia, and place the Tarim craton adjacent to northwestern Australia on the supercontinent's periphery. However, subsequent kinematic evolution toward Gondwana amalgamation requires complex geometric shuffling between South China and Tarim, which cannot be easily resolved with the stratigraphic records of those blocks. Here we present new paleomagnetic data from early Ediacaran strata of northwest Tarim, and document large-scale rotation at near-constant paleolatitudes during Cryogenian time. The rotation is coeval with Rodinia breakup, and Tarim's paleolatitudes are compatible with its placement between Australia and Laurentia, either by itself as an alternative “missing link” or joined with South China in that role. At the same time, indications of subduction-related magmatism in Tarim's Neoproterozoic record suggest that Rodinia breakup was dynamically linked to subduction retreat along its northern margin. Such a model is akin to early stages of Jurassic fragmentation within southern Gondwana, and implies more complicated subduction-related dynamics of supercontinent breakup than superplume impingement alone.