Permo-Carboniferous sequences of Gondwana affinity in southwest China and their paleogeographic implications

Abstract

In southwest China Permo-Carboniferous depositional sequences of Gondwana affinity were first discovered in the Himalayan region by the expedition team of Acadimia Sinica in 1975. By 1983, Gondwana-affinity Permo-Carboniferous sequences had been identified also in the Lhasa Block, the south Qiangtang Block in Tibet, and the Tengchong and Baoshan blocks in Yunnan. These sequences are characterised by the presence of successions, which are interpreted as glacio-marine deposits and by the presence of Gondwana-affinity biota. The distribution of Gondwana-affinity Permo-Carboniferous indicates that basins whose remnants are now represented by the Yarlung–Zangbo Suture and the Bangong–Nujiang Suture did not exist at that time, and the vast area south of the Lungmu–Shuanghu–Jinshajiang Zone in Tibet and west of the Changning–Menglian Belt in Yunnan formed a part of the northern margin of Gondwana.