Reconstruction of eastern Gondwanaland

Abstract

Substantial additions of large continental blocks to the Smith et al.1 model of eastern Gondwanaland are proposed here largely on the basis of the distribution of key land floras, tropical and subtropical marine faunas, lithofacies patterns and the identification of a Triassic magmatic arc that characterized all the eastern margin of Gondwanaland. The continental fragments that must have been rifted from northern Australia–New Guinea in the Jurassic are identified as south Tibet–Burma–Thailand–Malaya and Sumatra. The original site of deposition of the subtropical Permian limestones and tropical late Triassic limestones, overthrust onto the northern margin of Australia by the late Cenozoic collision2, is located in this greater Gondwanaland. Palaeomagnetic data, except those from Malaya3, support this reconstruction.