RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN NEOPROTEROZOIC CRATONS OF CHINA AND THE RODINIA

In this paper, after briefly introducing the new advances in the research of the Rodinia and Gondwana supercontinents, we emphatically demonstrate the characteristics of the North China, Tarim and Yangzi Cratons in the pre-Neoproterozoic period, and the sequence and time framework of Neoproterozoic major events. We propose that there is marvellous similarity between the Neoproterozoic history of the Tarim and Yangzi Cratons, however, they are different from that of the North China Craton. In the Rodinia, the Tarim and Yangzi were neighborhood to Australia, but the North China Craton might have been close to Siberia. Meanwhile there was no very strong Neoproterozoic thermo-tectonic events that were related to assembly and breakup of Rodinia occured in the North China Craton . On the basis of present paleomagnetic and geological data, the relationship and the possible position of the three cratons of China to the Rodinia supercontinent are proposed.