A Consistently High‐Latitude South China From 820 to 780 Ma: Implications for Exclusion From Rodinia and the Feasibility of Large‐Scale True Polar Wander

Abstract

Earth's lithosphere moves through two fundamental mechanisms. The more familiar of these mechanisms are tectonic motions-that is, differential movement between lithospheric plates. The second mechanism is the rotation of the entire silicate Earth in order to maintain rotational equilibrium. On any rotating planetary body, changes in the distribution of mass on (e.g., the melting of ice sheets;

New Paleomagnetic Insights Into the Neoproterozoic Connection Between South China and India and Their Position in Rodinia

“…But the poles from the Liantuo Formation reveal significantly lower latitudes (Evans et al, 2000;Jing et al, 2015Jing et al, , 2021. Park et al (2021) reported a precise zircon U-Pb age at 779.52 ± 0.26 Ma, through the use of the CA-ID-TIMS (chemical abrasion isotope dilution thermal ionization mass spectrometry) method, from a tuff bed ∼15 m below the paleomagnetic sampling horizon of the upper Liantuo Formation in Evans et al (2000). If the dating results do represent the stratum age rather than detrital materials, the age of the lower Liantuo Formation should be older than ca.…”

“…Reported ca. 824‐800 Ma paleomagnetic data (Jing et al., 2020; Li et al., 2004; Niu et al., 2016; Park et al., 2021; Xian et al., 2020) and the ca. 770 Ma pole all indicate a high latitudinal position for the SCC.…”

“…Park et al. (2021) reported a precise zircon U‐Pb age at 779.52 ± 0.26 Ma, through the use of the CA‐ID‐TIMS (chemical abrasion isotope dilution thermal ionization mass spectrometry) method, from a tuff bed ∼15 m below the paleomagnetic sampling horizon of the upper Liantuo Formation in Evans et al. (2000).…”

“…The loose paleomagnetic constraint fitting the upper Liantuo Formation pole of SCC with the Malani Igneous Suite (MIS) pole of India permits the reconstruction of a tectonic connection between the SCC and India (Evans, 2009; Zhang et al., 2013). However, the age of the Liantuo Formation remains highly controversial (e.g., Lan et al., 2015; Ma et al., 1984; Park et al., 2021), actually rendering any specific connection between the SCC and India in the late Neoproterozoic ambiguous.…”

The Precambrian paleogeography of Laurentia

“…The reconstruction of North China to Laurentia follows Ding et al (2021). The omission of South China from Rodinia follows Park et al (2021b). The reconstruction implements Kalahari and Amazonia cratons as conjugates with Laurentia in the Grenvillian orogeny (Hoffman, 1991).…”