Growth and Evolution of the Asian Continent

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Growth and Evolution of the Asian Continent

• This is a major research program being carried
  out by cooperation between two teams IES
  (Bor-ming Jahn and Kuo-Lung Wang) and NTU-Geology
  (Sun-Lin Chung and Ching-Hua Lo). The formation
  and evolution of the continental crust is a major
  issue in earth sciences. The aim of our
  cooperative work is to study how the Asian
  continent has grown and evolved to the present
  size. Indeed, Asia has grown by amalgamation of
  continental cratons or blocks, through which
  collisional orogens were formed between the
  cratons, such as the Himalayas. On the other
  hand, Asia has also grown in mass by input of
  juvenile material from the upper mantle. However,
  such growth involves two or more stages including
  the formation of island arcs, accretion of arcs
  onto continental margins, and followed by
  intracontinental differentiation. Juvenile crust
  was added through arc formation and by
  underplating of mantle-derived magma to the lower
  crust and subsequent partial melting. The orogens
  formed by arc accretion (lateral process) and
  underplating of mantle-derived magmas (vertical
  process) are called accretionary orogens. They
  are represented by the Central Asian Orogenic
  Belt (CAOB), the Arabian-Nubian Shield (ANS) and
  the Japanese Islands. Accretionary orogens are
  the major sites of crustal growth and
  mineralizations. The IES team undertakes study of
  the three accretionary orogens using geochemical
  and isotopic approaches.

The Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB) and
neighbouring Asian continental blocks/terranes.
CAOB encompasses the northern part of China,
Mongolia, southern part of Siberia and Kazakhstan.
Jahn, Bor-ming, 2004. The Central Asian Orogenic
Belt and growth of the continental crust in the
Phanerozoic. In Aspects of the Tectonic
Evolution of China (eds., J. Malpas, C.J.N.
Fletcher, J.C. Aitchison), Geol. Soc. London.
Spec. Pub. No. 226, p. 73-100.