Chapter 20 Eurasian orogens and Arctic tectonics: an overview

Abstract This review summarizes our current understanding of the major Eurasian orogens in the context of Arctic tectonics: the Ediacaran Timanides, the middle Palaeozoic Caledonides, the late Palaeozoic Uralides and the Mesozoic fold belts of Taimyr and Verkhoyansk. Controversies and problems are associated with the: (i) regional extent, timing, and nature of deformation associated with Ediacaran Timanian orogenesis; (ii) northward extent of Caledonian deformation; (iii) continuation of Permo-Carboniferous Uralian orogenesis on Novaya Zemlya and understanding this deformation in Taimyr; (iv) timing, location and style of deformation associated with Mesozoic deformation in Taimyr and Verkhoyansk, and its relationship to the opening of the Amerasia Basin; (v) original size of the Arctic Alaska–Chukotka microplate (AACM) and the nature of its boundaries, including the timing and amount of extension of the AACM and the location of the South Anyui Suture; and (vi) age and nature of pre-Okhotsk–Chukotka volcano-plutonic belt basement across eastern Russia and western Alaska and its relationship to the development of the Canada Basin/Amerasia Basin. The resolution of these controversies is needed to test hypotheses for the tectonic development of the Amerasia Basin, in particular, and for understanding the tectonic development of the Circum-Arctic as a whole.

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