South China Craton

The South China Craton or South China Block is one of the Precambrian continental blocks in China.^[1] It is traditionally divided into the Yangtze Block in the NW and the Cathaysia Block in the SE.^[2] The Jiangshan–Shaoxing Fault represents the suture boundary between the two sub-blocks.^[2] Recent study suggests that the South China Block possibly has one more sub-block which is named the Tolo Terrane.^[3] The oldest rocks in the South China Block occur within the Kongling Complex, which yields zircon U–Pb ages of 3.3–2.9 Ga.^[1]

There are three important reasons to study the South China Block. First, South China hosts a great deal of rare-earth element (REE) ores. Second, the South China Block is a key component of the Rodinia supercontinent. Therefore, such study helps us understand more about the supercontinent cycle. Third, almost all major known clades of Triassic marine reptiles have been recovered from the South China sedimentary sequences.^[4] They are important to understand the marine recovery after the Permian-Triassic mass extinction.^[5]

The South China Block was formed by collision between the Yangtze Block and Cathaysia Block in the Neoproterozoic. On the one hand, the central and eastern part of the South China Block experienced three important Phanerozoic tectonic events. In the Chinese literature, they are named the Wuyi-Yunkai Movement (Early Paleozoic), the Indosinian Movement (Triassic) and the Yanshanian Movement (Jurassic-Cretaceous). They led to extensive deformation and magmatism.

On the other hand, the Late Paleozoic Emeishan flood basalt magmatism is an important event in the western part of the block.