Late Palaeozoic Evolution of the Peri-Gondwanan Plates of SE Asia

The continents forming the core of Gondwana include South America, Africa, Madagascar, India, Antarctica and Australia. The location of numerous smaller continental blocks that bordered Gondwana is less certain. These smaller blocks were assembled during the Early Paleozoic time to Gondwana, forming the so-called Peri-Gondwanan zone. The following were adjacent to Gondwana during the Paleozoic times: Yucatan, Florida, Avalonia, central European (Cadomian) terranes between the Armorica and Bohemian Massif, Moesia, Iberia, Apulia and the smaller, southern European terranes, central Asian terranes (Karakum and others), China (several separate blocks), and the Cimmerian terranes of Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Qiangtang, Lhasa and Southeast Asia (Golonka et al., 2006). The European Avalonian plates probably started to rift from Gondwana and move towards Baltica in the earliest Ordovician and were in a drift stage by the Middle Ordovician time and originated Rheic Ocean. It is quite possible that South China and Indochina plates also were rifted from Gondwana in the Ordovician.