This volume provides accounts of up-to-date research by Chinese and international geological teams on key aspects of the tectonic evolution of China and its surrounding areas. The papers describe the formation of the geological terranes that make up this part of east Asia, place constraints on plate tectonic models for their assembly and provide accounts of unique geological feature of the subcontinent.

The North China Craton is one of the oldest cratonic blocks in the world, containing rocks as old as 3.85 billion years. Focusing on Neoarchean mantle plumes and Paleoproterozoic plate tectonics, this book combines the results from modern geological research to provide you with a detailed synthesis of the geology, structure, and evolution of the North China Craton. It will be of value to anyone interested in the evolution of cratonic blocks and Precambrian geology as well as geoscientists interested in applying tectonic models to other cratonic blocks globally. This work will also be of interest to geologists concerned with the problems of structure and evolution of the Precambrian continents and supercontinents. - The first book to apply mantle plume and plate tectonics models to understanding the Neoarchean accretion and Paleoproterozoic amalgamation of a craton - Features more than 75 geologic maps, illustrations, diagrams, and microphotographs depicting the progressive stages of the North China Craton's Precambrian evolution - Authored by one of the world's foremost experts in cratonic evolution and mantle plume and plate tectonic modeling

This book is the first contribution to the overview of Precambrian geology of China. It covers Precambrian geology of the North China Craton, the South China Craton and the Tarim Craton, as well as other smaller blocks in the Chinese orogenic belts. It provides systematic concepts of the Chinese paleo-continents and incorporates the most up-to-date achievements. Edited by many of the active researchers working at the forefront of the related fields, it contributes greatly to the international Precambrian geology community and would be of interest to geoscientists working in the research field of geology of China and Precambrian geodynamics.

The evolution of Asia has largely occurred over the last 400 million years, and continues today. Seeing a continent in the act of assembly provides a rare opportunity to study the processes by which continents are constructed and internally modified. This book is a collection of twenty-one contributions on the tectonic evolution of Asia. The book is divided into five parts: geodynamic models of the Cenozoic deformation in Asia, seismotectonics, geological evolution of the Himalaya–Karakoram Ranges, tectonics of the Cenozoic Indo–Asia collision, and Mesozoic–Paleozoic assembly of Asia. Several important problems are addressed in detail, including the origin of the Tibetan Plateau, the nature of ultra-high pressure metamorphism in east-central Asia, the accretion of microcontinents to Asia, and the accommodation mechanisms of the Indo-Asian collision. The Tectonic Evolution of Asia provides an authoritative description of our current understanding of Asian tectonics and continental growth for graduate students and researchers.

This long-awaited book about non-pollen palynomorphs (NPPs) aims to cover gaps in our knowledge of these abundant but understudied palynological remains. NPPs, such as fungal spores, testate amoebae, dinoflagellate cysts, acritarchs and animal remains, are routinely recovered from palynological preparations of marine or terrestrial material, from Proterozoic to recent geological times. This book gives the reader a comprehensive overview of the different types of NPPs, with examples from diverse time periods and environments. It provides guidance on sample preparation to maximize the recovery of these NPPs, detailed information on their diversity and ecological affinity, clarification on the nomenclature and demonstrates their value as environmental indicators. This volume will become the reference guide for any student, academic or practitioner interested in everything else in their palynological preparations.