摘要
Asia that comprises numerous ancient cratonicblocks and young mobile belts isthe largestcomposite continent on Earth.It was enlargedby successive accretion ofdispersed terranesthat,associated with opening and closure of the Paleo-Asian andTethys oceans,had produced avast amount of juvenile continental crust.The CentralAsian orogenic belt(CAOB),for instance,is celebrated for its accretionary tectonicsand production of massive juvenile crust in the Phanerozoic or,most significantly,inthe Paleozoic.The Tethyan domain consisted of two major oceans,i.e.Paleo-Tethysin north and Neo-Tethys in south,separated by a strip of continents/terrains called theCimmerian Continent(Sengor,1984),most of which had begun splitting from thenorthern margin ofGondwanaland during Triassic time.