NEW RECOGNITION ON THE TECTONIC FRAMEWORK OF CHINA

The new data of recent investigations suggest that the massifs such as the Sino-Korean, Yangtze and Tarim platforms constituting the main part of the Chinese continent were separated from each other in the early Paleozoic. The- refore, a unitary Chinese continent was not present in the pre-Carboniferous. Actually, the Sino-Korean platform as the principal part of the Chinese continent is composed of three blocks, the North China platform, the Jiaoliao （eastern Shandong-eastern Liaoning） massif and the Alxa massif. The base- ments and covers of the three tectonic units separated by major faults differ to a certain extent. Consequently, the proposed Sino-Korean platform is not a unitary massif with the same basement, but an association of different blocks. According to the available data, at least twenty-four continental blocks of varying sizes have been recognized within China, namely the North China platform, Yangtze platform, Tarim platform and Indian platform （its north- ern part is located in China） and the Qaidam, Qangtang, Lhasa, Hami, Mazong -shan, Central Qilian, Haobiru, Nanhai, Central Tianshan, Dakendaban, Tahe, Jiamusi, Songliao, Alxa, Jiaoliao, Wudang-Huaiyang, Jiangnan, Baoshan, Zoige and Zhongza massifs or terranes. They are welded into an entirety by geosyn clinal fold belts of different geological epochs, thus forming a tectonic frame- work characteristic of the continent of China. Various lines of evidence have proved that the formation of the Chinese continent resulted from subduction of oceanic crust, continental accretion and block collage in the late Paleozoic and Mesozoic. This lengthy and complex course is by no means a simple disintegration of a proto-platform.