Cimmeria (continent)
Cimmeria or Kimmeria is a prehistoric peri- Gondwana supercontinent Pangaea element of the past. Cimmeria is from the Carboniferous Hun - Super Terran, the min. 50 million years before that existed in the former Palaeotethys to distinguish.
The continental fragment broke away possibly as early as the Permian - Triassic boundary (250 mya ), but in any case in the Jurassic ( about 170 mya ) - ie 20 to 100 million years before the dissolution of Pangaea, from the southern part - the ancient southern continent of Gondwana - from and rotated in the Tethys in the area of today's Carpathian Mountains. The mountains of the Cimmerian fold belt - especially the Western Balkan rear sight Riden - that contain predominantly eroded rocks of the Variscan and Cadomian crust of Cimmeria trapped there and are now Geological zones of the Alpine mountain belt.
Volcanic islands or continental plate parts
It is the micro- continent Cimmeria as well as the westernmost island of the different, namely volcanic, resulting Cimmerian island arc north of the deep-sea trench Tethysgraben - present-day Turkey, Iran, the Caucasus, Tibet, Indochina - look. The differing views of the geology are also evident here: Other authors see - in contrast to the view presented above - the entire island chain Cimmeria Super Terran as Peri - Gondwana elements .. Below this view is explained in more detail:
300 mya
The Cimmerian plate was connected during the Precambrian and Paleozoic top still with India and thus Gondwana. The Palaeotethys separated them from Laurasia. During this period of the northern part of India from a late phase of the so-called Kambro - Ordovician Pan-African event or Pan-African orogeny or (?) Cadomian orogeny was affected, which is characterized by different stratification of Ordovician continental conglomerates and underlying Cambrian marine sediments. The numerous granitic intrusions are dated about 500 mya, and this event can be attributed.
250 mya
A grave breach in early Carboniferous begins to separate Cimmeria by the Indian continental plate. During the Permian, this fracture zone has become a new ocean, the Tethys. The Cimmerian Terrane wander thereby north towards Laurasia and now form part of Iran, Afghanistan and Tibet.
190 mya and 100 mya
The Cimmerian plates collided with Laurasia about 190 million years ago. This collision formed the Cimmerian fold belt with gradual closure of Palaeotethys. It was not until 100 million years later the Indian tectonic plate began her fast north movement with an average of 16 cm / year, and generated the first Tethysgraben and subsequently the Asian part of the Alpine mountain belt from the Cretaceous to the Pleistocene. Even today pushes India on a range of 2400 km by 5 cm / year and a counterclockwise rotation of 33 degrees today in the direction of the continental plates Kazakhstan, Siberia, South China and North China. The continental crust of India and the cratons North and Südtibets and the other Cimmerian terranes were and are still pressed together and raised parts in complex accretion, folding and Subduktionsvorgängen. Part of this now alpidisch called orogeny is the Himalayas.
Sources, references
- Map of mountain building in Europe
- The Cimmerian islands along the Tethysgrabens in the Upper Jurassic. The Palaeotethys is getting narrower. Cimmeria lies southeast of Baltica.
- Continent of the earth's