Proto-Tethys Ocean

The Proto - Tethys Ocean was a geological and existed from the Ediacaran top ~ 550 mya to the middle Carboniferous ~ 320 mya.

The forerunner of the later Palaeotethys formed as the briefly existing global supercontinent Pannotia broke, the fragment of Proto - Laurasia from Gondwana in the global ocean Panthalassa wegdriftete and so made ​​this sea area distinguishable. At the same time there was also the Rheische Ocean as part of the sea between Gondwana and the migrating northward small continent Avalonia.

Only a few million years later, at the beginning of the Paleozoic Proto - Laurasia divided into its constituents and thereby opened the Iapetus between Laurentia and Baltica and the Khanty- Mansi Ocean between Baltica and Sibiria.

The ocean was bounded by island arcs and the Kraton of Kazakhstan from the northern Panthalassa.

The Proto - Tethys spread during the Cambrian period, reaching the lower Silurian ~ 440 mya its greatest extent.

Sibiria was located in the West Gondwana in the east of the ocean during the upper Silurian North China and South China broke away from Gondwana and moved to the north. In the upper Devonian of the continental block collided with Kazakhstan Sibiria and bordered by an ocean. The final closure with formation of the suture was performed by the addition of northern China to the now almost complete Eurasia - Laurussia with Kazakhstan and Sibiria to 300 mya, the top Carboniferous, while the Palaeotethys now was created by the disappearance of the Cimmerian cratons of Gondwana. From this time the Carboniferous - Permian boundary ~ 300 mya, the last global super-continent Pangaea is considered complete.

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