Tectonics Special Research Centre

About IGCP 440 Project

Amalgamation of the Rodinia Supercontinent is the major geodynamic event during the Mesoproterozoic era. Parts of Rodinia survived until the Mesozoic fragmentation of Pangea; other parts broke up in the Neoproterozoic
The record of amalgamation and break-up of Rodinia is preserved in Mesoproterozoic mobile belts and Neoproterozoic basins present at the margins of most Paleoproterozoic cratons.

The objective of the project is to obtain a robust database and framework for interpretation of the geodynamic evolution of the continental lithosphere during the late Mesoproterozoic and Neoproterozoic.

The project is structured to:

 Determine the configuration of Rodinia and the sequence of events in the amalgamation process;

 Determine whether the Paleoproterozoic cratons originated by breakup of an older, pre-Rodinia supercontinent, or were independent fragments of continental crust

 Improve and enhance the understanding of the breakup of Rodinia during the Neoproterozoic

 Allow analysis and interpretation of the distribution of Mesoproterozoic and Neoproterozoic mineral resources in a geodynamic framework

 Create a tectonic database from which geodynamic models and maps of the assembly and break-up of Rodinia can be constructed

The foundations for the new project were laid by IGCP Project 288 – "Gondwanaland sutures and fold belts", completed in 1996.

Project Leaders

Svetlana Bogdanova
Email: roland.sveta@bredband.net

Zheng-Xiang Li
Email: zli@tsrc.uwa.edu.au

Project Secretary

Sergei Pisarevsky
Email: spisarev@tsrc.uwa.edu.au

 

Photo Top "Village"
Northeastern Jiangxi Field Region, China

Right "China"
© M. Greentree