Tien Shan, Pamir, and Tibet: History and geodynamics of phanerozoic oceanic basins

Geological and biogeographical data on the paleooceanic basins of the Tien Shan and High Asia are summarized. The oceanic crustal rocks in the Tien Shan, Pamir, and Tibet belong to the Tethian and Turkestan-Paleoasian systems of paleooceanic basins. The tectonic evolution of these systems in the Phanerozoic was not coeval and unidirectional. The sialic blocks of the future Tien Shan, Pamir, and Tibet were incorporated into the Eurasian continent during several stages. In the Late Ordovician and Silurian several microcontinents were preliminarily combined into the Kazakh-Kyrgyz continent as a composite aggregation. The territories of the Tien Shan and Tarim became a part of Eurasia after the closure of the Turkestan, Ural, and Paleotethian oceans in the Late Carboniferous and Early Permian. The territories of the Pamir, Karakorum, Kunlun, and most of Tibet attached to the Eurasian continent in the Triassic. The Lhasa and Kohistan blocks were incorporated into Eurasia in the Cretaceous, whereas Hindustan was docked to Eurasia in the Paleogene.