Abstract

South China Block is situated in the Eastern Asian margin. Its tectonic process was constrained by convergences of the ancient South China, paleo-Asian, paleo-Tethys and paleo-Pacific oceans with different ages. Studies suggest that this block was initially formed by the Neoproterozoic subduction-accretion of ancient South China Ocean and the assembly of the Yangtze and Cathaysia blocks. Then, this block experienced three crucial tectonic-magmatic events happened in Phanozoic. Among these events, the Neoproterozoic and Late Mesozoic tectono-magmatism were trigged by convergences of the ancient South China and paleo-Pacific oceans, while the Silurian and Triassic events took place under intracontinental settings that were strongly affected by convergences of the paleo-Asian and paleo-Tethys oceans, respectively. The South China Block had a complicated evolutionary history of subduction-accretion and collision in 980-820 Ma, forming the Jiangnan Orogenic Belt and the proto-South China Continent followed by a rifting tectonics and bimodal volcanism in 810-760 Ma. From 760 to 460 Ma, the entire South China Block was situated under a shore, shallow sea to slope depositional environment. During 460-400 Ma, as a response of paleo-Asian Ocean convergence, an intracontinental orogeny had generated the South China Orogenic Belt. Shortly afterwards, this block underwent a stable carbonate deposition in 400-230 Ma under a shore and shallow sea environment. In 240-220 Ma, as responses of paleo-Tethys convergence, intracontinental deformation and S-type granitic magmatism took place. During the early Cretaceous, a basin-and-range framework occurred in the western shore of paleo-Pacific Plate. This paper also discusses several long-lasting hotly debated topics.