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Movement History of the Microcontinents from the Tibetan Plateau Based on Paleomagnetic Results with Sufficient Sampling Units

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Abstract

Paleomagnetic results cannot be applied in global and regional tectonic reconstructions unless the paleosecular variation has been adequately averaged. However, how many sampling sites and samples are enough to calculate a reliable paleopole remains debated. Based on the relation among the sampling sites N, the precision parameter k, the virtual geomagnetic pole scatter s, and the confidence limit A95 of the paleopole, we find that 20 sites (samples) or more are required to yield a paleopole with an A95 ≈ 5° based on a review of available paleomagnetic results from the Lhasa, Qiangtang and Tethyan Himalaya. Random samplings of Jurassic virtual geomagnetic poles from the Sangri area show that the Fisher mean pole with neglectable angle deviation can be obtained when sampling sites increase to 20. High-quality paleomagnetic results, with sites/samples number N/n ⩾ ∼20–30, show that the Qiangtang, Lhasa, and Tethyan Himalaya moved northward in the Late Permian-Middle Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous, respectively, and then accreted to Asia in the Late Triassic, Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous and Paleocene-Early Eocene, respectively.

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Acknowledgments

Five anonymous reviewers are grateful for their constructive comments. We thank Kaixian Qi for his help in this study. We also thank Huapei Wang and Jun Meng for their suggestions. This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 41802242 and 42174089). The final publication is available at Springer via https://doi.org/10.1007/s12583-022-1721-2.

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  1. School of Earth Sciences, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, 430074, China

    Yiming Ma & Chao Niu

  2. College of Earth Sciences, Guilin University of Technology, Guilin, 541004, China

    Weimin Ruan

  3. State Key Laboratory of Biogeology and Environmental Geology, China University of Geosciences, Beijing, 100083, China

    Tianshui Yang

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Ma, Y., Ruan, W., Niu, C. et al. Movement History of the Microcontinents from the Tibetan Plateau Based on Paleomagnetic Results with Sufficient Sampling Units. J. Earth Sci. 33, 1072–1080 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12583-022-1721-2

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