Positions of the East Asian cratons in the Neoproterozoic supercontinent Rodinia

Three major East Asian crustal blocks, the Tarim, North China and South China Blocks, have records of the Neoproterozoic rifting events that broke up the supercontinent Rodinia. A preliminary tectonostratigraphic analysis suggests that the Tarim Block may have been adjacent to the Kimberley region, the South China Block between eastern Australia and Laurentia, and the North China Block adjacent to the northwestern corner of Laurentia and Siberia during the early Neoproterozoic. All three blocks were probably separated from the larger cratons towards the end of the Neoproterozoic but stayed close to the Australian margins of Gondwanaland from Cambrian until Devonian.