THE PLATE KINEMATIC MEMORY OF THE CONTINENTS

Various coexisting Paleozoic plate tectonic reconstructions for the formation of Pangea are classically based on the determination of the paleolatitudes of continental blocks derived from paleomagnetics, paleoclimate and paleobiogeography. Their contradicting nature based on the uncertainty of the used constraints making obvious that there is still no consensus in terms of Paleozoic plate kinematics. Here we introduce a new, simple method for the restoration of ancient relative plate kinematics deduced exclusively from deformational structures of the continental crust.

We applied this approach to Late Paleozoic plate movements in respect to a fixed East European Craton. Our three step strategy includes 1) the rough approximation of the position of the rotational axis, 2) its exact reconstruction utilizing spherical geometry and 3) critical tests along the incorporated plate boundary zones.

We demonstrate that all major tectonic events between 370 Ma and 250 Ma can be sufficiently explained by the introduction of three rotational axes describing the kinematic scenarios of the Paleo-Arctic, the Paleo-Tethys and the Neo-Tethys System, named by the corresponding divergent boundary.

On the example of the Rheic suture we show that our new method enables a comparison of regionally derived structural models and finally culminates in a unified spatial and temporal characterization of an entire plate boundary zone. Hence, we demonstrate that only the application of a spherical approach to regional and local problems is able to uncover the plate kinematic long-term memory of the continental crust.