Middle American Terranes Potential Correlatives and Orogenic Processes

<p>Consisting of papers that have appeared recently in <i>International Geology Review</i> <b>Middle American Terranes Potential Correlatives and Orogenic Processes</b> focuses on Middle American terranes in which tectonic processes including flat-slab subduction for orogenic development are examined at various times since the late Mesoproterozoic: at 1 Ga through the Paleozoic and into the Cenozoic. Many papers relate the evolution of the Middle American terranes over the past billion years to global scale events and a second theme running through the book relates to the supercontinents Rodinia and Pangea the geometry of their amalgamation and breakup and the processes responsible.</p><p>Highlights include: </p><p>· An update on the geographic record tectonic setting and provenance of these terranes </p><p>· Documentation of allocthonous nature and position peripheral to Amazonia of the ~1 Ga basement of southern Mexico </p><p>· Data demonstrating that the basement rocks were involved in several Phanerozoic tectonic events </p><p>· An examination of new evidence of a Late Paleozoic event associated with the amalgamation of Pangea overprinting the ~1 Ga basement and the Paleozoic units lying chiefly to the west and south of it </p><p>· An exploration of the following potential correlatives: (1) events in Europe on the northern margin of Gondwana; (2) the Late Silurian-Devonian Acadian orogeny in the Appalachian which is inferred to have resulted from flat-slab subduction related to overriding a plume; and (3) Mesozoic-Cenozoic events along the western margin of Laurentia </p><p>· A discussion of possible mechanisms for the initiation of orogeny flat-slab subduction in the Laramide orogeny and hypotheses relating to the amalgamation and breakup of supercontine</p>