Provenance of early Paleozoic sedimentary rocks in the Altyn Tagh orogen: Insights into the paleoposition of the Tarim craton in northern Gondwana associated with final closure of the Proto–Tethys Ocean

The evolution of the northern margin of Gondwana, especially to the north of India and Australia, remains enigmatic. Much controversy concerns when and where the Tarim craton was amalgamated with northern Gondwana due to final closure of the North and South Altyn Oceans (two branches of the Proto–Tethys Ocean between southeastern Tarim and northern Gondwana). This study addressed these issues through systematic field-based zircon U-Pb dating and...