Abstract:

A comparative analysis of paleolatitudes and latitudinal displacements was undertaken for the South China, Cimmerian continent (including Baoshan, Shan-Thai and Qiangtang blocks), the North China and Siberian blocks by using available paleomagnetic data to determine the collisional and amalgamation history of these blocks. The results show that (1)the Baoshan block collided with the South China block in the Late Permian and continued to drift rapidly northwards, together with the South China and Shan-Thai blocks, until the Late Triassic; (2)the paleo-Asian ocean separating North China and Siberian blocks closed in the end-Permian, and North China block collided with Siberian block in the end-Permian（ca. 250 Ma）; (3)the age correlations between the end-Permian mass extinctions, Siberian traps and Emeishan traps large igneous province and the final closure time of paleo-oceans show that the mass extinctions are closely related to the evolution of these ancient oceans, suggesting that the collision of continents are the main tectonic cause of endPermian mass extinctions.

Key words: mass extinction, paleomagnetism, the paleo-Asian ocean, paleo-Tethys ocean, the collision of continents