Continental Construction in Central Asia (IGCP-592): Scientific Results and Meetings in 2012
IGCP-Project #592 (2012-2015) "Continental construction in Central Asia", funded by UNESCO-IUGS, was launched in April 2012. The Project focuses on tectonic and magmatic aspects of formation of continental crust in the Central Asian Orogenic Belt and their comparison with actualistic examples from the western Pacific. This report summarizes related scientific results and meetings. In total, in 2012 the Project organized, and/or participated in the organization of, six international conferences and workshops, three of which were accompanied by training schools for young scientists and special training courses. At the present time, more than 250 scientists from 27 countries expressed their in…
A new concept of continental construction in the Central Asian Orogenic Belt
A new concept of continental construction based on four main terms: (1) crustal growth, (2) crustal formation, (3) continental growth and (4) continental formation is presented here. Each of these terms reflects a certain process responsible for the formation of what we call now "continental crust". This concept is applied to the Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB), which is a global major accretionary orogen formed after the closure of the Paleo-Asian Ocean, and to its actualistic analogues - orogenic belts and accretionary complexes of the Western Pacific. The main focuses of the paper are the state of activities in the study of the CAOB, the theoretical basics of the new concept of contin…