THE SALAIR TECTOGENESIS IN THE EARLY PALEOZOIC HISTORY OF THE EARTH

Abstract

The paper considers remarkable tectonic changes in the lithosphere evolution in the second half of the Cambrian-initial Ordovician. Certain relations are revealed between events caused by differently directed stresses in mobile belts framing the East European craton and their periphery, and cardinal tectonic changes are shown to be typical at the same time of many mobile belts and continental massifs of various size. The prime implications of the Salair folding phase and related tectonic changes in mobile belts and margins of cratons in response to kinematics of continental blocks of different size are characterized.