PERSPECTIVES OF SUPERCONTINENT CYCLE AND GLOBAL PLATE RECONSTRUCTION

The recent efforts made to the reconstruction of supercontinents of Columbia, Rodinnia and Pangea have achieved great progress though there remain debates on the cycle and mechanism of the supercontinent. As the positions of large plates are basically fixed, some previously ignored micro-terranes or superterranes have attracted attention from the researchers. Fine reconstruction is still a hot spot or frontier of various research programs. In addition, the 3.1 Ga old Vaalbara supercraton and a 2.7~2.5 Ga old Kenorland supercontinent are proposed though there is lack of enough evidence and their outlines are vague for the time being. The Amasia supercontinent after 250 Ma in the future is under discussion and some predictive models have been proposed. Questions, such as the supercontinent cycle, supercontinent center, supercontinent dynamic mechanisms have also attracted interests from scholars. During the past 10 years, more in-depth plate reconstruction has brought about the breakthroughs in the development of plate tectonics theory and become the growing points of new disciplines, for examples, the reconstruction of paleo-circulation, paleoclimate, paleosystem of sediment transportation, the numerical simulation of the paleoflow system, and the reconstruction from a single-sphere changes in block positions and tectonic movement towards a multisphere reconstruction of geological-geophysical-geochemical cyclicity and coupling processes. These new trends owe their origin to the application and development of the technology of computer hardware and software, as well as the improvement of computing methods. A variety of high-function workstations, supercomputers and supercomputing technology shortens the reconstruction time. As the development of software, GIS and others have made great contributions to the rapid development of global database results. More and more advanced technology has been adopted, such as the technology to extend 3D to 4D, to change the individual static scenerios to continuous dynamic evolution, and to extend large plates to small microterranes. Instead of the reconstruction of supercontinent based on the assembling of micro-continental blocks, detailed reconstruction of oceanic seamounts, plateaus and intra-oceanic subduction zones inside the disappeared paleoceans has become the focus of supercontinent reconstruction. In China, the reaearch of supercontinent reconstruction has gaiend great achievements in the past years. The group led by Li Chunyu reconstructed configuration and reestablished the assembly processes of the Eurasian Plate in 1978, ZHAO Guochun et al. are the first who proposed the configuration of Columbian supercontinent in 2002, and CHEN Xu devoted to the supercontinent reconstruction based on global paleoclimatic data in 2009. However, multidisciplinary coorperation in China remains too weak to catch up the development abroad. We need more innovation and long-term institutional support for the endeavor. In this regard, we suggest that a collaborative innovation center on "Earth system modeling and plate reconstruction" be established to speed up the work of paleo-supercontinent reconstruction in China.