The Burma Terrane or West Burma block was an isolated Gondwana-derived island arc within the Tethys Ocean. The terrane was in the upper plate of the subduction zone since early Cretaceous. It collided with Insular India during the Paleocene and continued to be pushed northwards, eventually colliding with mainland Asia. Much of western Myanmar consists of the former Burma Terrane, hence the name "West Burma block".[1][2]
For a long time it was assumed that it was part of Eurasia since Mesozoic, but more recent geochronology research suggest that it was located near the northwestern Australia margin in the Late Triassic, and paleomagnetic data suggest that the block was at equatorial latitudes on a plave separate from Eurasia from the Cretaceous until the late Eocene.[2]
It is suggested that since the Cretaceous the block was located north of the Andaman Islands in the forearc of the Sunda Trench subduction zone.[2]
Many of the small animals and plants that inhabited the Burma Terrane during the mid-Cretaceous are well-documented due to their exquisite preservation in Burmese amber. Many of these animals were likely endemic to the archipelago due to its isolation at the time, providing a rare comprehensive example of an insular fauna from the Mesozoic.[3] It has been inferred that most of these animals had Gondwanan origins, and that the Burma Terrane may have played an important biogeographic role by serving as a connection by transporting Gondwanan lineages northwards.[4]
^Westerweel, Jan; Roperch, Pierrick; Licht, Alexis; Dupont-Nivet, Guillaume; Win, Zaw; Poblete, Fernando; Ruffet, Gilles; Swe, Hnin Hnin; Thi, Myat Kai; Aung, Day Wa (October 2019). "Burma Terrane part of the Trans-Tethyan arc during collision with India according to palaeomagnetic data". Nature Geoscience. 12 (10): 863–868. Bibcode:2019NatGe..12..863W. doi:10.1038/s41561-019-0443-2. ISSN 1752-0908. PMC 6774779. PMID 31579400.
^ abcPaleogeography of the West Burma Block and the eastern Neotethys Ocean: Constraints from Cenozoic sediments shed onto the Andaman-Nicobar ophiolites
^Westerweel, Jan; Roperch, Pierrick; Licht, Alexis; Dupont-Nivet, Guillaume; Win, Zaw; Poblete, Fernando; Ruffet, Gilles; Swe, Hnin Hnin; Thi, Myat Kai; Aung, Day Wa (2019). "Burma Terrane part of the Trans-Tethyan arc during collision with India according to palaeomagnetic data". Nature Geoscience. 12 (10): 863–868. Bibcode:2019NatGe..12..863W. doi:10.1038/s41561-019-0443-2. ISSN 1752-0908. PMC 6774779. PMID 31579400.
^Wood, Hannah M; Wunderlich, Jörg (2023-08-01). "Burma Terrane Amber Fauna Shows Connections to Gondwana and Transported Gondwanan Lineages to the Northern Hemisphere (Araneae: Palpimanoidea)". Systematic Biology. 72 (6): 1233–1246. doi:10.1093/sysbio/syad047. ISSN 1063-5157. PMID 37527553.
The BurmaTerrane or West Burma block was an isolated Gondwana-derived island arc within the Tethys Ocean. The terrane was in the upper plate of the subduction...
amphibian and reptile species seen in India as an island. The BurmaTerrane or West Burma block, an isolated island arc that was present in the Tethys...
the south. The basin is considered to be a part of the West Burma block (a.k.a. BurmaTerrane), which has a debated tectonic history, it is considered to...
northern Myanmar. The strata have undergone folding and faulting. The basin is considered to be a part of the West Burma Block or BurmaTerrane, which has...
genera and species from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber with implications for a Gondwanan origin of the BurmaTerrane". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society...
sediments Buffalo Head Terrane – Terrane in the western Canadian Shield in northern Alberta Cache Creek Terrane – Geologic terrane in British Columbia and...
plate, which may or may not have originated as independent microplates: a terrane may not contain the full thickness of the lithosphere. Atlantica – Ancient...
Jurassic, Lhasa, West Burma, Woyla terranes opened the Neo-Tethys Ocean; Lhasa collided with Asia during the Early Cretaceous, and West Burma and Woyla during...
Cretaceous amber from Myanmar with the Gondwanan taxa, and indicative of dispersal of Gondwanan lineages through the BurmaTerrane into the Holarctic in...
Triassic rifting of Lhasa terrane from the Gondwana margin. Mount Victoria Land block rifted from Gondwana and collided with Burma At these times (the precursors...
collision of India and Asia, as indicated by palaeomagnetic data from the BurmaTerrane, is published by Westerweel et al. (2019). A scenario for the genesis...
genera and species from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber with implications for a Gondwanan origin of the BurmaTerrane". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society...
primarily within southwest China and eastern Myanmar (Burma), with a short section forming the border of Burma and Thailand. Throughout most of its course...
genera and species from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber with implications for a Gondwanan origin of the BurmaTerrane". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society...
Transhimalaya which includes Lhasa Terrane. In the north, Bangong-Nujiang Suture Zone separates Transhimalaya from the Qiangtang terrane. In the south, Indus-Yarlung...
moderate height. Most of the Thai highlands are part of the Shan-Thai Terrane, a tectonic plate. The natural environment of the hills used to be dense...
China, Northeast India, eastern Bangladesh, and all the highlands of Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Peninsular Malaysia, and Taiwan...
Jadeitite is a metamorphic rock found in blueschist-grade metamorphic terranes. It is found in isolated metasomatically altered rock units within serpentinite...
Laurentia and Asia. Laurentia, Avalonia, Baltica, and a series of smaller terranes, collided in the Caledonian orogeny c. 400 Ma to form Laurussia/Euramerica...
Plate with the North American Plate and consist of 12 island arc terranes. These terranes consist of oceanic crust, volcanic and plutonic rock. The Lesser...
upper part of the crust on the island is primarily made up of a series of terranes, mostly old island arcs which have been forced together by the collision...
the north by the Taiwan collision zone, and to the south by the Mindoro terrane (Sulu-Palawan block colliding with SW Luzon). It is an area pervaded by...
north. Nowadays, Iran, Afghanistan and Tibet are partly made up of these terranes. In the Norian (210 Ma), a major rifting episode split Gondwana in two...
Triassic, the Cache Creek Ocean closed, and various terranes including the large Wrangellia Terrane accreted onto the western margin of North America....
reconstructions, the island is believed to have been formed by the collision of terranes from the Asian Plate (forming the west and southwest) and from the Australian...
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