Detrital zircon tales between the Rodinia and Pangea supercontinents – Exploring connections between Avalonia, Cadomia and Central Asia

The Rodinia to Pangea supercontinent cycle represents the most recent complete cycle in the geological record and thus informs models on the processes involved in supercontinent dispersal and assembly. The terranes and/or micro-continents of the Avalonian, Cadomian and Central Asian Orogenic Belts are witnesses to this complete cycle but their relationships to Rodinia, each other, and an intermediate stage in this supercontinent cycle represented by the formation of a large (but not supercontinent) landmass, Gondwana, are at time ambiguous. One method for testing these relationships is detrital zircon geochronology; zircons are a highly resistant and easily dateable mineral and thanks to rapid instrumental advances a huge number of detrital zircon datasets are now available. These data can provide a fingerprint whereby suspect terranes and micro-continental fragments can be linked to each other and their parental continent. Nonetheless, in order to develop coherent and testable geological hypotheses from these data it is necessary to integrate the data into a consistent framework. The presented work explores the possibilities and limitations of using detrital zircon data to better understand the position of the Avalonian, Cadomian, and Central Asian terranes in Rodinia and their journey from there to Pangea.