Advances in metallogeny and tectonics of the Eastern Tethyan Realm: Introduction

Abstract

The Tethys domain preserves one of the largest continent‐continent collisional orogenic belts on Earth. This belt can be divided into the Proterozoic to Palaeozoic Proto‐Tethyan orogenic belt, Late Palaeozoic to Triassic Palaeo‐Tethyan orogenic belt and Triassic to Cenozoic Meso‐ and Neo‐Tethyan orogenic belts. The Tethyan metallogenic domain, representing one of the three major metallogenic domains in the world, extends more than 10,000 km from east to west and has developed world‐class ore belts, such as the South‐east Asia tin ore belt, Sanjiang metallogenic belt in South‐west China, Gangdese–Pakistan–Iran porphyry copper belt and South‐east Europe epithermal gold belt. The geology of the Tethys domain has been studied for more than 100 years and many important advances have been made recently, although scientific issues remain controversial. This thematic section of Geological Journal contains 10 articles focusing on the formation of rocks and ore deposits, including petrology and geochemistry of magmatic, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks, and the formation mechanism of mineral deposits in the Eastern Tethyan Realm. These articles reflect new progress in related studies and provide important reference for future studies.