Yangtze Plate

The Yangtze Plate was formed by the disaggregation of the Rodinia supercontinent 750 million years ago, in the Neoproterozoic era. South China rifted away from the Gondwana supercontinent in the Silurian. During the formation of the great supercontinent Pangaea, South China was a smaller, separate continent located off the east coast of the supercontinent and drifting northward. In the Triassic, the Yangtze Plate collided with the North China Plate, thereby connecting with Pangaea, and formed the Sichuan basin. In the Cenozoic, the Yangtze Plate was influenced by the collision of the Indian Plate and Eurasian Plate creating the uplifting of the Longmen Mountains. Its southward motion is accommodated along the Red River fault.