ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on Middle American terranes: Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras. It deals with possible mechanisms for the initiation of orogeny, flat-slab subduction in the Laramide orogeny, and hypotheses relating to the amalgamation and breakup of supercontinents. The book presents studies of zircon morphologies and geochemical signatures of Neoproterozoic and Early Paleozoic (meta-)granitoids and (meta-)rhyolites of the Saxo-Thuringian Zone of Central Europe. It provides an update on the geological record, tectonic setting and provenance of the terranes. The book explores evidence of a Late Paleozoic event associated with the amalgamation of Pangea overprinting the ~1 Ga basement. Laurentian margin requires subduction of the intervening oceanic lithosphere, culminating in amalgamation of the supercontinent Pangea. Paleozoic orogenesis in the Middle America terranes was related to convergence between Laurentia and Gondwana, culminating in the amalgamation of the supercontinent Pangea.
