Cimmeria (continent)

Cimmeria was an ancient continent, or, rather, a string of microcontinents or terranes, that rifted from Gondwana in the Southern Hemisphere and was accreted to Eurasia in the Northern Hemisphere. It consisted of parts of present-day Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tibet, China, Myanmar, Thailand, and Malaysia. Cimmeria rifted from the Gondwanan shores of the Paleo-Tethys Ocean during the Early Permian and as the Neo-Tethys Ocean opened behind it, during the Permian, the Paleo-Tethys closed in front of it. Because the different chunks of Cimmeria drifted northward at different rates, a Meso-Tethys Ocean formed between the different fragments during the Cisuralian. Cimmeria rifted off Gondwana from east to west, from Australia to the eastern Mediterranean. It stretched across several latitudes and spanned a wide range of climatic zones.

Tectonic history of Cimmeria

Cimmeria rifted off Gondwana's north-eastern shores around 250 Ma.

As Cimmeria migrated from Gondwana to Eurasia the Paleo-Tethys closed and the Neo-Tethys opened.

After 150 million years Cimmeria collided with Eurasia and the Cimmerian orogeny closed the Paleo-Tethys. As the break-up of Gondwana began in the south, the opening of the Indian Ocean initiated the closure of the Neo-Tethys.

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