Tethys

Why Study Tethys?
In one hypothesis the Tethys existed in Late Palaeozoic-Early Mesozoic as a wide ocean separating Gondwana to the south from Eurasia in the north. This ocean completely closed during a Mid-Late Triassic Cimmerian orogeny of Himalayan /Tibetan type. The suture then rifted in the Early Jurassic time to open a new Mesozoic ocean basin the south. In an alternative hypothesis an early Mesozoic ocean did not close in Triassic time but instead remained continuously open and evolved into the Mesozoic Neotethys. But all in all the Tethyan collision belt records geologic responses to the continued accretion to Eurasia of Gondwana continental fragments.	Major collision stages of Tethys (Source of Data (Blakey, 2004)