LATE SINIAN TO EARLY PALAEOZOIC PALAEOGEOGRAPHY AND THRUSTING IN THE WUDANG MOUNTAIN AREA,NORTHWESTERN HUBEI

The Wudang Mountain area in northwestern Hubei is an important deformed tectonic belt in the Qinling orogenic zone,where the metamorphic rock series of the Upper and Middle Proterozoic Wudangshan Group are widely exposed.It has been studied by many geologists as a continental mass composed of the "Wudang-Huaiyang palaeouplift" over a long period of time.The present paper deals in detail with Late Sinian to Early Palaeozoic Palaeozoic Palaeogeographic features of this area on the basis of the studies of thrust struc-tures and stratigraphy,in conjunction with previous geological results.It is suggested that the study area was not an ancient continent but a depositional area during the period from the Sinian to Palaeozoic,and that the modern "palaeouplift" structural patterns of this area resulted from thrusting from the Yanshanian movements onwards.