Relation between the Gondwanide Orogen and contemporaneous intracratonic deformation

A causal relationship between collisional processes in the Permo-Triassic G ondwanide Orogen and intracratonic deformation of a compressional, strike-s lip and extensional nature, was suggested in the literature. In this paper available data are reviewed to test this model. It appears that the balance of evidence favours a Gondwanide Orogeny produced in a compressional back- are setting, rather than by major collision. A possible cause for the defor mation under relatively low-grade metamorphic circumstances is flat slab su bduction. An important dextral strike-slip component may result from obliqu e subduction. The contemporaneous intracratonic deformation with similar or ientation of principal stress axes may be related to the same flat slab sub duction processes and/or orogen parallel shear, but was probably not a dire ct consequence of collision. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Limited. All rights reserved.