Some Characteristic Structural Types in Eastern Asia and their Bearing upon the Problem of Continental Movements

Abstract

As a result of wide recognition in recent years of extensive overfolding and overthrusting, it seems to have become generally admitted that continents have actually moved horizontally in times of orogeny; but the problem as to how and to what extent such horizontal movements were effected has continued to be an irritating cause for heated disputes and also a fertile ground for wild speculation. In making the present attempt to attack this controversial problem, it is not intended to deal with the merits or demerits of the several species of theories or hypotheses connected therewith, but simply to direct attention to certain groups of geotectonic phenomena found in Eastern Asia and elsewhere, and also to the mechanism responsible for their production as may be attested by experimental means. In this way it is hoped that mere speculation may be eliminated.