Editing Devonian (section)

=== Asian terranes ===
[[File:380 Ma plate tectonic reconstruction.png|thumb|200px|The earth at 380 Ma, centered on the [[Paleo-Tethys Ocean]], which fully opened during the Devonian]]Several island microcontinents (which would later coalesce into modern day Asia) stretched over a low-latitude [[archipelago]] to the north of Gondwana. They were separated from the southern continent by an oceanic basin: the [[Paleo-Tethys Ocean|Paleo-Tethys]]. Although the western Paleo-Tethys Ocean had existed since the Cambrian, the eastern part only began to rift apart as late as the Silurian. This process accelerated in the Devonian. The eastern branch of the Paleo-Tethys was fully opened when [[South China craton|South China]] and [[Annamia block|Annamia]] (a [[terrane]] equivalent to most of [[Indochina]]), together as a unified continent, detached from the northeastern sector of Gondwana. Nevertheless, they remained close enough to Gondwana that their Devonian fossils were more closely related to Australian species than to north Asian species. Other Asian terranes remained attached to Gondwana, including [[Sibumasu]] (western Indochina), Tibet, and the rest of the [[Cimmeria (continent)|Cimmerian]] blocks.<ref name="Cocks-2016" /><ref name="Golonka-2020" />
[[File:Nostolepis distribution Early Devonian paleogeography.png|left|thumb|288x288px|World map at 400 Ma (Early Devonian), showing continents and [[terrane]]s with modern continent borders superimposed]]
While the South China-Annamia continent was the newest addition to the Asian microcontinents, it was not the first. [[North China craton|North China]] and the [[Tarim Block]] (now northwesternmost China) were located westward and continued to drift northwards, powering over older oceanic crust in the process. Further west was a small ocean (the Turkestan Ocean), followed by the larger microcontinents of [[Kazakhstania]], [[Siberia (continent)|Siberia]], and [[Amurian Plate|Amuria]]. Kazakhstania was a volcanically active region during the Devonian, as it continued to assimilate smaller island arcs.<ref name="Cocks-2016" /> The island arcs of the region, such as the Balkhash-West Junggar Arc, exhibited biological endemism as a consequence of their location.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Wang |first1=Z. H. |last2=Becker |first2=R. T. |last3=Aboussalam |first3=Z. S. |last4=Hartenfels |first4=S. |last5=Joachimski |first5=Michael M. |last6=Gong |first6=Y. M. |date=15 April 2016 |title=Conodont and carbon isotope stratigraphy near the Frasnian/Famennian (Devonian) boundary at Wulankeshun, Junggar Basin, NW China |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0031018215007646 |journal=[[Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology]] |series=Ecosystem evolution in deep time: evidence from the rich Palaeozoic fossil records of China |volume=448 |pages=279–297 |doi=10.1016/j.palaeo.2015.12.029 |bibcode=2016PPP...448..279W |issn=0031-0182 |access-date=11 November 2023|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Siberia was located just north of the equator as the largest landmass in the Northern Hemisphere. At the beginning of the Devonian, Siberia was inverted (upside down) relative to its modern orientation. Later in the period it moved northwards and began to twist clockwise, though it was not near its modern location. Siberia approached the eastern edge of Laurussia as the Devonian progressed, but it was still separated by a seaway, the [[Ural Ocean]]. Although Siberia's margins were generally tectonically stable and ecologically productive, rifting and deep [[mantle plume]]s impacted the continent with [[flood basalt]]s during the Late Devonian. The [[Altai-Sayan region]] was shaken by volcanism in the Early and Middle Devonian, while Late Devonian magmatism was magnified further to produce the [[Vilyuy Traps]], flood basalts which may have contributed to the Late Devonian Mass Extinction. The last major round of volcanism, the Yakutsk Large Igneous Province, continued into the Carboniferous to produce extensive kimberlite deposits.<ref name="Cocks-2016" /><ref name="Golonka-2020" />

Similar volcanic activity also affected the nearby microcontinent of Amuria (now [[Manchuria]], [[Mongolia]] and their vicinities). Though certainly close to Siberia in the Devonian, the precise location of Amuria is uncertain due to contradictory [[Paleomagnetism|paleomagnetic]] data.<ref name="Cocks-2016" />