The configuration and timing of the Arabia‐Eurasia continental collision, part of the broader Alpine‐Himalayan collisional system, remains controversial. We conducted sandstone petrology, detrital zircon U‐Pb‐Hf isotopic and trace element analysis, and Cr‐spinel electron microprobe geochemical analysis of samples from Paleocene to Miocene peripheral foreland strata in interior Fars, southern Iran. These data were used to test competing models for ophiolite obduction and Arabia‐Eurasia collision. In addition, we applied these data to compare the history of outward and upward growth of the Zagros and Himalayan‐Tibetan segments of the Alpine‐Himalayan collisional orogenic belt. The first appearance of radiolarian‐rich chert conglomerate, 100–90 Ma detrital zircons with positive ɛHf(t) values from +1 to +20 and midocean ridge geochemical affinity, and suprasubduction zone (SSZ) affinity Cr‐spinel is in the lower and middle Sachun Formation. These data indicate that obduction occurred before deposition of the upper Maastrichtian‐lower Paleocene Sachun Formation and developed in an intra‐oceanic setting rather than an Arabia‐Eurasia collision setting. Abundant continental‐arc affinity detrital zircon with 180–160 Ma and 50–27 Ma age‐probability peaks and varied ɛHf(t) values are present in the upper Oligocene‐lower Miocene Razak and Agha Jari formations, indicating sedimentary overlap with Eurasia. SSZ‐affinity Cr‐spinel in all samples indicates that ophiolitic rocks were a continual source of detritus in the foreland basin since Paleocene. The depositional age of the basal Razak Formation is between 25.7 and 21.5 Ma. Therefore, we interpret that collision between Arabia and Eurasia must have been initiated before deposition of the Razak Formation.

We present results from a paleomagnetic study of Middle Triassic lavas (~242–240 Ma) from the northern Qiangtang block to improve our understanding of the timing and kinematics of the closure of the eastern Paleo‐Tethys Ocean. Characteristic remanent magnetization directions carried by magnetite and hematite formed during high‐temperature oxidation during initial cooling of the lavas are successfully isolated by progressive thermal and alternating field demagnetizations. We bin 28 site mean directions into 20 independent direction groups that pass the fold test, average secular variation, and show no rock magnetic or petrographic evidence of weathering. These data establish the first lava‐based paleomagnetic pole of Middle Triassic age for the northern Qiangtang block (62.2°N, 196.4°E, A₉₅ = 5.6°). We compare this pole to coeval poles from the North China Block and Tarim and estimate that the remnant Paleo‐Tethys or Hoh‐Xil‐Songpan‐Ganzi Ocean could have been up to 700 km at ~240 Ma. A comparison of the Triassic latitudinal history between the northern Qiangtang block and the North China Block and Tarim shows that the closure of the Paleo‐Tethys Ocean most likely occurred during the latest Triassic. Our review of published Permian‐Triassic poles from the northern Qiangtang block show that the average south‐north plate velocity of the terrane decelerated from ~8.5 cm/yr during ~300–240 Ma to ~3.6 cm/yr during ~240–210 Ma. We suggest that an arc‐continent collision between the northern Qiangtang block and a Paleo‐Tethys or Yidun arc around or before 240 Ma contributed to this change in plate velocity.

We present two robust and well‐dated paleomagnetic poles from upper Eocene and Oligocene volcanics in the Urumieh‐Dokhtar magmatic arc, Central Iran. These two poles place Iran ∼3.7°–3° of latitude south of its present position between ca. 40 and 23 Ma. Our new paleomagnetic declination data indicate that the Central Iran block may have experienced a ∼11.6° clockwise rotation since the Late Eocene. We integrated our new data with the retrodeformed margins of the Zagros collision zone and contemporaneous Arabia positions to better constrain the age and configuration of the Arabia and Eurasia assembly process. In our model, the Arabia‐Eurasia collision occurred first in the western Main Zagros suture between ca. 35 and 30 Ma and then diachronously spread eastwards. Our paleogeographic reconstruction and initial continental collision timing supports the Arabia‐Eurasia collision as a first‐order driver of global cooling, Red Sea rifting, and Mediterranean extension.

A Pd/CNT-SiC monolith prepared by a simple two-step method exhibits robust catalytic activity and recycling ability in Suzuki coupling reactions.

Lithium (Li) has grown to be a strategic key metal due to the enormous demand for the development of new energy industries over the world. As one of the most significant sources of Li resources, pegmatite-type Li deposits hold a large share of the mining market. In recent years, several large and super-large spodumene (Spd)-rich pegmatite deposits have been discovered successively in the Hoh-Xil–Songpan-Garzê (HXSG) orogenic belt of the northern Tibetan Plateau, indicative of the great Li prospecting potential of this belt. Hyperspectral remote sensing (HRS), as a rapidly developing exploration technology, is especially sensitive to the identification of alteration minerals, and has made important breakthroughs in porphyry copper deposit exploration. However, due to the small width of the pegmatite dykes and the lack of typical alteration zones, the ability of HRS in the exploration of Li-rich pegmatite deposits remains to be explored. In this study, Li-rich pegmatite anomalies were directly extracted from ZY1-02D hyperspectral imagery in the Zhawulong (ZWL) area of western Sichuan, China, using target detection techniques including Adaptive Cosine Estimator (ACE), Constrained Energy Minimization (CEM), Spectral Angle Mapper (SAM), and SAM with BandMax (SAMBM). Further, the Li-rich anomalies were superimposed with the distribution of pegmatite dykes delineated based on GF-2 high-resolution imagery. Our final results accurately identified the known range of Spd pegmatite dykes and further predicted two new exploration target areas. The approaches used in this study could be easily extended to other potential mineralization areas to discover new rare metal pegmatite deposits on the Tibetan Plateau.