The active left-slip Altyn Tagh fault defines the northern edge of the Tibetan plateau. To determine its deformation history we conducted integrated research on Cenozoic stratigraphic sections in the southern part of the Tarim Basin. Fission-track ages of detrital apatites, existing biostratigraphic data, and magnetostratigraphic analysis were used to establish chronostratigraphy, whereas composition of sandstone and coarse clastic sedimentary rocks was used to determine the unroofing history of the source region. Much of the detrital grains in our measured sections can be correlated with uplifted sides of major thrusts or transpressional faults, implying a temporal link between sedimentation and deformation. The results of our studies, together with existing stratigraphic data from the Qaidam Basin and the Hexi Corridor, suggest that crustal thickening in northern Tibet began prior to 46 Ma for the western Kunlun Shan thrust belt, at ca. 49 Ma for the Qimen Tagh and North Qaidam thrust systems bounding the north and south margins of the Qaidam Basin, and prior to ca. 33 Ma for the Nan Shan thrust belt. These ages suggest that deformation front reached northern Tibet only ∼10 ± 5 m.y. after the initial collision of India with Asia at 65–55 Ma. Because the aforementioned thrust systems are either termination structures or branching faults of the Altyn Tagh left-slip system, the Altyn Tagh fault must have been active since ca. 49 Ma. The Altyn Tagh Range between the Tarim Basin and the Altyn Tagh fault has been a long-lived topographic high since at least the early Oligocene or possibly late Eocene. This range has shed sediments into both the Tarim and Qaidam Basins while being offset by the Altyn Tagh fault. Its continuous motion has made the range act as a sliding door, which eventually closed the outlets of westward-flowing drainages in the Qaidam Basin. This process has caused large amounts of Oligocene–Miocene sediments to be trapped in the Qaidam Basin. The estimated total slip of 470 ± 70 km and the initiation age of 49 Ma yield an average slip rate along the Altyn Tagh fault of 9 ± 2 mm/yr, remarkably similar to the rates determined by GPS (Global Positioning System) surveys. This result implies that geologic deformation rates are steady state over millions of years during continental collision.

The Pan-African Damara orogenic system records Gondwana amalgamation involving serial suturing of the Congo–São Francisco and Río de la Plata cratons (North Gondwana) from 580 to 550 Ma, before amalgamation with the Kalahari–Antarctic cratons (South Gondwana) as part of the 530 Ma Kuunga–Damara orogeny. Closure of the Adamastor Ocean was diachronous from the Araçuaí Belt southwards, with peak sinistral transpressional deformation followed by craton overthrusting and foreland basin development at 580–550 Ma in the Kaoko Belt and at 545–530 Ma in the Gariep Belt. Peak deformation/metamorphism in the Damara Belt was at 530–500 Ma, with thrusting onto the Kalahari Craton from 495 Ma through to 480 Ma. Coupling of the Congo and Río de la Plata cratons occurred before final closure of the Mozambique and Khomas (Damara Belt) oceans with the consequence that the Kuunga suture extends into Africa as the Damara Belt, and the Lufilian Arc and Zambezi Belt of Zambia. Palaeomagnetic data indicate that the Gondwana cratonic components were in close proximity by c. 550 Ma, so the last stages of the Damara–Kuunga orogeny were intracratonic, and led to eventual out-stepping of deformation/metamorphism to the Ross–Delamerian orogen ( c. 520–500 Ma) along the leading edge of the Gondwana supercontinental margin.

The Lachlan Fold Belt (Lachlan Orogen) of eastern Australia was part of a Paleozoic convergent plate margin that stretched around the supercontinent of Gondwana from South America to Australia. Lower Paleozoic (545–365 Ma) deep-water, quartz-rich turbidites, calcalkaline volcanic rocks, and voluminous granitic plutons dominate the Lachlan Orogen. These rocks overlie a mafic lower crust of oceanic affinity. Shortening and accretion of the Lachlan occurred through stepwise deformation and metamorphism from Late Ordovician (∼450 Ma) through early Carboniferous times, with dominant events at about 440–430 Ma and 400–380 Ma. The development and accretion of the Lachlan Orogen and other related belts within the Tasmanides added about 2.5 Mkm² to the surface area of Gondwana. The sedimentary, magmatic, and deformational processes converted an oceanic turbidite fan system into continental crust of normal thickness. The addition of this recycled continental detritus and juvenile material to Australia represents an under-recognized continental crustal growth mechanism that has been important thoughout earth history.