Mid-Mesozoic closure of Permo-Triassic Tethys and its implications

Data from the northern Tethyan domain indicate that Permo-Triassic Palaeo-Tethys closed between the late Triassic and the mid-Jurassic. This closure was caused by the collision with Laurasia of a Cimmerian continent rifted away from northern Gondwanaland during the Triassic. The Neo-Tethys may have opened partly as a back-arc basin over the Palaeo-Tethyan subduction zone and rotation of the Cimmerian continent may have been partially responsible for mid-Mesozoic block-faulting in extra-Alpine central Europe.