The IGCP 662  (2018-2023) is a newly approved and supported project in March, 2018, by International Geoscience Programme (IGCP).

    Orogenesis and crustal growth are widely discussed topics in the Earth sciences. Orogens can be generally grouped as: accretionary, collisional and intracratonic. However, how to define orogen types and describe their evolution? How to fingerprint different processes of orogenic development; what is role in metallogenic enrichment? These still remain to be answered.
      The main objectives of this proposal are: (1) to characterise differences in crustal formation and architecture between accretionary and collisional orogens; (2) to establish criteria to (semi-) quantitatively describe orogenic development through evaluation of the relative proportions of juvenile vs. reworked crust; and (3) to better understand the role of orogenic compositions on metallogenesis.
      We plan to conduct comparative studies on the Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB), the world’s largest Phanerozoic accretionary orogeny, and the Tethyan orogenic belt, the world’s youngest extensive collisional and metallogenic belt, as well as other composite orogens. 
     The project will promote (semi-) quantitative descriptions of orogenic processes and continental growth, and their role in metallogenic enrichments. The results of this study may be helpful to discover new deposits. More than 13 developing and developed countries/regions will be involved. This will enhance cooperation of scientists from diverse social and political environments.