A preliminary study on the lithospheric thermal-rheological structure of the East Qinling orogenic belt

Abstract

This paper considers the lithospheric rheological structure of the East Qinling orogenic belt to explore its geodynamics. The lithospheric rheological structure was calculated by the constraints of the lithospheric temperature structure. The thermal-rheological stratification structures of the lithosphere in the East Qinling orogenic belt present different features from each other within different tectonic units. The hinterland fault-bounded fold zone (HLZ) and the North Qinling thick-skinned imbricated thrust zone (NQL) in the northern half part of the Qinling orogen, with a temperature of 305°C for the Moho boundary, are characterized by “cold” geotherm, thickened lithosphere and the model C for rheological stratification structure. The South Qinling tectonic zone (SQL), with a mean temperature of 642°C and a high temperature of 826°C for the Moho boundary, has obvious features with the model H of “hot” geotherm, thinned lithosphere and intensive rheological behavior within moderate-lower crust and top of the upper mantle. During post-orogenesis, the NQL, being the convergent frontal region of continental subduction beneath the Qinling orogen by both the North China craton (NC) and Yangtze craton (YZ), is in a coexistence period of a dominantly thickened lithosphere and an initial delamination, and the SQL, probably under pluming, has been developing new delamination and underplating and partial melting within the crust in its axel area and recycling for mass and energy (in the forms of heat transfer and convection) between the crust and mantle.