Basin analysis of the Jurassic–Lower Cretaceous southwest Tarim basin, northwest China

Abstract

The Jurassic through Cretaceous southwest Tarim basin, northwest China, contains more than 6 km of fluvial and lacustrine strata deposited in a foreland setting during the successive collisions with Eurasia of the Changtang block during Late Triassic–Early Jurassic time and with the mega-Lhasa block during Late Jurassic–Early Cretaceous time. This tectonism is chronologically linked with the creation of a narrow lower Middle Jurassic transtensional basin with thick sedimentary infill, succeeded by a broader Upper Jurassic–Lower Cretaceous compressional(?) basin with thinner sedimentary infill. The older basin formed between a north-northwest–striking dextral fault on the eastern side of the southwest Tarim basin in the Tian Shan and a postulated strike-slip or normal fault on the western margin of the basin along the Kunlun Shan. The former fault is now the Talas-Ferghana fault; the latter may be a predecessor to the Main Pamir thrust. Subsidence analysis of the thickest sedimentary section suggests thermal subsidence, interpreted as the result of transtension between the two basin-bounding faults. The younger basin extends farther east and west and does not preserve evidence of activity along the Talas-Ferghana fault. The change in basin style between these two episodes of basin development likely reflects either a small counterclockwise rotation of basin-bounding structures during the first episode or a small clockwise rotation of the maximum compressive stress between the two episodes.