Abstract
The formation and evolution of the Shanxi Rift System are topics of interest because of its unique geometry and critical position in the North China Plate. However, it is not easy to delineate the late Cenozoic tectonic processes. This is partly because it is difficult to preserve the normal faults’ movement evidence and related deposits for dating in the outcrop. Besides, the current studies are heavily weighted in the low-temperature thermochronology, whereas it is insensitive to the exhumation after the late Miocene. To decipher the late Cenozoic evolution, we offer a case of detailed depositional recording from the boreholes of the Taiyuan Basin in the Shanxi Rift System. Fluvial, deltaic, and lacustrine environments were identified by the systematic stratigraphic analysis of boreholes. Two mega transgressions generated basin-wide lakes at ca. 5.8–4.4 and ca. 2.2–1.6 Ma. We attribute the lake expansion events to tectonism because climatic variations from reconstruction of the paleoclimate with geochemistry index and previous work exhibited asynchronous processes with the transgression. Thus, the basin experienced two stages of extensive subsidence after the rift occurred. This result is conducive to obtaining a more complete late Cenozoic tectonic evolution of the Shanxi Rift System.
Highlights
The Cenozoic intracontinental extension around the Ordos Block of the western North China Plate is a significant component of the Eurasian continent deformation (Tapponnier and Molnar, 1977; Tapponnier et al, 1982; Peltzer et al, 1985; Yin, 2010)
Most of the results above were more likely to delineate the pre-rift episodes than the syn-rift processes since no corresponding deposits prior to the mid-Miocene were found in the Shanxi Rift System (Wei et al, 2020)
It requires the establishment of the basin filling succession and the sedimentary environment evolution
Summary
The Cenozoic intracontinental extension around the Ordos Block of the western North China Plate is a significant component of the Eurasian continent deformation (Tapponnier and Molnar, 1977; Tapponnier et al, 1982; Peltzer et al, 1985; Yin, 2010). Seismological Bureau, 1988; Xu and Ma, 1992; Zhang et al, 1998; Zhang et al, 2003; Zhang et al, 2006; Shi et al, 2020), and this raises the need for an integrated knowledge of the rift evolution. Works of predecessors, such as the low-temperature thermochronology (Li Bin et al, 2015; Zhao et al, 2016; Chang et al, 2018; Clinkscales et al, 2020; Clinkscales et al, 2021; Su et al, 2021), revealed that the rift could have experienced multiple uplift events from the Late Cretaceous to Miocene. Analysis based on a complete depositional succession in the basin is vital in basin evolution research (Liu and Zhang, 2005). It requires the establishment of the basin filling succession and the sedimentary environment evolution
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