Early Mesozoic basin development in North China: Indications of cratonic deformation

Abstract

We integrated a systematic sedimentary data into a regional Early Mesozoic stratigraphic framework which demonstrated a detailed picture of spatiotemporal variations in basin deposition and formation in the North China Craton. The Early Mesozoic basin sedimentary evolution is utilized to interpret polyphase tectonism and to unravel the craton deformation. The Late Triassic, nearly WNW-trending, giant intracratonic Ordos basin was widely distributed across most of North China Craton, with a southern wedge-top depozone along the northern East Qilian–Qinling orogenic belt and a northwestern rift depozone along the Helanshan. The continuous subsidence and deposition within the basin were dominantly related to the thrust load of the East Qilian–Qinling belt and inferred mantle flow effects associated with paleotethys plate subduction, and the rift in the northwestern Ordos was driven by nearly north-vergent compression of the eastern North Qilian–North Qinling active margins with the stable North China Craton. This intracratonic Ordos basin formation initiated the deformation of the North China Craton. Formation of the Jurassic NNE-trending walled intracratonic Ordos basin and the broken flexural basins indicates the North China Craton underwent the second, even more abroad nearly NNE trending crustal deformation, with lithosphere thickening in the eastern part of the North China Craton, and dynamic subsidence in the west, which may have been driven by nearly northwestward subduction of the Izanagi plate and the eastward extrusion and underthrusting of the western North China Craton crustal basement.