Formation of the Permo-Triassic Ondor Sum thrust system and its constraint on Solonker Ocean closure

Abstract

ABSTRACT A previously unidentified overthrust system has recently been discovered in the Ondor Sum area at the boundary between the Solonker – Xar Moron Suture Zone (SXSZ) and the Early to Mid – Paleozoic Subduction – accretion Belt to the south. The overthrusting occurred during the middle Permian and was overprinted by late Permian to Middle Triassic dextral shearing. The overthrusting (D1) was characterized by the development of WSW – ENE-trending folds and reverse faults, implying NNW – SSE shortening. The later deformation (D2) involved WSW – ENE dextral strike-slip shearing with a minor reverse component, as indicated by slightly plunging striae on slickensides. A comparison of geochronological and structural data for ophiolites in the SXSZ suggests that the overthrust system formed in response to the closure of the Solonker Ocean and the collision along the SXSZ. The earlier NNW – SSE shortening and later WSW – ENE dextral shearing indicate that a tectonic transformation took place along the SXSZ from the middle Permian to the Late Triassic. Dextral and sinistral strike-slip faults are, respectively, distributed to the south and northwest of the Songliao – Xilinhot Block to the north of the SXSZ, implying eastward extrusion of the Songliao – Xilinhot Block after the closure of Solonker Ocean. The tectonic transformation and extrusion might have been a part of the intracontinental tectonic transformation of the eastern segment of the southern Central Asian Orogenic Belt.