Jurassic tectonostratigraphic evolution of the Junggar basin, NW China: A record of Mesozoic intraplate deformation in Central Asia

Abstract

Mesozoic basins in northwest China provide important records for investigating relationships between intraplate deformation in Central Asia and tectonic processes at Asian boundaries. The present study, using well, seismic, outcrop, and thermochronology data in the Junggar Basin and neighboring areas, describes the main features of Jurassic strata in the basin, analyzes the Jurassic evolution of the basin and neighboring mountain belts, and discusses possible mechanisms of Jurassic intraplate deformation in Central Asia. During the Early-Middle Jurassic, episodic uplift of surrounding mountain belts kept the Junggar Basin a contractional closed basin, and alluvial fan, fluvial, delta, and lacustrine depositional environments successively developed from surrounding ranges to the central basin. During the Late Jurassic, the western and central parts of the basin were folded and uplifted, and deposition migrated mainly to the eastern basin. During the latest Jurassic-earliest Cretaceous, pre-Cretaceous strata in the eastern and northeastern Junggar Basin were folded and uplifted, and coarse-grained sediments were transported from surrounding uplifts to the central basin. We suggest that Jurassic episodic deformation events in the Junggar Basin and other areas of Central Asia are related to the Qiangtang collision during the Late Triassic-Early Jurassic, the closure of the western Mongol-Okhotsk Ocean at the Early/Middle Jurassic boundary, a collision of a microcontinent in the Pamir with the southern Asian margin during the late Middle Jurassic-early Late Jurassic, the collision of the Kolyma-Omolon Block with Siberia at the end of the Jurassic, and the subsequent closure of the eastern Mongol-Okhotsk Ocean during the latest Jurassic-earliest Cretaceous.