Midcrustal shearing and doming in aCenozoic compressive setting along theAilaoShan‐RedRiver shear zone

Abstract

AbstractThe Cenozoic Xuelong Shan antiformal dome is located along the northern segment of the Ailao Shan‐Red River shear zone in Yunnan, China. Subhorizontal foliation in the gneiss core is recognized, representing a broad top‐to‐NE shear initiated under amphibolite facies conditions and propagating into greenschist facies in the mantling schist and strike‐slip shear zone. Microfabrics of crystallographic‐preferred orientations (CPOs) in quartz suggest that the deformation temperatures increased with increasing structural depth from the upper crust (300–500°C) in the mantling schist to the midcrust (15 km or more, ≥650°C) in the gneissic core. This trend is mirrored by variations in the metamorphic grade of the syn‐kinematic mineral assemblages and microstructures, which range from garnet + amphibole + biotite + sillimanite + rutile + feldspar in the core to garnet + staurolite + biotite + epidote + muscovite within the limb units. The dome experienced the following deformation history: (1) a broad top‐to‐NE shear in the subhorizontal foliation of the gneiss core during the first stage of deformation (D1); (2) opposing reverse‐sense shear along the two schist limbs of the dome during contraction‐related doming (D2–D3); (3) sinistral strike‐slip shearing within the eastern limb (D4); and (4) extensional deformation (D5). The structural‐thermal patterns suggest the antiformal dome formation was roughly coeval with top‐to‐NE ductile shearing in the midcrust of Tibet at 32 Ma or earlier. A major implication is that there was a phase of contractional ductile deformation in the region prior to the initiation of strike‐slip deformation.