Post-collisional extensional and thrust-nappe structures in northern part of Dabie Mountains

Abstract

Thrust-nappe structures and extensional structures simultaneously occur in the northern part of the Dabie Mountains. The systematic structural study reveals that extensional structures along the Mozitan-Xiaotian fault and thrust-nappe structures that take the Jinzhai-Shucheng fault as their frontal thrust share the same shear sense, and display a transitional relationship from the ductile extensional structure of deep level in the south to the ductile-brittle and brittle thrust-nappe structure of shallow level in the north. The extensional and thrust-nappe structures in the region are explained to result from post-collisional processes by the continuous subduction of the Yangtze continental block and the extension induced by the uplifting of the core part of the Dabie Mountains, which are components of the extensional structures produced in the exhumation process of the ultrahigh pressure metamorphic rocks in the Dabie Mountains. Because of the frontal blocking in the process of the north-westward spreading, the extension and detachment of the low-grade metamorphic rocks along the Mozitan-Xiaotian fault was transformed into the northwestward thrusting, resulting in the thrust-nappe structures. They developed in the period of 200–170 Ma, maybe last till the late Jurassic.