Reconciliation of the Early Slip History of the Altyn Tagh Fault, Northern Tibetan

Fan Lv,Yuyue Han,Zijian Wang,Lidong Zhu,Chengshan Wang,Bo Ran

doi:10.4236/ojg.2019.910073

Abstract

Whether the Altyn Tagh fault (ATF) had been extended beyond its current northeastern tip and linked with strike-slip faults in East Asia is a key to understanding the timing and mechanisms of crustal deformation in the northern Tibetan Plateau. We present Late Cretaceous dextral movement affected by Okhotomorsk Block-East Asia collision and a larger sinistral offset since Late Eocene along the ATF based on the provenance analysis of western Jiuxi Basin. Moreover, currently available estimates of offset based on displaced Paleozoic and Jurassic rocks could not represent the maximum offset due to late Cretaceous dextral offset.

Highlights

Large scale displacement and associated crustal thickening along the Altyn Tagh fault (ATF) have exerted a crucial influence on the geology and geography of Tibetan plateau
Whether the Altyn Tagh fault (ATF) had been extended beyond its current northeastern tip and linked with strike-slip faults in East Asia is a key to understanding the timing and mechanisms of crustal deformation in the northern Tibetan Plateau
We present Late Cretaceous dextral movement affected by Okhotomorsk Block-East Asia collision and a larger sinistral offset since Late Eocene along the ATF based on the provenance analysis of western Jiuxi Basin

Summary

Introduction

Large scale displacement and associated crustal thickening along the Altyn Tagh fault (ATF) have exerted a crucial influence on the geology and geography of Tibetan plateau. The modern ATF terminates near the Jiuxi Basin, its eastward extension in early slip history is the debate focus [1] [2], which is a key to understanding the timing and mechanisms of crustal deformation in the northern Tibetan plateau. Sedimentary basins adjacent to the ATF have been subjected to Early Cretaceous widespread extension and early Late Cretaceous significant inversion, and Late Cretaceous sequence is missing. Rift basins experienced analogical inversion in East Asia affected by Paleo-Pacific tectonism

Lv et al DOI

Approach and Result

Tectonic Implications