Structure and tectonic evolution of the Tongbai‐Dabie Range in the East Qinling Collisional Belt, China

Abstract

Recent work demonstrates that the Tongbai‐Dabie Range, which is considered to be the eastern segment of the important Qinling belt in central China, shows ample evidence of the collisional nature of this orogenic zone. It is characterised by large thrust‐decollement structures with at least 140 km of horizontal displacement, and it includes a melange nappe, overthrust continental crust, underthrust continental crust, a marine‐nonmarine molasse formation, and a foreland fold‐thrust belt. Its interpreted tectonic evolution can be subdivided into four main periods: (1) ocean‐continent north dipping subduction during the Silurian‐Early Devonian, (2) continental collision in the late Devonian, (3) intracontinental subduction and large‐scale shallow crustal deformation beginning in the middle Carboniferous, and (4) upwarping and slicing by huge E‐W left‐lateral strike‐slip faults after the late Jurassic and before the Cenozoic right‐lateral movements on the faults which bound this belt.