Mesozoic contraction deformation in the Yanshan and Taihang mountains is characterized by basement-involved thrust tectonics,basement-cored buckling anticlines and ductile thrust and nappe tectonics.Most of these deformations are orientated west-east,west-northwest and northeast to north-northeast.The contraction deformations began in the Permian,continued through the Triassic and Jurassic and terminated in the Early Cretaceous,and constitute an important part of the destruction of the North China Craton.It is estimated,from balanced cross-section reconstructions,that the north-south shortening of the central part of the Yanshan belt before 135 Ma was around 38%.The initial crust thickness,pre-dating the major contraction deformation in late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic,was estimated to be around 35 km based on paleogeographic characteristics.Assuming that the inferred depth of ductile thrusting deformation,20-25 km,was the crust thickness involved in the contraction deformation,and also assuming that the N-S contraction deformation was accommodated by vertical crust thickening,the thickness of the crust after the contraction deformation was expected to be around 47-50 km.This was the approximate crust thickness required for the eclogitization of the lower crust for delamination.The gravity potential accumulated by the isostatic uplift of the thickened crust,together with the decrease in crustal strength caused by the coeval magmatisms associated with the contraction deformation,led to the subsequent extensional collapse of the middle and upper crust although the regional stress regime associated with the plate interactions remained constant.It is inferred that the Mesozoic contraction deformations in the Yanshan and Taihang mountains were not only a significant tectonic process contributing to the destruction of the craton in middle and upper crust but also stimulated delamination at a deep level and the extension of the shallow crust.In other words,both the suspected delamination of the lower crust and upper ma
ZHANG ChangHou LI ChengMing DENG HongLing LIU Yang LIU Lei WEI Bo LI HanBin LIU Zi
The northwest trending tectonic belt in the middle part of the Mesozoic intraplate Yanshan Orogenic Belt, northeast Hebei Province, is composed of thrusts, extensional faults, strike-slip faults and syntectonic sedimentations as well. The northeastward basement-involved major thrusting deformation occurred between 174Ma and 168MaBP and was followed by an intrusion of the granitic plutonic rocks. As a part of the post-thrusting extensional deformations a northwest extending volcano-sedimentation system of Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous formed in the southwest side of the belt. These volcano-sedimentary sequences are divided into Tuchengzi Formation, Zhangjiakou Formation, Yixian Formation and Jiufotang Formation re- spectively. They are characterized by southeastward migration as a result of the increasing down-dip slip displacement along the major extensional fault toward the southeast of the belt. The provenance area of the Jiufotang Formation north to it experienced southwestward thrusting during and after its later sedimentation. The thrusting in this stage resulted in the formation of an asymmetric footwall syncline with vergence to SW in the Jiufotang Formation in the NE side of the basin. Finally a dextral strike-slip deformation occurred along the NW tectonic belt. The striking tectono-geomorphological features and present seismic activities along this belt indicate that it has been being active since Cenozoic era and is still in the active state at present. This northwest extending tectonic belt was following the same direction and location as the existing fault systems within the basement as revealed by former geological and geophysical studies. So it is reasonable to infer the Mesozoic deformation along this belt to be a result of reactivation of the basement structures in a favorable tectonic stress field. The reactivation of basement struc- tures might be taken as one of the mechanisms of intraplate deformation and orogeny.
ZHANG Changhou1,2, WU Ganguo1,2, WANG Genhou2, ZHANG Weijie2 & SONG Honglin2 1. Key Laboratory of Lithospheric Tectonics and Lithoprobing Technology, China University of Geosciences, Ministry of Education of China, Beijing 100083, China
