[1] The Tian Shan Mountains constitute central Asia's longest and highest mountain range. Understanding their Cenozoic uplift history thus bears on mountain building processes in general, and on how deformation has occurred under the influence of the India-Asia collision in particular. In order to help decipher the uplift history of the Tian Shan, we collected 970 samples for magnetostratigraphic analysis along a 4571-m-thick section at the Jingou River (Xinjiang Province, China). Stepwise alternating field and thermal demagnetization isolate a linear magnetization component that is interpreted as primary. From this component, a magnetostratigraphic column composed of 67 polarity chrons are correlated with the reference geomagnetic polarity timescale between $1 Ma and $23.6 Ma, with some uncertainty below $21 Ma. This correlation places precise temporal control on the Neogene stratigraphy of the southern Junggar Basin and provides evidence for two significant stepwise increases in sediment accumulation rate at $16-15 Ma and $11 -10 Ma. Rock magnetic parameters also undergo important changes at $16-15 Ma and $11-10 Ma that correlate with changes in sedimentary depositional environments. Together with previous work, we conclude that growth history of the modern Tian Shan Mountains includes two pulses of uplift and erosion at $16 -15 Ma and $11 -10 Ma. Middle to upper Tertiary rocks around the Tian Shan record very young (<$5 Ma) counterclockwise paleomagnetic rotations, on the order of 15°to 20°, which are interpreted as because of strain partitioning with a component of sinistral shear that localized rotations in the piedmont.

International audienceThe Tarim and Junggar basins in central Asia are capped by a thick pile of conglomerates, called the Xiyu Formation, that are commonly linked to a change in climate and/or accelerated uplift near the Plio-Pleistocene boundary. In order to better understand their origin and significance, we carried out a combined structural and magnetostratigraphic study in the Quilitage syncline (southern Tianshan), where the base of the Xiyu conglomerates is observed at both sides of the syncline. A balanced cross-section shows that, even at a local-scale, the base of the Xiyu conglomerates cannot be regarded as a single continuous stratigraphic layer. On the southern flank of the Quilitage syncline, we collected 172 samples collected for magnetostratigraphic dating identify 17 polarity chrons that date the new section from 5.2 to ~ 1.7 Ma and constrain the base of the Xiyu conglomerate here at ~ 1.7 Ma. This is 4.2 Ma younger than the age of the Xiyu previously found on the northern limb of the same syncline. Together with other magnetostratigraphic studies carried out around the Tianshan, our study unambiguously demonstrates that the onset of deposition of the Xiyu conglomerates is diachronous, and that the conglomerates are systematically younger toward the basin. Consequently, the Xiyu Formation should not be considered as a chronostratigraphic marker related to any particular tectonic or climatic event, but is instead a prograding gravel wedge that has prograded over the underthrusting forelands. A synthesis of chronologic and structural results yields progradation rates over the last 10 Ma on the order of ~ 2.0 mm/yr and ~ 3.9 mm/yr south and north of the Tianshan Mountains respectively. These rates are comparable to the shortening rate across the Tianshan range, suggesting that underthrusting is the main factor governing the progradation rate of the Xiyu Formation

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