Geodynamics of the Tarim Basin and the Tian Shan in central Asia

Neil, Emily; Houseman, Gregory A.

doi:10.1029/97tc01413

Cited by 148 publications

(107 citation statements)

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(12 reference statements)

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“…It is likely that reactivation of the Tien Shan was facilitated by the range' s position directly north of the Precambrian Tarim Basin craton, which behaves as a rigid block. In contrast, the Tien Shan is largely underlain by mechanically weaker Palaeozoic arc rocks, accretionary complexes and ophiolitic assemblages that deform more easily in response to the north-northeasterly-derived compressive stress from the Indo-Eurasian collision (Westaway 1995;Neil & Houseman 1997;Zhou et al 2001).…”

mentioning

confidence: 98%

Structural framework of a major intracontinental orogenic termination zone: the easternmost Tien Shan, China

Cunningham

Owen

Snee

et al. 2003

JGS

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The Barkol Tagh and Karlik Tagh ranges of the easternmost Tien Shan are a natural laboratory for studying the fault architecture of an active termination zone of a major intracontinental mountain range. Barkol and Karlik Tagh and lesser ranges to the north are bounded by active thrust faults that locally deform Quaternary sediments. Major thrusts in Karlik Tagh connect along strike to the east with the left-lateral GobiTien Shan Fault System in SW Mongolia. From a Mongolian perspective, Karlik Tagh represents a large restraining bend for this regional strike-slip fault system, and the entire system of thrusts and strike-slip faults in the Karlik Tagh region defines a horsetail splay fault geometry. Regionally, there appears to be a kinematic transition from thrust-dominated deformation in the central Tien Shan to left-lateral transpressional deformation in the easternmost Tien Shan. This transition correlates with a general eastward decrease in mountain belt width and average elevation and a change in the angular relationship between the NNE-directed maximum horizontal stress in the region and the pre-existing basement structural grain, which is northwesterly in the central Tien Shan (orthogonal to SH max ) but more east-west in the eastern Tien Shan (acute angular relationship with SH max ). Ar-Ar ages indicate that major range-bounding thrusts in Barkol and Karlik Tagh are latest Permian-Triassic ductile thrust zones that underwent brittle reactivation in the Late Cenozoic. It is estimated that the modern mountain ranges of the extreme easternmost Tien Shan could have been constructed by only 10-15 km of Late Cenozoic horizontal shortening.

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confidence: 98%

Structural framework of a major intracontinental orogenic termination zone: the easternmost Tien Shan, China

Cunningham

Owen

Snee

et al. 2003

JGS

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“…Following previous studies [e.g., Bird and Piper, 1980;England and McKenzie, 1982;Houseman and England, 1986], we assume that the thin viscous sheet behaves as a continuously deforming, incompressible, viscous fluid. The velocity field is continuous, but the physical properties of the deforming sheet may be discontinuous, as described by and Neil and Houseman [1997]. The viscous layer that corresponds to the lithosphere is deformed by indentation of a boundary segment of length W (Figure 2).…”

Section: Thin Viscous Sheet Equationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…: LOCALIZED SHEAR ALONG A DISCONTINUITY homogeneous thin viscous sheet with values of n = 10 and Ar = 3 or n = 3 and Ar = 1 replicates the hypsometric curve of eastern Asia. Neil and Houseman [1997], following England and Houseman [1989], however, suggest that Ar increases locally in areas where the lithosphere may have been convectively thinned (e.g., beneath Tibet), and they use n = 3, Ar = 3 or n = 10, Ar = 6. Although we will use these sets of parameters to scale the width of the calculated shear zone to that of the Altyn Tagh fault zone, we acknowledge that the high elevations of Tibet may be a result of some other process such as lower crustal flow [e.g., Clark and Royden, 2000;Royden, 1996].…”

Section: Tc3002mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[15] We set the strength coefficient B l in the strong region to be 1000, 10, 4, and 2 times greater than B o in the surrounding regions for n = 1, 3, 5, and 10, respectively, so that the effective contrast in strain rate (which scales with (B l /B o ) n ) is about 1000 for each case [Houseman and England, 1996;Neil and Houseman, 1997]. In our initial experiments B is held constant in time within each region.…”

Section: Development Of Strain Localization In Constant Strength Calcmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Localization of shear along a lithospheric strength discontinuity: Application of a continuous deformation model to the boundary between Tibet and the Tarim Basin

2009

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A marked contrast in strength (or viscosity) within a continuously deforming zone can lead to concentration of shear strain in the weaker material adjacent to the boundary between them, but localization comparable to the width of the Altyn Tagh shear zone requires an additional weakening process. During numerical experiments on a thin viscous sheet indented by a rigid object, a shear zone develops adjacent to a strong region mimicking the Tarim Basin, when the boundary between the weak and strong regions is oblique to the orientation of convergence. The width of this shear zone narrows with increased strain, and for comparable penetration by the indenter, the strain is more concentrated for larger values of n, the exponent that relates strain rate to a power of stress, and for smaller values of the Argand number Ar, a measure of buoyancy‐induced stress relative to viscous stress. Increasing concentration of shear occurs as the indentation develops without weakening because of a change in material properties. Additional localization develops with the inclusion of strain‐dependent weakening associated with, for instance, a temperature increase due to shear heating. For such localization to scale to the width of the Altyn Tagh fault zone of Tibet, the initial temperature near the Moho must be relatively low (∼600°C), and a large value of n (∼10) is required. This suggests that deformation there is described by a high‐strength flow law, such as that proposed by Evans and Goetze (1979), in which the lithosphere would deform approximately plastically.

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“…4). As mentioned, two different tectonic mechanisms are responsible for this characteristic geometry: under-thrusting of the Tarim microcontinent under the southern Tien Shan [Neil & Houseman, 1997;Allen et al, 1999;Yang & Liu, 2002] and thrusting of the Pamir block onto the southwestern Kyrgyz Tien Shan [Lukk et al, 1995;Pavlis et al, 1997;Burtman, 2000;Coutand, 2002] respectively [Buslov et al, 2003]. The under-thrusting of Tarim and the thrusting of the Pamirs formed the Cenozoic structural pattern of the Tien Shan, but also resulted in the so-called tectonic [Buslov et al, 2003;Lei & Zhao, 2007].…”

Section: Problem Solutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Seismic Hazard in Tien Shan: Basement Structure Control Over the Deformation Induced by Indo-Eurasia Collision

Buslov¹,

Mikhail²,

Grave³

et al. 2011

Tectonics

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Geodynamics of the Tarim Basin and the Tian Shan in central Asia

Cited by 148 publications

References 50 publications

Structural framework of a major intracontinental orogenic termination zone: the easternmost Tien Shan, China

Structural framework of a major intracontinental orogenic termination zone: the easternmost Tien Shan, China

Localization of shear along a lithospheric strength discontinuity: Application of a continuous deformation model to the boundary between Tibet and the Tarim Basin

Seismic Hazard in Tien Shan: Basement Structure Control Over the Deformation Induced by Indo-Eurasia Collision

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