Middle Jurassic intracontinental evolution of East Asia: Insights from the Tianshifu-Dongyingfang basin of the Liaodong Peninsula, NE China

Abstract

The Middle Jurassic intracontinental shortening event in East Asia, known as episode A of the Yanshanian Movement in the eastern North China Craton and the first phase of the Daebo Orogeny in the Korean Peninsula, respectively, has been thoroughly studied during the past two decades. However, the timing of its beginning, duration, and deformational processes are still highly controversial because few studies have probed the correlations between episode A of the Yanshanian Movement and the first phase of the Daebo Orogeny. The Tianshifu-Dongyingfang basin, located in the northern Liaodong Peninsula, is filled with complete Jurassic sequences that can be compared with those in the eastern North China Craton to the west of the Tan-Lu fault zone and the Korean Peninsula. Regional stratigraphic correlations suggest that the Tianshifu-Dongyingfang basin contains not only the syntectonic conglomerates, but also the lower and upper unconformities A1 and A2 of episode A of the Yanshanian Movement, which separated the syntectonic conglomerates from the underlying Early−Middle Jurassic coal measures and the overlying Late Jurassic red beds, respectively. Detailed field survey and structural analysis show that the development of syntectonic conglomerates and unconformities A1 and A2 were controlled by the imbricate thrust fault system in the basement, which resulted from the WNW−ESE compression inversed from the fault-slip data. The youngest detrital zircon U-Pb ages obtained near unconformities A1 and A2 show that the WNW−ESE compression of episode A of the Yanshanian Movement in the Liaodong Peninsula initiated at ca. 171 Ma and ended at least by 163 Ma. Our new structural and geochronological data, combined with data from the neighboring areas, suggest that episode A of the Yanshanian Movement and the first phase of the Daebo Orogeny belong to a single intracontinental shortening event, the compressional deformation of which was derived from the westward, low-angle subduction of the Paleo-Pacific plate and transmitted to the Korean and Liaodong Peninsulas at ca. 172−170 Ma and to the eastern North China Craton to the west of the Tan-Lu fault zone at 170−165 Ma.

Triassic Nappe in the Central Part of the Southern Central Asian Orogenic Belt (Ejinaq, NW China): Evidence from Structural Analysis and Geothermochronology

“…Apparently, the Meso-Neoproterozoic units (mainly schists) were deformed into a series of SE-vergent, asymmetrical folds, which share the same kinematics as the main thrust nappe in the hanging wall but seem to be discordant with the NWverging overturned anticline and NW-directed back-thrust of the hanging wall in geometry and kinematics. A reasonable interpretation for this phenomenon is that in the frontal of the nappe, some strata and rocks impeded the southeastward movement of the hanging wall, during which the northwest-directed compression occurred in the hanging wall and modified the earlier SE-vergent fold into a NW-vergent fold and produced SE-dipping back-thrust faults, i.e., the back-thrust faults above the main thrust fault (Ren et al, 2022). Moreover, the limestone fold (Fig.…”

Origin of the Bohai Sea, North China Craton and implication for bi-directional back-arc extension in East Asia continental margin

“…It has experienced Yanshanian intracontinental compressional deformation initiated at ca. 171 Ma in Middle Jurassic (Ren et al, 2023), with a mature continental arc formed in Late Jurassic due to the Paleo-Pacific subduction (Zeng et al, 2022). Granitoids plutons, such as the Shizhuzi magmatic complex, intruded with ages ranging from 130 to 126 Ma, indicating asthenosphere upwelling-related craton destruction in Early Cretaceous (Wu et al, 2021;Yang et al, 2021;Wang et al, 2022).…”

“…Simultaneously, extensional structures, such as the Liaonan metamorphic core complex, developed in late Early Cretaceous (Fig. 3; Zhu et al, 2020;Yan et al, 2021;Ren et al, 2023), accompanied by the occurrence of Cu, Mo, and decratonization-type gold deposits (Wu et al, 2021;Yan et al, 2021;Yang et al, 2021;Zhu et al, 2024). Typical gold deposits in the Wulong-Sidaogou and Xinfang regions have metallogenic ages of ca.120 Ma (Zhang et al, 2022b).…”

“…CC BY 4.0 License. Zhu et al, 2004;Li et al, 2012;Clinkscales and Kapp, 2019;Zhu et al, 2020Zhu et al, , 2024Yan et al, 2021;Chen et al, 2022a;Chen et al, 2022b;Hu et al, 2022;Zhou et al, 2022;Ren et al, 2023). Additionally, such a configuration does not really resolve the problem that how they are interconnected.…”

Decoding the Link Between Magmatic Cyclicity and Episodic Variation of Tectonics and Crustal Thickness in the Overriding Plate

“…The Late Mesozoic tectonic evolution of the North China block is characterized by episodic contraction to extension (Meng & Lin, 2021a). Two significant episodes of Middle Jurassic and the Latest Jurassic‐Earliest Cretaceous contractional tectonics with magmatic lulls are separated by the Late Jurassic extensional tectonics with magmatic flare‐ups (Figure 1a; Davis et al., 2001, 2009; Faure et al., 2012; Li et al., 2016; Lin, Charles, et al., 2013; Lin, Faure, et al., 2013; Meng & Lin, 2021a; Ren et al., 2022). Subsequently, numerous Early Cretaceous extensional basins, metamorphic core complexes, and syn‐kinematic plutons developed in the North China block and its adjacent areas, pointing to a large‐scale crustal extension with magmatic flare‐ups (Figure 1a; Charles, Gumiaux, et al., 2011; Lin & Wei, 2020; Liu et al., 2013; Meng, 2003; Ren et al., 2002; T. Wang et al., 2011; X. Wu et al., 2020; Zhu et al., 2015).…”