Notes on sedimentary basins in China; report of the American Sedimentary Basins Delegation to the People's Republic of China

Bally, A. W.; Chou, I-Ming; Clayton, Robert W.; Eügster, Hans P.; Kidwell, Susan M.; Meckel, Larry; Ryder, Robert T.; Watts, A. B.; Wilson, Amy Auerbacher

doi:10.3133/ofr86327

Cited by 72 publications

(87 citation statements)

References 50 publications

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“…Tectonic deformation during the late Mesozoic and Cenozoic growth of the Tibetan Plateau resulted in active rift basins in the east of China and compressional depression basins in the west (Bally et al, 1986). In total, more than 200 sedimentary basins with Cenozoic clastic infill have been identified.…”

Section: The Xining Basin: Genesis Stratigraphy and Lithofaciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

A late Eocene palynological record of climate change and Tibetan Plateau uplift (Xining Basin, China)

Hoorn

Straathof

Abels

et al. 2012

Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology

126

111

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General rightsIt is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulationsIf you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: http://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. Climate models suggest that Asian paleoenvironments, monsoons and continental aridification were primarily governed by tectonic uplift and sea retreat since the Eocene with potential contribution of global climate changes. However, the cause and timing of these paleoenvironmental changes remain poorly constrained. The recently well-dated continental mudflat to ephemeral saline lake sedimentary succession, situated in the Xining Basin at the northeastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau (NW China), provides a unique opportunity to develop additional proxy successions in this area that are placed accurately in time. Here, a palynological record from this succession is reported. High abundances of desert and steppe-desert taxa such as Ephedripites and Nitrariadites/Nitraripollis are found, which can be differentiated by the presence of broad leaved deciduous forest taxa in the lower part of the section (particularly up to 36.4 Ma; magnetochron C16r), and a sudden increase of Pinaceae (Pinuspollenites, Piceaepollenites and Abiespollenites) which is dated at 36.1 Ma (C16n.2n). Coexistence Approach (CoA) indicates that from 39.9 to 36.4 Ma (C17n.1n) regional climate was warm and wet, while from 36.4 to 33.5 Ma (C16n.2n-C13r) climate tends to be cooler and drier. The data indicate that paleoenvironmental and palynological changes on the NE part of the Tibetan Plateau resulted from a combination of long-term tectonic uplift forcing and long-and short-term climate changes. The increase of taxa such as Piceaepollenites and Abiespollenites indicates not only a cooling and drying trend prior to the Eocene/Oligocene (E/O) boundary, but also the existence of high altitude mountain habitats in the periphery of the Xining Basin. The sudden Pinaceae event correlates closely in time with a marked aridification step as viewed from the lithology of the Xining Basin that was linked to the sea retreat out of the Tarim Basin.

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Section: The Xining Basin: Genesis Stratigraphy and Lithofaciesmentioning

confidence: 99%

A late Eocene palynological record of climate change and Tibetan Plateau uplift (Xining Basin, China)

Hoorn

Straathof

Abels

et al. 2012

Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology

126

111

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“…Some Triassic to Mid-Jurassic thrusting may also have occurred along the Bogdo and Boro Horo Shan [Peng and Zhang, 1989;Carroll eta/., 1990]. Typically, however, pre-Tertiary folding of Triassic-Jurassic horizons is rare and most of the faults appear to be normal faults limiting half-graben (e.g., Lunan halfgraben [Peng and Zhang, 1989;Bally et a/., 1986]). Jurassic movement has long been inferred along the Talasso-Fergana fault in the western Tien Shan.…”

Section: Tectonic Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Widespread deposition of Upper Mesozoic continental clastics continued to fill most of the Paleozoic and Lower Mesozoic basins, including the wider Dzungarian and Tarim basins, and ultimately covered much of the Paleozoic orogen [Windley et a/., 1990;Bally et al, 1986]. By contrast with sediments deposited before and after, however, the Cretaceous and lower Tertiary rocks are rather thin, mature deposits of fairly uniform thickness [Peng and Zhang, 1989].…”

Section: Tectonic Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…By contrast with sediments deposited before and after, however, the Cretaceous and lower Tertiary rocks are rather thin, mature deposits of fairly uniform thickness [Peng and Zhang, 1989]. There has been general agreement that most of the relief in this part of central Asia had been smoothed out by the end of the Mesozoic and that the Cretaceous and early Tertiary were particularly quiet tectonic periods [Krestnikov, 1962;Norin, 1941;Burtman, 1975;Peng and Zhang, 1989;Bally et al, 1986].…”

Section: Tectonic Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…By contrast, late Cenozoic deposits, particularly the Neogene and Quaternary, make a wedge that tapers northwards from maximum thickness at the foot of Boro Horo Shan to 'I thin blanket, over a distance of about 200 km (Plate 1, inset). This tapering wedge is most simply related to loading of the southern edge of Dzungaria by Neogene to Quaternary overthrusting along the Tien Shan [e.g., Bally et a/., 1986]. The resulting flexural basin is deepest between Hutubi and Dushanzi, where the basement is overlain by more than 11 km of continental clastics ( Figure 2), with about half that thickness assigned a Late Cenozoic age [Wu Z., 1986;Peng and Zhang, 1989].…”

Section: Tectonic Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Active thrusting and folding along the northern Tien Shan and Late Cenozoic rotation of the Tarim relative to Dzungaria and Kazakhstan

Avouac¹,

Tapponnier²,

Bai³

et al. 1993

J. Geophys. Res.

681

604

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We have studied geometries and rates of late Cenozoic thrust faulting and folding along the northern piedmont of the Tien Shan mountain belt, West of Urumqi, where the M=8.3 Manas earthquake occurred on December 23, 1906. The northern range of the Tien Shan, rising above 5000 m, overthrusts a flexural foredeep, filled with up to II ,000 m of sediment, of the Dzungarian basement. Our fieldwork reveals that the active thrust reaches the surface 30 km north of the range front, within a 200-km-long zone of NeogeneQuaternary anticlines. Fault scarps are clearest across inset terraces within narrow valleys incised through the anticlines by large rivers flowing down from the range. In all the valleys, the scarps offset vertically the highest terrace surface by the same amount (10.2±0.7 m). Inferring an early Holocene age (10±2 kyr) for this terrace, which is continuous with the largest recent fans of the piedmont, yields a rate of vertical throw of 1.0±0.3mm/yr on the main active thrust at the surface. A quantitative morphological analysis of the degradation of terrace edf,es that are offset by the thrust corroborates such a rate and yields a mass diffusivity of 5.5±2.5 m /kyr. A rather fresh surface scarp, 0.8±0.15 m high, that is unlikely to result from shallow earthquakes with 6 < M < 7 in the last 230 years, is visible at the extremities of the main fold zone. We associate this scarp with the 1906 Manas earthquake and infer that a structure comprising a deep basement ramp under the range, gently dipping flats in the foreland, and shallow ramps responsible for the formation of the active, fault propagation anticlines could have been activated by that earthquake. If so, the return period of a 1906 type event would be 850 ± 380 years. The small size of the scarp for an earthquake of this magnitude suggests that a large fraction of the slip at depth ( ""2/3) is taken up by incremental folding near the surface. Comparable earthquakes might activate flat detachments and ramp anticlines at a distance from the front of other rising Quaternary ranges such as the San Gabriel mountains in California or the Mont Blanc-Aar massifs in the Alps. We _,:stimate the finite Cenozoic shortening of the folded Dzungarian sediments to be of the order of 30 km and the Cenozoic shortening rate to have been 3 ± 1.5 mrnlyr. Assuming comparable shortening along the Tarim piedmont and minor additional active thrusting within the mountain belt, we infer the rate of shortening across the Tien Shan to be at least 6±3 mm/yr at the longitude of Manas (""85.5°E). A total shortening of 125±30 km is estimated from crustal thickening, assuming local Airy isostatic equilibrium. Under the same assumption, serial N-S sections imply that Cenozoic shortening across the belt increases westwards to 203±50 km at the longitude of Kashgar ( ""76°E), as reflected by the westward increase of the width of the belt. This strain gradient implies a clockwise rotation of Tarim relative to Dzungaria and Kazakhstan of 7 ± 2.5 • around a pole located near the eastern extr...

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Paleocene‐Early Eocene uplift of the Altyn Tagh Mountain: Evidence from detrital zircon fission track analysis and seismic sections in the northwestern Qaidam basin

Wang

Zheng

et al. 2015

JGR Solid Earth

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Most existing tectonic models suggest that the deformation and uplift of the northern Tibetan Plateau is the latest crustal response to the collision of the India Plate and Eurasian Plate. The tectonic evolution of Altyn Tagh Mountain (hereafter called simply the “Altyn Tagh”), on the northern margin of the Tibetan Plateau, has attracted considerable scientific attention. In this study, we use fission track age dates of detrital zircons from the northwestern Qaidam basin together with sedimentary observations to understand more fully the Cenozoic tectonic uplift of the Altyn Tagh. Detrital zircons from five borehole samples distributed in different folds in the northwestern Qaidam basin yielded ages mainly ranging from 88.5 to 49.2 Ma, older than their sedimentary deposition ages (43.8–22 Ma). The binomial distribution in grain age fitted peaks was generally dominated by one young peak, P1, which varied from 73.6 to 47.2 Ma. A thinning of the Cenozoic Lulehe Formation (53.5–43.8 Ma) stretched from the inner Qaidam basin to the slopes of the Altyn Tagh in the seismic sections of the northwestern Qaidam basin. Based on magnetostratigraphic dating, there was a hiatus in sedimentation in the Qaidam basin between 65 Ma and 54 Ma; this was confirmed by seismic profiles and borehole data, which show an unconformity between the Mesozoic Quanyagou Formation and the Lulehe Formation. Combined with an analysis of provenance, the detrital zircon young peak age and the sedimentary record revealed that the most significant regional uplift of the Altyn Tagh occurred during the Paleogene‐Early Eocene, almost coinciding with the collision of the Indian and Eurasian plates between 65 Ma and 44 Ma.

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Notes on sedimentary basins in China; report of the American Sedimentary Basins Delegation to the People's Republic of China

Cited by 72 publications

References 50 publications

A late Eocene palynological record of climate change and Tibetan Plateau uplift (Xining Basin, China)

A late Eocene palynological record of climate change and Tibetan Plateau uplift (Xining Basin, China)

Active thrusting and folding along the northern Tien Shan and Late Cenozoic rotation of the Tarim relative to Dzungaria and Kazakhstan

Paleocene‐Early Eocene uplift of the Altyn Tagh Mountain: Evidence from detrital zircon fission track analysis and seismic sections in the northwestern Qaidam basin

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