Fold-and-thrust deformation of the hinterland of Qilian Shan, northeastern Tibetan Plateau since Mesozoic with implications for the plateau growth
Graphical abstract
Introduction
Intense fold-and-thrust deformation and tectonic uplift associated with the India-Eurasian collision since 55–50 Ma (Li et al., 2012a, Li et al., 2015 and references therein) have resulted in the world’s largest and highest plateau with a flat interior and steep margins known as Tibetan Plateau (Liu-Zeng et al., 2008, Li et al., 2012b). The northeastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau (NETP) is located between the northern Qilian Shan thrust fault and the Altyn Tagh and East Kunlun lithospheric left-lateral strike-slip faults (Fig. 1b). The NETP comprises a serial of thrust-bounded tectono-geomorphic units with an average elevation of ~4.5 km (Fig. 1b; Jolivet et al., 2001, Tapponnier et al., 2001), and is an ideal site to probe the far-field effects and plateau growth in response to the collisions of Eurasia Continent with India Plate and intervening terranes.
Previous investigations on structural geology (Yang et al., 2007, Wu et al., 2013, Zuza et al., 2018b), sedimentology and provenance (Yin et al., 2002, Dai et al., 2005; Song, 2006, Bovet et al., 2009, Zhuang et al., 2011, Fang et al., 2012, Fang et al., 2019, Li et al., 2014), and low-temperature thermochronology (Fig. 1b; George et al., 2001, Jolivet et al., 2001, Clark et al., 2010, Lease et al., 2011, Duvall et al., 2013, Pan et al., 2013, Cheng et al., 2016, Qi et al., 2016, Wang et al., 2016a, Wang et al., 2016b, Liu et al., 2017, Zhang et al., 2017a, Jian et al., 2018, Zhuang et al., 2018, Lin et al., 2019) in the East Kunlun Shan, Qaidam basin and Qilian Shan regions, confirmed that the NETP had experienced multiple tectonic events since the Mesozoic. However, the tectonic mechanisms underlying the plateau rise and growth across the NETP remain controversial (Clark et al., 2010, Yuan et al., 2013, Qi et al., 2016, Zheng et al., 2017, Jian et al., 2018, Zhuang et al., 2018, Lin et al., 2019). The prevailing northward growth model attributed the growth of NETP to systematically northeastward migration of several tectonic uplift events (Wang et al., 2008, Wang et al., 2014, Li et al., 2015, Qi et al., 2016), which in turn initiated at ~49 Ma (Eocene) in the north Qaidam thrust belt (Yin et al., 2002), at ~33 Ma in the southern Qilian Shan-Nan Shan (Nan Shan in Chinese means mountains to the south) thrust belt (Yin et al., 2002), at ~20 Ma in central Qilian Shan (Qi et al., 2016, Zheng et al., 2017), and at ~10 Ma in the northern Qilian Shan faults (Yang et al., 2007, Zheng et al., 2010, Zheng et al., 2017). However, the competitive model argued that the whole NETP had underwent synchronous crustal shortening in response to the initial collision and subsequent continuous convergence of India and Eurasia (Dai et al., 2005, Clark et al., 2010, Yuan et al., 2013, Wang et al., 2016b, Liu et al., 2017, He et al., 2017, He et al., 2018, Cheng et al., 2019b, Fang et al., 2019). Furthermore, some studies considered the faulting-related cooling event in the Miocene as a proxy for the initial formation of the high topography in NETP (Jolivet et al., 2001, George et al., 2001, Pan et al., 2013); whereas others proposed that it started later than the early Pliocene (Meyer et al., 1998). More recently it has been suggested that major Cretaceous and minor late Triassic cooling events have taken place across the NETP (George et al., 2001, Jolivet et al., 2001, Pan et al., 2013, Cheng et al., 2016, Qi et al., 2016, Wang et al., 2016b, Zhang et al., 2017a, Jian et al., 2018, Zhuang et al., 2018, Lin et al., 2019), implying that the important effect of pre-Cenozoic tectonics on the rise of NETP have previously been overlooked (Jian et al., 2018, Zhuang et al., 2018, Lin et al., 2019).
Regionally, the lack of studies on pre-Cenozoic deformation and the scattering of numerous reports could partially contribute to these controversies. The Qilian Shan marks the northernmost edge of the NETP, where the temporal and spatial variations in deformation pattern can provide crucial information for improving the understanding of plateau growth (Jolivet et al., 2001, Zuza et al., 2016, Zuza et al., 2018b). Previous studies related to thrust-related uplift mainly focused on the Qilian Shan front (Geroge et al., 2001; Jolivet et al., 2001, Yang et al., 2007, Pan et al., 2013, Zheng et al., 2010, Zheng et al., 2017, Cheng et al., 2016, Zhang et al., 2017a, Zhuang et al., 2018), and fold-and-thrust deformation analyses in the Qilian Shan hinterland are unfortunately rare (Zuza et al., 2018a, Zuza et al., 2018b). In this paper, we present new field observations from the fold-and-thrust deformation of the Shule River region in the hinterland of Qilian Shan, and integrated with these published thermochronological, sedimentological and structural data, to provide constrains on multiple tectonic events and the uplift of NETP since Mesozoic.
Section snippets
Geological background
The Qilian Shan is the northernmost margin of the NETP and tectonically located between the Qaidam basin and the Gobi-Alashan rigid block (Fig. 1b). It is characterized by a serial of northwest-trending thrust-bounded ranges separated by intermontane basins spaced at 30–40 km, and known as the Qilian Shan-Nan Shan Thrust Belt (QNTB) with a length of 1300 km, width of 350 km and average elevation of ~4.5 km (Fig. 1b; Jolivet et al., 2001, Tapponnier et al., 2001, Zuza et al., 2016). Present
Methods
Crustal horizontal shortening and vertical thickening resulting from large-scale fold-and-thrust deformation are generally considered to be responsible for the significant surface uplift of the Tibetan Plateau (Molnar and Tapponnier, 1975, Dewey et al., 1988, England and Molnar, 1990, DeCelles et al., 2002, Wang et al., 2008, Li et al., 2015, Zuza et al., 2016). Therefore, structural analysis on fold-and-thrust deformation is very important to understand the evolution and rise of the Tibetan
Structural geometrical analysis
The structural trend in the Shule River region is dominantly NW-SE-directed and locally N-S-oriented. Based on detailed geological mapping at a scale of 1:50,000, two NW-striking fold-and-thrust belts were recognized: the hinterland-verging Tuolai Nan Shan fold-thrust belt (TLTB) to the northeast and the foreland-verging Liuhuang Shan fold-thrust belt (LHTB) to the southwest (Fig. 2c). These two belts are of opposite sense and separated by the Cenozoic Shule River intermontane basin.
Mesozoic deformation and uplift of the NETP
Due to intense Cenozoic deformation and modification and very limited Jurassic-Cretaceous deformation records in the NETP, the Mesozoic tectonics has been usually ignored, which otherwise might provide some important information for the understanding of plateau rise and growth. This can be documented by the Mesozoic fold-and-thrust deformation integrated with regional tectonics.
Conclusions
- (1)
The deformation of the Shule River region in the hinterland of Qilian Shan since Mesozoic is characterized by the foreland-verging Liuhuang Shan fold-thrust belt (LHTB) to the southwest and the hinterland-verging Tuolai Nan Shan fold-thrust belt (TLTB) to the northeast, separated by the Cenozoic Shule River intermontane basin.
- (2)
Four phases of deformation were recognized since Mesozoic. D1 deformation is represented by the Jura-type folding and related thrusting of the LHTB resulting from the
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgements
This study was funded by the China Geological Survey (No. 12120113033004). We appreciate two anonymous reviewers for their insightful and constructive comments which profoundly improved this manuscript. We would like to express our gratitude to I. Tonguç Uysal, Huntly Cutten and Michael Verrall for their improvements of this manuscript.
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2021, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, PalaeoecologyCitation Excerpt :However, how and when the Tibetan Plateau reached its modern extent is still debated. The Qilian Shan (“shan” = mountains) is a NW-SE trending orogenic belt on the northeastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau (Fig. 1b), which is an ideal area to study the exhumation and expansion mode of the Tibetan Plateau (Yin and Harrison, 2000; George et al., 2001; Song et al., 2001; Jolivet et al., 2001; Zheng et al., 2010; Lin et al., 2011; Xiao et al., 2012; Pan et al., 2013; Wang et al., 2017a; An et al., 2018; Shi et al., 2018; Yu et al., 2019a, 2019b; Tong et al., 2020). The range has a long and complex tectonic history, including late Proterozoic-early Paleozoic oceanic sutures and associated continental collision events as well as several late Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic intracontinental deformation events (Yin and Harrison, 2000; Yang et al., 2001; Xu et al., 2006; Xiao et al., 2009; Song et al., 2013; Zuza et al., 2018; Cheng et al., 2019a; Lin et al., 2019; Li et al., 2020a).