Along the Ghissar-Alai Range of the southwestern Tian Shan (southwestern Kyrgyzstan, northern Tajikistan), the deformation front of the India-Asia collision-the Pamir-Tibet orogen-is interacting with the intracontinental Tian Shan orogen without the intervening Tarim Craton. Apatite fission track (n = 33,~3.3-145.6 Ma, 27% <10 Ma) and (U-Th)/He (n = 32,~1.9-26.1 Ma, 56% <10 Ma) thermochronologic ages suggest approximate isothermal holding (very slow cooling to weak reheating) during relative tectonic quiescence between~150 and 15 Ma. Accelerated exhumation (~0.2-1.0 km/Myr, median~0.5 km/Myr) and cooling (11-16°C/Myr) occurred over the last~10 Myr. Geomorphologic parameters-incision, river steepness, and concavity-confirm the youth of the southwestern Tian Shan's mountain building. High exhumation/cooling rates are correlated with pronounced local relief, produced by Cenozoic faults reactivating inherited (Late Paleozoic) structures. Regions with similarly young exhumation are centered along rims of rigid crustal blocks in the central and eastern Tian Shan. Structurally, the Ghissar-Alai Range is a broad, east trending zone of dextral transpression that includes the northern Tajik Basin (Illiak Fault Zone) and the Pamir Thrust System of the frontal northern Pamir. It is the particular deformation field at the northwestern tip of the India-Asia collision-the interaction of the westward gravitational collapse of the Pamir Plateau into the Tajik Basin with the bulk northward motion of the Pamir-that transformed the southwestern Tian Shan into a dextral transpression belt. The dextral transpression in the southwestern Tian Shan contrasts with sinistral strike-slip shear localized along inherited fault zones, accommodating dominant north-south shortening, in the central and eastern Tian Shan. The deformation field influenced by the Pamir and the associated young exhumation make the Ghissar-Alai Range a unique feature in the Tian Shan orogen.

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The Tajik basin and southwestern Tian Shan constitute the northwestern tip of the India-Asia

Mainly acidic Stephanian to early Permian volcanic rocks and intercalated sediments accumulated in the Thuringian Forest Basin (TFB) in central Germany to a total thickness of ca. 2000 m. This basin offers a wide range of biostratigraphic information. New high-precision U–Pb CA–ID–TIMS (chemical abrasion–isotope dilution–thermal ionization mass spectrometry) zircon data are obtained from volcanic rocks for the first time in the TFB. Pre-treatment of the zircons by chemical abrasion was important to get rid of severe Pb loss. The zircon ages of the investigated formations indicate that the total duration of the volcanic activity in the TFB was considerably shorter [ca. 4 Myr: from 300 Ma for the oldest formation (Möhrenbach) until ca. 296 Ma for the youngest volcanic-rock-bearing formation (Rotterode)] than suggested in previous studies (ca. 20 Myr; 295 Ma to 275 Ma). Consequently, the well-documented gap of the sedimentary record from the early Permian volcanic rocks up to the Illawarra geomagnetic reversal has to be extended to ca. 25 Myr from the previously proposed 5 Myr. The zircon ages of the investigated volcanic rocks allow the constraining of some intercalated fossiliferous horizons crucial for biostratigraphic correlation of latest Carboniferous–early Permian (Rotliegend) sections. The high-precision age data require a new interpretation of the evolution of the TFB but also offer the chance to obtain a more reliable comparison of the timing of the main magmatic activity across intramontane basins as well as to obtain links to the Standard Global Stratigraphic Scale.

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