Northward growth of the Qimen Tagh Range: A new model accounting for the Late Neogene strike-slip deformation of the SW Qaidam Basin. Tectonophysics, Elsevier, 2014, 632, pp.32-47. 10.1016/j.tecto.2014 A C C E P T E D M A N U S C R I P T initially a left-lateral strike-slip fault system rather than a thrusting system. Growth strata indicate an Early Miocene onset age for this strike-slip deformation. However, earthquakes focal mechanisms show that the present-day tectonic pattern of this fault system is dominated by NE-SW transpression. As for the Qimen Tagh fault system, numerous linear geomorphic features and fault scarps indicate that it was again a strike-slip fault system. Deformed sediments within the Adatan Valley prove that strike-slip motion prevailed during the Pleistocene, yet the present day deformation is marked by NE-SW transpression. Collectively, the Kunbei and Qimen Tagh fault systems were initially left-lateral strike-slip fault systems that formed during Early Miocene and Pleistocene respectively. Colligating with these southward younging left-lateral strike-slip faulting ages and the fact that these convex-northward structures converge to the center segment of active Kunlun Fault in the east, we thus considered the Kunbei and Qimen Tagh fault systems as former western segments of the Kunlun Fault once located further south in the present-day location of that fault. These faults gradually migrated northward since the Early Miocene while their kinematics changed from left-lateral strike-slip motion to NE-SW transpression.
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The east-west-trending late Cenozoic Kuqa fold belt is a part of the compressive southern margin of the Tianshan Mountains in western China. Approximately 20,000 km (12,000 mi) of two-dimensional seismic reflection profiles are integrated with surface geology and well data to examine the deformation style and structural evolution of the Kuqa fold belt. Mesozoic through Holocene strata in the northern Tarim Basin have been deformed in a thrust system that roots northward into the Paleozoic basement of the southern Tianshan. The south-vergent deformation is characterized by a series of forward-breaking thrust faults, fault-related folds, and detachment folds. Two major decollement levels exist: an upper detachment in salt-gypsum lithologies in the Paleogene -Miocene Kumgeliem, Suweiyi, and Jidike formations, and the lower detachment mostly within Jurassic coal and mudstone strata. Fault-propagation folds
The Qaidam basin is the largest topographic depression inside the Tibetan Plateau and it is a key factor to understanding the Cenozoic evolution of the northern Tibetan Plateau. Paleomagnetic data was obtained from the middle to late Eocene Xiaganchaigou Formation and the early to middle Miocene Xiayoushashan Formation from seven localities. The paleomagnetic results indicate that the Qaidam basin has not undergone obvious basin-scale vertical axis rotation with respect to the Eurasia Plate since the Eocene. Local clockwise rotation took place only at a few special locations along the northern margin of the Qaidam basin. The uniform paleomagnetic results at different localities support that the Qaidam basin is a relatively rigid block. Regional paleomagnetic and geodetic observations also suggest that crust south of the Kunlun fault moves eastward faster than crust north of the Kunlun fault.
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