Late Palaeozoic and Meso-Cenozoic tectonic evolution of the southern Kyrgyz Tien Shan: Constraints from multi-method thermochronology in the Trans-Alai, Turkestan-Alai segment and the southeastern Ferghana Basin

Cenozoic tectono-geomorphological growth of the SW Chinese Tian Shan: Insight from AFT and detrital zircon U–Pb data

“…The similar mid-Miocene cooling event was also detected in the Aksu blue schist and the Kyrgyz Tian Shan north to the Alai Basin (De Grave et al, 2012;Zhang et al, 2009). Fission track dating also suggested that deformation propagated southward from the Tian Shan to Kuzigongsu since ca.…”

“…6 Ma developed on both northern and southern piedmonts of the Tian Shan and the southern Tarim Basin, and they suggested that these coeval widespread growth strata representing a strong latest Miocene to early Pliocene crustal shortening episode in the Tian Shan and the northern Tibet. Numerous AFT/AHe ages of the Tian Shan basement together with magnetostratigraphic data of Neogene sedimentary sequences in the adjacent basins have revealed a late Miocene exhumation pulse between ~10 -3 Ma (Charreau et al, 2006;Sun et al, 2007;Heermance et al, 2008;De Grave et al, 2012;Glorie et al, 2012). Detrital AFT analysis in this study suggests that the shortening deformation of Atushi Basin in late Miocene is probably corresponds to a regional late Miocene intense shortening episode and basinward propagating deformation of the Tian Shan.…”

Late-Paleozoic emplacement and Meso-Cenozoic reactivation of the southern Kazakhstan granitoid basement

“…Traditionally, the western Tien Shan (post-Soviet states) is divided into three tectonic units: the North Tien Shan (NTS), Middle Tien Shan (MTS) and South Tien Shan (STS) units (e.g. Biske et al, 2013;De Grave et al, 2012Glorie et al, 2010Glorie et al, , 2011bSeltmann et al, 2011) (Fig. 2).…”

A short-lived but significant Mongol–Okhotsk collisional orogeny in latest Jurassic–earliest Cretaceous

“…Hendrix et al, 1992;Sobel, 1999). Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous exhumation in the Tian Shan was also interpreted as an effect of the Lhasa-Qiangtang collision (Dumitru et al, 2001;De Grave et al, 2007;Glorie et al, 2010;De Grave et al, 2012). Therefore, although the Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous cooling episode in the northern Altai Shan (De Grave and Van den haute, 2002;De Grave et al, 2008), Sayan ranges (De Grave et al, 2011;Jolivet et al, 2013), and neighboring areas of Lake Baikal ( Van der Beek et al, 1996;Jolivet et al, 2009) have been ascribed to the Mongol-Okhotsk orogeny, to what extent the Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous large scale reactivation in the western CAOB was related to this collisional event has remained unclear De Grave et al, 2011).…”