Mesozoic collision—extrusion tectonics in eastern Asia

Geochronological and geochemical investigation of the late Mesozoic volcanic rocks from the Northern Great Xing’an Range and their tectonic implications

“…The occurrence of late Jurassic accretionary complex along the continental margin is also consistent with such interpretation (Shinjiro et al 1989;Isozaki 1997). However, Maruyama and Send (1986) and Kimura et al (1990) proposed that the Paleo-Pacific plate obliquely subducted to the East Asia plate with north or north-northeast direction and the orthogonal subduction only began at the end of the late Cretaceous (Engebretson et al 1985), and thereby giving little chance for inducing broad back-arc extension in this region during the late Jurassic and early Cretaceous. Moreover, the late Mesozoic volcanics are also widespread in the central and south Mongolia (Yarmolyuk and Kovalenko 2001) which is too far from the East Asian continental margin to be accounted for by the effect of subduction of the Paleo-Pacific plate.…”

Geochronological framework of Mesozoic volcanic rocks in the Great Xing’an Range, NE China, and their geodynamic implications

“…The Mesozoic volcanism along the whole East Asian continental margin with a diminishing trend westward implied a possible relationship between the Mesozoic volcanic rocks and the evolution of the Pacific plate (Sato et al, 2002;Ratschbacher et al, 2003;Wu et al, 2005;Wang et al, 2006), the occurrence of Jurassic-Cretaceous accretionary complex along the continental margin is also consistent with such interpretation (Shinjiro et al, 1989;Isozaki, 1997). However, it has been argued that the Paleo-Pacific plate obliquely subducted to the East Asia plate with north or north-northeast direction and the orthogonal subduction only began at the end of the Late Cretaceous (Engebretson et al, 1985;Maruyama and Send, 1986;Kimura et al, 1990), and thereby giving little chance for inducing broad back-arc extension in this region during the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous. Moreover, the late Mesozoic volcanic rocks are also widespread in eastern Mongolia and Transbaikalia of the central CAOB (Yarmolyuk and Kovalenko, 2001;Jahn et al, 2009), which is too far from the East Asian continental margin, if we take the widespread Mesozoic volcanic rocks in the Songliao and Hailaer basins into account further (Wang et al, 2002), the distribution of the volcanic rocks is in a facial manner rather than along NE direction.…”

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

“…11C). It is suggested here that East Asia wholly entered into an escape tectonic setting in which the northern and eastern plate margins served as free boundaries for the escape of continental fragments, driven by the continental collision of the Lhasa Block at the southern margin of Asia (Kimura et al, 1990;Lamb et al, 1999;Vincent and Allen, 1999;Webb et al, 1999;Ratschbacher et al, 2000;Graham et al, 2001;Wang et al, 2003;Li et al, 2012) (Fig. 11C).…”