THE NORTHWARD GROWTH OF THE NORTHEASTERN TIBETAN PLATEAU IN LATE CENOZOIC: IMPLICATIONS FROM APATITE (U-Th)/He AGES OF LONGSHOU SHAN |
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| Authors: | LI Jia-yu ZHENG Wen-jun WANG Wei-tao WAN Ying ZHANG Pei-zhen WANG Yang |
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| Institution: | 1)School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China;2)Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory(Zhuhai), Zhuhai 519082, China;3)State Key Laboratory of Earthquake Dynamics, Institute of Geology, China Earthquake Administration, Beijing 100029, China |
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| Abstract: | Longshou Shan, located at the southern edge of the Alxa block, is one of the outermost peripheral mountains and the northeasternmost area of the northeastern Tibetan plateau. In recent years, through geochronology, thermochronology, magnetic stratigraphy and other methods, a large number of studies have been carried out on the initiation time of major faults, the exhumation history of mountains and the formation and evolution of basins in the northeastern Tibet Plateau, the question of whether and when the northeastward expansion of the northeastern Tibet Plateau has affected the southern part of the Alxa block has been raised. Therefore, the exhumation history of Longshou Shan provides significant insight on the uplift and expansion of the Tibetan plateau and their dynamic mechanism. The Longshou Shan, trending NWW, is the largest mountain range in the Hexi Corridor Basin, and its highest peak is more than 3 600m(with average elevation of 2800m), where the average elevation of Hexi Corridor is 1 600m, the relative height difference between them is nearly 2200m. This mountain is bounded by two parallel thrust faults: The North Longshou Shan Fault(NLSF)and the South Longshou Shan Fault(SLSF), both of them trends NWW and has high angle of inclination(45°~70°)but dips opposite to each other. The South Longshou Shan Fault, located in the northern margin of the Hexi Corridor Basin, is the most active fault on the northeastern plateau, and controls the uplift of Longshou Shan.Due to its lower closure temperature, the lower-temperature thermochronology method can more accurately constrain the cooling process of a geological body in the upper crust. In recent years, the low-temperature thermochronology method has been used more and more in the study of the erosion of orogenic belts, the evolution of sedimentary basins and tectonic geomorphology. In this study, the apatite (U-Th)/He(AHe) method is used to analyze the erosion and uplift of rocks on the south and north sides of Longshou Shan. 11 AHe samples collected from the south slope exhibit variable AHe ages between~8Ma and~200Ma, the age-elevation plot shows that before 13~17Ma, the erosion rate of the Longshou Shan is very low, and then rapid erosion occurs in the mountain range, which indicates that the strong uplift of Longshou Shan occurred at 13~17Ma BP, resulting in rapid cooling of the southern rocks. In contrast, 3 AHe ages obtained from the north slope are older and more concentrated ranging from 220Ma BP to 240Ma BP, indicating that the north slope can be seen as a paleo-isothermal surface and the activity of the north side is weak. The results of thermal history inverse modeling show that the South Longshou Shan Fault was in a tectonic quiet period until the cooling rate suddenly increased to 3.33℃/Ma at 14Ma BP, indicating that Longshou Shan had not experienced large tectonic events before~14Ma BP.
We believe that under the control of South Longshou Shan Fault, the mountain is characterized by a northward tilting uplift at Mid-Miocene. Our results on the initial deformation of the Longshou Shan, in combination with many published studies across the northeastern margin of the Tibetan plateau, suggest that the compression strain of the northeastern margin of the Tibetan plateau may expand from south to north, and the Tibetan plateau has expanded northeastward to the southern margin of the Alxa block as early as Mid-Miocene, making Longshou Shan the current structural and geomorphic boundary of the northeastern plateau. |
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| Keywords: | apatite(U-Th)/He mountain range uplift plateau growth Longshou Shan northeastern Tibetan plateau |
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