Constraints of the Meso-Cenozoic global velocity field of lithosphere on the tectonic evolution of China and its adjacent areas

Abstract

Geodetic ranging and geophysical survey provide the present-day global velocity field of lithosphere. Data of sea-floor magnetic anomalies, hotspot migrations and continental paleomagnetism were used to set up the palaeo-velocity field of lithosphere in geological history. And the Meso-Cenozoic global velocity field of lithosphere was established by combining the palaeo-velocity vectors with the present-day velocity vectors of major lithospheric blocks. These data may lay very important constraints on analyzing the tectonic setting of China, the Meso-Cenozoic intracontinental orogenesis, rifting process, strike-slip faulting, continental earthquakes and the related geodynamics of China and its adjacent areas, which leads to some new conclusions about the cause of the Meso-Cenozoic tectonics of Asia.