Latest Miocene to Quaternary deformation in the southern Chaiwopu Basin, northern Chinese Tian Shan foreland

Abstract

Basinward propagation of fold and thrust belts is a crucial geological process accommodating Cenozoic crustal shortening within the India-Eurasia collision zone. Anticlinal growth strata in the southern Chaiwopu Basin (a piggyback basin) of the northern Chinese Tian Shan foreland record basinward encroachment of the Tian Shan along the Junggar Frontal Thrust Fault. A new magnetostratigraphic section constrains the onset of syntectonic growth strata at circa 6.4 Ma and suggests synchronous basinward thrusting and propagation of the Tian Shan. The intense alluviation in the southern Chaiwopu Basin ceased at circa 0.55 Ma due to significant anticlinal growth and its resultant river incision. More recent anticlinal growth and deformation during the late Quaternary are revealed by folded river terraces developing across the anticline. The terrace height profile indicates that terrace T1H has been vertically offset about 0.6 m by thrust faulting since its formation at about 7 Ka. The stratigraphic and geomorphic data presented in this work are helpful to understand the initiation of thrust-related folding, as well as aggradation and subsequent incision, in foreland basins of the Tian Shan in relation to the India-Asia collision.