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Paleomagnetic constraints on neotectonic deformation in the Kashi depression of the western Tarim Basin, NW China

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Abstract

A paleomagnetic study is reported of Eocene to Pliocene formations from the Kashi depression, which aims to constrain the pattern of neotectonic deformation within the western sector of the Tarim Basin in northwest China. With the exception of Pliocene specimens from one locality (East Kulukeqiati) which show large within site-mean variations in declination, most sites from five sampled formations yield well-grouped characteristic remanent magnetizations and positive fold tests and are of probable post-depositional detrital origin. First-order consistency of paleomagnetic results from a range of rock ages and localities demonstrates that only small inter-locational vertical-axis rotation has occurred here and indicates that the Kashi depression is decoupled from the remainder of Tarim to the east and has behaved as a quasi-rigid block which has rotated by 20–30° counterclockwise relative to Eurasia and North China since the late Pliocene. The crustal-scale Talas-Ferghana Fault cuts the Tian Shan and meets the Kashi depression in the region immediately to the northwest of the study region and we find no paleomagnetic evidence for differential rotations to suggest that this fault zone extends southwards across the Kashi depression to link with the North Pamir Thrust Fault (NPTF). Instead, we argue that the southern extension of this zone is a transform-orogen junction with southward motion of the eastern wall accommodated by southward thrusting at the margins of the south Tian Shan and the Tarim Basin. We propose that dextral transpression around the margins of the crustal block incorporating the Kashi depression was responsible for the contrasting amounts of thrusting on the NPTF in the southwest and the South Tian Shan Thrust Fault in the north. Extensive evidence for neotectonism in the bordering zones of this block, as well as some paleomagnetic evidence from low unblocking temperature components, indicates that the deformation produced by block rotation is ongoing.

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Acknowledgments

This study was financed by the National NSF of China (grants 40525013, 40221402) and the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program, grant 2007CB411306). We are indebted to Yongcheng Wang, Tao Liu, Yong’an Li, Dongjiang Sun, Lisha Sun, and Chunxia Zhang for field and laboratory assistance. Bihong Fu is acknowledged for helpful discussions and providing Landsat TM images of the Tian Shan and surroundings. We thank the Editor and Reviewer Guillaume Dupont-Nivet for their comments that helped to materially improve the paper.

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Huang, B., Piper, J.D.A. & Zhu, R. Paleomagnetic constraints on neotectonic deformation in the Kashi depression of the western Tarim Basin, NW China. Int J Earth Sci (Geol Rundsch) 98, 1469–1488 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00531-008-0401-5

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