Jurassic Tectonics of North China: A Synthetic View

Abstract: This paper gives a synthetic view on the Jurassic tectonics of North China, with an attempt to propose a framework for the stepwise tectonic evolution history. Jurassic sedimentation, deformation and magmatism in North China have been divided into three stages. The earliest Jurassic is marked by a period of magmatism quiescence (in 205–190 Ma) and regional uplift, which are considered to be the continuation of the “Indosinian movement” characterized by continent‐continent collision between the North and South China blocks. The Early to Middle Jurassic (in 190–170 Ma) was predominated by weak lithospheric extension expressed by mantle‐derived plutonism and volcanism along the Yanshan belt and alongside the Tan‐Lu fault zone, normal faulting and graben formation along the Yinshan‐Yanshan tectonic belt, depression and resuming of coal‐bearing sedimentation in vast regions of the North China block (NCB). The Middle to Late Jurassic stage started at 165±5 Ma and ended up before 136 Ma; it was dominated by intensive intraplate deformation resulting from multi‐directional compressions. Two major deformation events have been identified. One is marked by stratigraphic unconformity beneath the thick Upper Jurassic molasic series in the foreland zones of the western Ordos thrust‐fold belt and along the Yinshan‐Yanshan belt; it was predated 160 Ma. The other one is indicated by stratigraphic unconformity at the base of the Lower Cretaceous and predated 135 Ma. During this last stage, two latitudinal tectonic belts, the Yinshan‐Yanshan belt in the north and the Qinling‐Dabie belt in the south, and the western margin of the Ordos basin were all activated by thrusting; the NCB itself was deformed by the NE to NNE‐trending structural system involving thrusting, associated folding and sinistral strike‐slip faulting, which were spatially partitioned. Foliated S‐type granitic plutons aged 160–150 Ma were massively emplaced in the Jiao‐Liao massif east of the Tan‐Lu fault zone and indicate important crustal thickening in this part of the NCB. The Jurassic deformation patterns, different tectonic systems and multi‐directional contractions in North China recorded far‐field effects of synchronous convergences, toward the East Asian continent, of three different plates, the Siberian plate in the north, the paleo‐Pacific oceanic plate in the east and the Lhasa block in the southwest. This Middle to Late Jurassic intraplate orogenesis and pervasive shortening deformation preceded lithospheric attenuation and thinning in East China, which most possibly started by the Early Cretaceous around 135 Ma.