Palaeozoic late collisional strike‐slip deformations in Tianshan and Altay, Eastern Xinjiang, NW China

ABSTRACT In Central Asia, thrusts and shear zones resulting from Palaeozoic accretional events were reworked by E–W‐trending ductile strike‐slip faults during late Palaeozoic–early Mesozoic time. In the Tianshan range, microstructures and quartz C‐axis fabrics show a main dextral shearing associated with sinistral localized shear zones. The relationship between these conjugate structures indicates a NNW–SSE‐trending bulk shortening. In the Chinese Altay mountains, the existence of δ‐type microstructures in an important sinistral mylonitic zone infers high rates of deformation. This shear zone is bordered by a late dextral ductile fault synchronous with a granite emplacement. Field evidence and datings from the literature provide chronological constraints. In the late Carboniferous, the sinistral mylonitic deformation took place in the Erqishi–Irtysh shear zone in the northeastern part of Xinjiang and in Kazakhstan. During the Early Permian, a regional dextral event occurred in the Tianshan range and under the whole of northern Xinjiang.