Mesozoic-Cenozoic basin inversion and geodynamics in East China: A review

East China experienced alternating tectonic extension and compression with ambiguous tectonic settings in the Mesozoic-Cenozoic interval. Long-term extensional episodes associated with the subduction retreat of the Paleo-Pacific and Pacific slabs have been widely studied. The compressional events, of which basin inversion is a typical case, are less concerned, but important in understanding the tectonic evolution and geodynamics in East China. We made a systematic study, involving tectonics, sedimentation, apatite fission track, and dynamic topography, on the Mesozoic-Cenozoic basin inversion in East China. Four-phases of basin inversion were concluded: (1) Early-Late Cretaceous inversion occurred at 115-100 Ma in Southeast China and at 100-89 Ma in Northeast China, showing a northward migration due to the diachronous collision of the north-ward moving Okhotomorsk Block with East Asia. (2) The latest Cretaceous-Early Paleogene inversion was widely developed throughout East China. It is associated with the increasingly younger subducted oceanic crust of the Izanagi Plate, which caused the progressively increasing buoyancy beneath East China and an uplift in dynamic topography. Cenozoic inversion showed an eastward migration, from (3) the western part of each basin at the Late Paleogene to (4) the eastern part at the Neogene, due to the subduction retreat of the Pacific Plate.