Mesozoic structural architecture of the Lang Shan, North-Central China: Intraplate contraction, extension, and synorogenic sedimentation

The Lang Shan, North-Central China, has experienced a complex Mesozoic to recent history of intraplate deformation and sedimentation. Well-exposed cross-cutting relationships document Jurassic right-lateral strike-slip faulting (transtension) followed by several tens of kilometers of Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous north-northwest-south-southeast crustal shortening and development of an associated foreland basin. Since the Early Cretaceous, the south-central Lang Shan has undergone two phases of extension. The first, which occurred along north-south oriented structures, may represent collapse of an overthickened crust. The youngest deformation is represented by the active Cenozoic mountain-front normal fault system. This compound history may be the result of the complicated far-field effects of plate interactions combined with structural inheritance in a region adjacent to a rigid and undeformed crustal block, the Ordos block. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.