Cenozoic extensional stress evolution in North China

Since the beginning of the Cenozoic, north China has been fragmented by intensive intracontinental rifting and extensional tectonics, which resulted in the formation of two extensional domains: the graben systems around the Ordos block in the west and North China Plain in the east. How to link this Cenozoic extensional tectonics to plate kinematics has long been an issue of debate. This paper presents updated results of fault slip data sets collected in different zones in north China and addresses the changes in the direction of extensional stresses over the Cenozoic. A chronology of three successive extensions has been established and provides evidence for constraining the timing and location of either subduction-induced back-arc tectonics along the western Pacific or collision-related extrusion tectonics in Tibet. The oldest NW-SE trending extension occurred concomitantly with the early Tertiary rifting phase, which was initiated in a back-arc setting associated with westward subduction of the Pacific plate under the Asia continent. North China had been subjected, during the Miocene, to regional subsidence with widespread basalt flow. and the direction of extension changed to NE SW to NNE-SSW, consistent with the spreading direction of the Japan Sea. The dynamic origin of this extension is poorly understood. Since the latest Miocene or earliest Pliocene, north China has been dominated by NW SE extension resulting in the formation and development of the elongate graben systems around the rigid Ordos block. This extensional phase is accompanied by counterclockwise rotation of blocks such as Ordos, Taihangshan Massif etc., which are bounded to south by the left-lateral strike-slip Qinling fault system. The overall Pliocene-Quaternary deformation in north China accommodates an ESE-ward extrusion of the south China block relative to the Gobi-Mongolia plateau, as the consequence of late-stage India-Eurasia convergence. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.