The way in which intracontinental convergence caused by remote continent-continent collision has been accommodated remains debatable, but it is attributed to either pure shear thickening or continental subduction/underthrusting. Quantification of the deformation architecture of the upper crust and its shortening is vital for testing these competing models. For this purpose, we conducted quantitative analyses of four seismic reflection profiles along the western Kepingtage fold-and-thrust belt of the intracontinental convergence zone between the northern Tarim Basin and the central Tian Shan, a result of the remote India-Eurasia collision, which capture the structures of the upper crust and constrain the amount of shortening in the region. The structural analyses show a thin-skinned style of deformation of the western Kepingtage fold-and-thrust belt, with minimum north−south shortening estimates of ∼71.1 km (∼46.6% strain), ∼76.3 km (∼51.4% strain), ∼67.1 km (∼56.1% strain), and ∼53.0 km (∼49.9% strain), respectively, from east to west. Assuming that coupling shortening occurred across the entire crust and an initial crustal thickness of ∼41−46 km, these shortening ratios would produce a ∼83−95-km-thick crust along the northern Tarim Basin, which is significantly larger than the actual thickness previously reported. This inconsistency leads us to rule out the pure-shear thickening model, which predicts crustal-scale coupling deformation. Alternatively, our results imply that the crust of the northern Tarim Basin was deformed in a decoupling style. These results, combined with those of previous studies, lend support to the intracontinental underthrusting model. We suggest that both the upper crustal fold-and-thrust belts and the lower crustal underthrusting of the northern Tarim Basin accommodated intracontinental convergence.
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Research Article|
May 15, 2023
Intracontinental convergence accommodated by underthrusting of Tarim Basin beneath central Tian Shan, Central Asia: Insights from Cenozoic upper crust deformation across the western Kepingtage fold-and-thrust belt in the northern Tarim Basin
Jialun Huang;
Jialun Huang
1
Key Laboratory of Geoscience Big Data and Deep Resource of Zhejiang Province, School of Earth Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China2
Research Center for Structures in Oil and Gas Bearing Basins, Ministry of Education, Hangzhou 310058, China
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Hanlin Chen;
Hanlin Chen
1
Key Laboratory of Geoscience Big Data and Deep Resource of Zhejiang Province, School of Earth Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China2
Research Center for Structures in Oil and Gas Bearing Basins, Ministry of Education, Hangzhou 310058, China
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Xiubin Lin;
Xiubin Lin
1
Key Laboratory of Geoscience Big Data and Deep Resource of Zhejiang Province, School of Earth Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China2
Research Center for Structures in Oil and Gas Bearing Basins, Ministry of Education, Hangzhou 310058, China
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Kaixuan An;
Kaixuan An
1
Key Laboratory of Geoscience Big Data and Deep Resource of Zhejiang Province, School of Earth Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China2
Research Center for Structures in Oil and Gas Bearing Basins, Ministry of Education, Hangzhou 310058, China
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Xiaogan Cheng;
Xiaogan Cheng
1
Key Laboratory of Geoscience Big Data and Deep Resource of Zhejiang Province, School of Earth Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China2
Research Center for Structures in Oil and Gas Bearing Basins, Ministry of Education, Hangzhou 310058, China
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Yong Li;
Yong Li
3
Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration & Development, Tarim Oilfield Company, PetroChina, Korla 841000, China
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Xianzhang Yang;
Xianzhang Yang
3
Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration & Development, Tarim Oilfield Company, PetroChina, Korla 841000, China
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Liang Zhang;
Liang Zhang
3
Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration & Development, Tarim Oilfield Company, PetroChina, Korla 841000, China
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Cai Chen
Cai Chen
3
Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration & Development, Tarim Oilfield Company, PetroChina, Korla 841000, China
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Jialun Huang
1
Key Laboratory of Geoscience Big Data and Deep Resource of Zhejiang Province, School of Earth Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China2
Research Center for Structures in Oil and Gas Bearing Basins, Ministry of Education, Hangzhou 310058, China
Hanlin Chen
1
Key Laboratory of Geoscience Big Data and Deep Resource of Zhejiang Province, School of Earth Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China2
Research Center for Structures in Oil and Gas Bearing Basins, Ministry of Education, Hangzhou 310058, China
Xiubin Lin
1
Key Laboratory of Geoscience Big Data and Deep Resource of Zhejiang Province, School of Earth Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China2
Research Center for Structures in Oil and Gas Bearing Basins, Ministry of Education, Hangzhou 310058, China
Kaixuan An
1
Key Laboratory of Geoscience Big Data and Deep Resource of Zhejiang Province, School of Earth Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China2
Research Center for Structures in Oil and Gas Bearing Basins, Ministry of Education, Hangzhou 310058, China
Xiaogan Cheng
1
Key Laboratory of Geoscience Big Data and Deep Resource of Zhejiang Province, School of Earth Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China2
Research Center for Structures in Oil and Gas Bearing Basins, Ministry of Education, Hangzhou 310058, China
Yong Li
3
Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration & Development, Tarim Oilfield Company, PetroChina, Korla 841000, China
Xianzhang Yang
3
Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration & Development, Tarim Oilfield Company, PetroChina, Korla 841000, China
Liang Zhang
3
Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration & Development, Tarim Oilfield Company, PetroChina, Korla 841000, China
Cai Chen
3
Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration & Development, Tarim Oilfield Company, PetroChina, Korla 841000, China
Publisher: Geological Society of America
Received:
31 Dec 2022
Revision Received:
14 Feb 2023
Accepted:
22 Feb 2023
First Online:
15 May 2023
Online ISSN: 1943-2674
Print ISSN: 0016-7606
© 2023 Geological Society of America
GSA Bulletin (2023)
Article history
Received:
31 Dec 2022
Revision Received:
14 Feb 2023
Accepted:
22 Feb 2023
First Online:
15 May 2023
Citation
Jialun Huang, Hanlin Chen, Xiubin Lin, Kaixuan An, Xiaogan Cheng, Yong Li, Xianzhang Yang, Liang Zhang, Cai Chen; Intracontinental convergence accommodated by underthrusting of Tarim Basin beneath central Tian Shan, Central Asia: Insights from Cenozoic upper crust deformation across the western Kepingtage fold-and-thrust belt in the northern Tarim Basin. GSA Bulletin 2023; doi: https://doi.org/10.1130/B36927.1
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