Abstract
Apatite fission-track data indicate that Mesozoic strata exposed on the northern flank of the Chinese Tian Shan underwent ~4-5 km of late Cenozoic unroofting, beginning at ~24 Ma. This age apparently dates initial reactivation of the northern Tian Shan in response to the India-Asia collision, which continues to raise the mountain range today. Numerous studies of the Himalaya and Tibet suggest that a major shift from extrusion-dominated to crustal thickening-dominated tectonics occurred in latest Oligocene-early Miocene time, approximately coincident wwith the start of unroofing in the Tian Shan. This suggests that Tian Shan unroofing was a distant effect of that shift within the collision zone. -Authors
Original language | English |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 487-490 |
Number of pages | 4 |
Journal | Geology |
Volume | 22 |
Issue number | 6 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 1994 |