PALEOCENE—MIDDLE EOCENE DEXTRAL STRIKE-SLIP DEFORMATION AND ITS TECTONIC IMPLICATION IN THE WESTERN YUNNAN, CHINA

The Western Yunnan located at the southeast margin of east Himalaya\|Burman syntaxis. A great number of small basins filled with lacustrine developed in the Indochina block during the Paleocene\|middle Eocene. Occurrence of basins as en chelon arrangement suggests that they were formed under tectonic setting of right\|lateral strike\|slip. The north termination of main faults controlling basins deposition and evolution, meet the Red River fault as an acute angle. The Lanping basin, one representative of all basins, is chosen to study its formation mechanism. Facts of rapid lateral phase change, sediment offset from their source and lateral migration of alluvial fan, indicate that the Lanping basin is a strike\|slip basin and its boundary main fault is syndepositional left\|lateral strike\|slip normal fault. Basin formation was controlled by mechanism of strike\|slip and pull\|apart, the Lanping basin belongs to extension strike\|slip basin. The nature of the Lanping basin and infill suggest that the boundary fault controlling basin deposit was formed during right\|lateral strike\|slip deformation of the Red River fault. Whether formation mechanism of single basin or occurrence of basins supported that the Red River fault was a right\|lateral strike\|slip fault during the Paleocene\|middle Eocene.