Cenozoic Stratigraphy Deformation History in the Central and Eastern of Qaidam Basin by the Balance Section Restoration and its Implication

The Qaidam Basin, located in the northern margin of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, is a large Mesozoic-Cenozoic basin, and bears huge thick Cenozoic strata. The geologic events of the Indian- Eurasian plate-plate collision since -55 Ma have been well recorded. Based on the latest progress in high-resolution stratigraphy, a technique of balanced section was applied to six pieces of northeast- southwest geologic seismic profiles in the central and eastern of the Qaidam Basin to reconstruct the crustal shortening deformation history during the Cenozoic collision. The results show that the Qaidam Basin began to shorten deformation nearly synchronous to the early collision, manifesting as a weak compression, the deformation increased significantly during the Middle and Late Eocene, and then weakened slightly and began to accelerate rapidly since the Late Miocene, especially since the Quaternary, reflecting this powerful compressional deformation and rapid uplift of the northern Tibetan Plateau around the Qaidam Basin.

Balanced Cross Section for Restoration of Tectonic Evolution in the Southwest Okinawa Trough

On the basis of the multi.channel seismic data and the other data, using 2DMove software, the tectonic evolution in three seismic profiles was restored since Pliocene. The tectonic restoration results show that： （1） the initial active center lay in the west slope and then was transferred to east and south via trough center during the evolution process; （2） several main normal faults controlled the evolution of the southern Okinawa Trough; （3） since Late Pliocene, the southern Okinawa Trough has experienced two spreading stages. The early is depression in Early-Middle Pleistocene and the late is back-arc spreading in Late Pleistocene and Holocene, which is in primary oceanic crust spreading stage.

Tectonic Evolution of the Middle Frontal Area of the Longmen Mountain Thrust Belt,Western Sichuan Basin,China

By analyzing the balanced cross sections and subsidence history of the Longmen Mountain thrust belt, China, we concluded that it had experienced five tectonic stages： （1） the formation stage （T3x） of the miniature of Longmen Mountain, early Indosinian movement, and Anxian tectonic movement created the Longmen Mountain; （2） the stable tectonic stage （J1） where weaker tectonic movement resulted in the Longmen Mountain thrust belt being slightly uplifted and slightly subsiding the foreland basin; （3） the intense tectonic stage （J2-3）, namely the early Yanshan movement; （4） continuous tectonic movement （K-E）, namely the late Yanshan movement and early Himalayan movement; and （5） the formation of Longmen Mountain （N-Q）, namely the late Himalayan movement. During those tectonic deformation stages, the Anxian movement and Himalayan movement played important roles in the Longmen Mountain＇s formation. The Himalayan movement affected Longmen Mountain the most; the strata thrust intensively and were eroded severely. There are some klippes in the middle part of the Longmen Mountain thrust belt because a few nappes were pushed southeastward in later tectonic deformation.