Apatite fission-track dating and thermal-history modeling were carried out on samples from the Dabashan （大巴山）, a fold-thrust belt, northeast of the Sichuan （四川） Basin and east of the Tibetan Plateau. A first ...Apatite fission-track dating and thermal-history modeling were carried out on samples from the Dabashan （大巴山）, a fold-thrust belt, northeast of the Sichuan （四川） Basin and east of the Tibetan Plateau. A first cooling event in the Late Cretaceous is followed by a prolonged period of ther- mal stability with exhumation rates of 〈0.025 mm/a, as determined from age vs. elevation relationships. The preservation of age vs. elevations relationships and the lack of distinct age changes across tectonic structures indicate that the Dabashan fold-thrust belt formed prior to the Late Cretaceous, consistent with the current view of Triassic-Early Cretaceous shortening. Relatively short mean track lengths （-12 μm） indicate that the samples remained in the partial annealing zone for a prolonged time. The knick points in the best-fitting temperature-time models suggest that the onset of late-stage accelerated cooling commenced at 〈11 Ma. Related exhumation rates are 0.3-0.2 mm/a assuming geothermal gra- dients of 20 and 30 ℃/km. We speculate that this late-stage event results from eastward growth of the Tibetan Plateau and overstepping of the Sichuan Basin, it is likely responsible for the youthful mor- phology of the Dabashan.展开更多
基金supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 40902038)the Petro China Innova-tion Foundation (No. 2009D-5006-01-08)the Project of China Geological Survey (No. 12120113094200)
文摘Apatite fission-track dating and thermal-history modeling were carried out on samples from the Dabashan （大巴山）, a fold-thrust belt, northeast of the Sichuan （四川） Basin and east of the Tibetan Plateau. A first cooling event in the Late Cretaceous is followed by a prolonged period of ther- mal stability with exhumation rates of 〈0.025 mm/a, as determined from age vs. elevation relationships. The preservation of age vs. elevations relationships and the lack of distinct age changes across tectonic structures indicate that the Dabashan fold-thrust belt formed prior to the Late Cretaceous, consistent with the current view of Triassic-Early Cretaceous shortening. Relatively short mean track lengths （-12 μm） indicate that the samples remained in the partial annealing zone for a prolonged time. The knick points in the best-fitting temperature-time models suggest that the onset of late-stage accelerated cooling commenced at 〈11 Ma. Related exhumation rates are 0.3-0.2 mm/a assuming geothermal gra- dients of 20 and 30 ℃/km. We speculate that this late-stage event results from eastward growth of the Tibetan Plateau and overstepping of the Sichuan Basin, it is likely responsible for the youthful mor- phology of the Dabashan.
