Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 34 (2009) 51–60

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Journal of Asian Earth Sciences

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40
Ar/39Ar dating constraints on the high-angle normal faulting along the
southern segment of the Tan-Lu fault system: An implication for the onset of
eastern China rift-systems
Yu Wang *, Su Zhou
Geologic Laboratories Center and Department of Geology, China University of Geosciences, Haidian District, Beijing 100083, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: High-angle normal faulting in eastern China was an important tectonic process responsible for the rifting
Received 9 September 2007 of the eastern Asian continental margin. Along the southern segment of the Tan-Lu fault system, part of
Received in revised form 23 March 2008 the eastern China rift-system, 55–70° east-dipping normal faults are the oldest structures within this rift-
Accepted 7 April 2008
system. Chlorite, pseudotachylite, and fault breccia are found in fault zones, which are characterized by
microstructures and syn-deformation chlorite minerals aligned parallel to a down-dip stretching linea-
tion. 40Ar/39Ar dating of syn-deformation chlorite and K-feldspar from the fault gouge zone yields cooling
Keywords:
ages of 75–70 Ma, interpreted as the timing of slip along the normal faults. This age is older than that of
Eastern China
Rift-systems
opening of the Japanese sea and back-arc extension in the west Pacific, but similar to the onset of the
Chlorite and K-feldspar Indo-Asian (soft?) collision.
40
Ar/39Ar dating Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction China rift-systems. This early episode of high-angle normal fault-

From the late Mesozoic through Cenozoic, deformation along
the eastern side of the Taihang Mountain belt, eastern China
was dominated by extensional tectonics leading to the formation
of several rift-systems (Fig. 1) (e.g. Tian et al., 1992; Allen et al.,
1997; Liu et al., 2004). The early history of extension was asso-
ciated with basaltic volcanism at 65–55 Ma (e.g. Liu et al.,
1992).
Several geodynamic mechanisms have been proposed for the
formation of these rift-systems including back-arc basin extension
resulting from west Pacific plate subduction (Tian et al., 1992;
Northrup et al., 1995; Yin, 2000; Ren et al., 2002), a response to
continental extrusion derived from the Indo-Asian collision and
Tibetan plateau uplift (e.g. Molnar and Tapponnier, 1977; Ratschb-
acher et al., 2000; Grimmer et al., 2002; Hall, 2002; Liu et al., 2004;
Yin and Chen, 2004), or a response to upwelling of a mantle plume
(Deng et al., 2004) or asthenosphere (Lu et al., 2006). Age con-
straints on the initiation of rifting are critical to these interpreta-
tions, yet are lacking.
The southern segment of the Tan-Lu fault zone is located along
the eastern edge of the Dabie Shan orogenic belt and along the
western margin of the Qianshan basin (Figs. 1 and 2). It is the ear-
liest example of a high-angle, normal fault zone within the eastern
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 10 82321028; fax: +86 10 82321983.
E-mail address: wangyu196601@sohu.com (Y. Wang).
ing is considered broadly coeval with 65–55 Ma basalt volcanism
(e.g. Liu et al., 1992).
In this study, we present new structural and 40Ar/39Ar chlo-
rite and K-feldspar data from fault gouge along the southern
segment of the Tan-Lu fault system to constrain the onset of
normal faulting. These results have implications for the geody-
namic mechanisms that drove this episode of rifting in eastern
China.
2. Geology of the high-angle normal faulting and related basin
sedimentation
In eastern margin of the Dabie Shan orogenic belt, Archaean
gneissic and 240–220 Ma ultrahigh-pressure (UHP) metamorphic
rocks, as well as granite and mylonites, are exposed. Along this
margin, NE- to NEE-trending sinistral strike-slip ductile shear
zones possess NE-striking stretching lineations and southeast or
northwest dipping foliations. A set of high-angle normal faults
are exposed within the Tongcheng and Qianshan regions (Fig. 2).
At some parts, the normal faults are traced the former sinistral
strike-slip faults.
The east-dipping normal faults that define the Tan-Lu fault sys-
tem cut through the footwall of a fault zone with sinistral slip
(Fig. 3). Exposed in the footwall are granites, gneisses, Dabie
high-pressure and UHP metamorphic rocks, mylonites, and early
Cretaceous andesites. The fault dips 55–70° ESE (Fig. 4A–D). The

1367-9120/$ - see front matter Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.jseaes.2008.04.003
52 Y. Wang, S. Zhou / Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 34 (2009) 51–60

fault zone is defined by a 10–20 cm thick fault breccia (Fig. 4B)
containing granite, newly re-crystallized chlorite, and pseudot-
achylite (Fig. 4E–G). A down-dip fault striation, defined by chlorite
is well exposed on the fault surface (Fig. 4A–C).
Chlorite, aligned parallel to the fault striation, is distributed
along the fault surface and within fault breccia (Fig. 4). In thin sec-
tion, chlorite grains up to 0.5 cm across do not exhibit evidence for
later deformation nor evidence that it is a retrogressive product of
biotite. Re-crystallized and oriented quartz was not observed. Pla-
gioclase and K-feldspar minerals appear to be brittle. Plagioclase
deforms mainly by brittle fracturing and cataclastic flow. Charac-
teristic structures in the resulting cataclastic are angular grain
fragments with a wide range of grain size, separated by a fine-
grained matrix and chlorite (Fig. 4G). Pseudotachylite is composed
of dark matrix materials with minor wall rock fragments, such as
feldspars, and is not associated with growth of quartz (Fig. 4F). Bio-
tite and hornblende were not observed in the fault breccia nor
within the deformed or undeformed granite (Fig. 4H). These obser-
vations suggest that formation of pseudotachylite, along with chlo-
rite mineral re-crystallization and brittle behavior of feldspars,

Fig. 1. Regional tectonic map of the North China rift-system (modified from Ren et al., 1999). Site of Fig. 2 is shown. Volcanic sites are from Liu et al. (1992).
 Y. Wang, S. Zhou / Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 34 (2009) 51–60
occurred at temperatures of c. 250–320 °C (Bons, 1986; Arkai et al.,
2000).
In the areas along the Tan-Lu fault system, there are several late
Cretaceous–early Cenozoic rift-depression basins. On the eastern
side of the normal faults, there is Qianshan basin, a half-graben
(Fig. 3), which is part of the late Cretaceous–Cenozoic Subei Basin.
Thus, the normal faults constrain the earlier formation of the Qian-
shan basin. Little or no sedimentation, other than a few andesite
deposits, occurred along the southern segment of the Tan-Lu fault
zone during the early Cretaceous. The Qianshan basin is filled with
rift-related late Cretaceous to Cenozoic conglomerates, red-colored
sandstone, and pebble-bearing sandstone at the bottom; these
deposits thin from west to east (Figs. 2 and 3). Pebbles were de-
rived from granites, Dabie gneisses, granitic-gneisses, and late
Jurassic volcanic rocks. The latest Cretaceous to early Cenozoic ba-
sin deposits reach maximum thickness of 3000 m (Anhui Bureau
of Geological and Mineral Resources, 1987). The long-axis of the
Qianshan basin is NE-trending, sub-parallel to the south segment
of the Tan-Lu normal faults.
3. 40
Ar/39Ar analytical techniques and results
To determine the timing of faulting, we completed 40Ar/39Ar
analyses on four separates of K-feldspar and chlorite minerals from
Fig. 2. Geological map of the Tan-Lu fault system (simplified from a map by the Anhui Bureau of Geological and Mineral Resources, 1987). Sampled site is shown. Apatite and
K-feldspar age data are from Grimmer et al. (2002).
53
samples collected from the fault plane. Sampled sites and release
spectra are shown in Figs. 2 and 5, respectively; analytical data
are listed in Table 1.
Individual grains were purified using a Frantz magnetic separa-
tor and conventional heavy organic liquid separation techniques
and then selected under a binocular microscope. For chlorite only
>0.5 mm grains were selected. The separates were analyzed by
40
Ar/39Ar dating using the MM-5400 micromass-spectrometer in
China University of Geosciences (Beijing). The duration of irradia-
tion and the neutron dose were 9.5 h and 2.08  1017 n/cm2,
respectively. The J factor was estimated by a replicate analysis of
Fish Canyon Tuff sanidine with a known age of 27.55 ± 0.08 Ma
(Lanphere and Baadsgaard, 2001) and a 1% relative standard devi-
ation. Other details of the procedure for the 40Ar/39Ar analyses have
been described by Wang et al. (2002, 2007).
Weighted mean plateau ages (WMPA) are listed where >50% of
the 39Ar released in contiguous steps is within 1r error. For dis-
turbed spectra, preferred ages (PA) are reported where the spec-
trum is relatively flat but does not meet the strict criterion for a
WMPA. Errors are reported in terms of 1-sigma.
Three K-feldspar samples (DB-51-1, DB-54 and DB-56) yield
well-defined 40Ar/39Ar plateau ages of 70.8–73.1 Ma (Fig. 5). The
chlorite sample (DB56-Chl) yields a plateau age of 74.6 ± 2.1 Ma,
slightly older than its co-existing K-feldspar. Plateau ages of chlo-
54 Y. Wang, S. Zhou / Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 34 (2009) 51–60
Fig. 3. Sketched structural cross-section near the sampled sites. Mylonite age data are from Zhu et al. (2001a). Section positions are shown in Fig. 2.
rite and K-feldspar are c. 75–71 Ma, similar to their isochron ages
within error bounds.
4. Discussion
4.1. Forming of the high-angle normal faulting
Chlorite is a low-temperature metamorphic mineral that
forms at temperatures of c. 180–270 °C (Arkai et al., 2000) and
within the brittle–ductile transition at depths of c. 6–8 km (Ram-
say, 1980). Although chlorite can be a breakdown of product of
biotite and hornblende, because we did not observe biotite nor
hornblende within the fault zone, this seems like an unlikely
source of the chlorite. Hence, the presence of chlorite in the ab-
sence of biotite and hornblende indicates that it originated from
the breakdown of plagioclase during normal faulting, and, there-
fore, new growth of chlorite would directly record the onset of
normal faulting along the southern segment of the Tan-Lu fault
system.
Chlorite deforms plastically, even at temperatures below
300 °C (Bons, 1986). On the other hand, the temperature at
which chlorite and pseudotachylite formed was likely much
higher than the annealing temperature of apatite (110–80 °C).
This observation implies that the apatite age data of 60–
30 Ma from the southern Dabie shan, adjacent to the Tan-Lu
fault system (Fig. 2), represent cooling ages (Wang and Yang,
1998; Grimmer et al., 2002; Hu et al., 2006), but not the age
of onset of normal faulting.
The development of ESE-trending extensional stretching lin-
eations along the eastern margin of the Dabie Shan orogenic
belt, cut by the east-dipping high-angle Tan-Lu normal fault
with down-dip stretching lineations, occurred c. 130–120 Ma
ago (Chen et al., 1992; Ratschbacher et al., 2000; Grimmer
et al., 2002), Wang et al. (2006) suggested that the extension
along the Tan-Lu fault occurred between 139–128 Ma. In con-
trast, based on cooling ages in mylonites exposed along the
sinistral strike-slip ductile shear zone, Xu (1984) and Zhu
et al. (2001b) suggested that the normal faults formed during
early of Late Cretaceous. However, Xu (1984) and Zhu et al.
(2001b) did not have direct age constraints on the onset of nor-
mal faulting. Therefore, slip along the Tan-Lu normal fault must
be younger and we suggest that the 75–71 Ma chlorite and
 Y. Wang, S. Zhou / Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 34 (2009) 51–60 55

Fig. 4. Macro- and micro structures of fault plane, fault gouge, and chlorite. (A) Fault plane shows foot- and hanging walls which are granite. Chlorite minerals can be
recognized by their green color. A down-dip fault striation is shown on the fault surface. Scale is shown by a working man. (B) Fault plane exhibiting fault breccia and chlorite
minerals. A down-dip fault striation is shown on the fault surface. Scale is shown by a backed bag (40 cm long). (C) Fault plane shows down-dip stretching lineations. Scale is
shown by a backed bag (40 cm long). (D) Sub-normal faults are on the hanging wall. The hanging wall and footwall are granite. Pseudotachylite is shown parallel to normal
fault planes. (E) Oriented chlorite minerals within the fault breccia layer, the surrounding minerals are quartz, and plagioclase. (F) Pseudotachylite on the fault plane. (G)
Incohesive fault breccia in granite. Angular fragments of variable size are present, separated by fine-grained matrix. (H) No hornblende and biotite minerals within the
deformed granite. Abbreviations are as follows: chl, chlorite; kf, K-feldspar; pl, plagioclase. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is
referred to the web version of this article.)

K-feldspar 40Ar/39Ar ages from the fault breccia indicate the on-
set of slip along this fault.
4.2. Mechanism of the normal faulting and geodynamic implications of
the rift-system in eastern China
During the middle-late Cretaceous, the west Pacific plate moved
north–northeast, parallel to the eastern Eurasian margin, which
constituted an oblique-subduction zone beneath the Eurasian con-
tinent (Xu et al., 1987; Sager et al., 1988; Charvet et al., 1990; Zhu
et al., 2001a,b). Zhang et al. (1999, 2003) suggested that normal
slip along the Tan-Lu fault system initiated during the late Creta-
ceous (85–65 Ma), although they did not have reliable radioisoto-
pic age constraints. In fact, during the Cretaceous, along the south
segment of the Tan-Lu fault system, sinistral strike-slip motion
with steep-foliation and horizontal stretching lineations occurred,
56 Y. Wang, S. Zhou / Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 34 (2009) 51–60

200 8000

Age = 73.3±1.7 Ma
40 36
150 6000 Initial Ar/ Ar =289±43
MSWD = 2.0
Age (Ma) WMPA=73.1±0.3 Ma

Ar/36Ar
Includes 78.9% of the 39Ar
100 4000

40
50 2000

DB-51-1Kf DB-51-1Kf
0 0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
0 100 200 300 400
Cumulative 39Ar Percent 39
Ar/36Ar

4000
200

Age = 71.7±1.6 Ma
40 36
Initial Ar/ Ar =247±33
3000
150 MSWD = 5.0

Ar/ Ar
PA=70.8±0.9 Ma
Age (Ma)

36
Includes 90.7% of the 39Ar 2000
100

40

50 1000

DB-54Kf DB-54Kf
0
0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
0 40 80 120 160 200
39
Cumulative Ar Percent 39 36
Ar/ Ar

250 850

750
200 Age = 74.2±3.6 Ma
40 36
Initial Ar/ Ar =296.1±9.8
650 MSWD = 2.5
Age (Ma)

Ar/ Ar

150
36

PA=74.6±2.1 Ma 550
Includes 50.9% of the 39Ar steps 4-10
40

100
450

50 36.9±1.1 Ma
350
DB-56chl
DB-56chl
0 250
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 0 4 8 12 16 20 24 28
39 36
39
Cumulative Ar Percent Ar/ Ar

250
2800
Age = 71.9±2.1 Ma
200 2400 40 36
Initial Ar/ Ar =290.0±6.2
MSWD = 1.2
2000
Ar/ Ar

150
Age (Ma)

36

1600
WMPA= 71.8±0.4 Ma
Includes 68.5% of the 39Ar
40

100 1200

800
50
400
DB-56Kf
DB-56Kf
0
0
0 40 80 120 160
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
39 36
39 Ar/ Ar
Cumulative Ar Percent

Fig. 5. Chlorite and K-feldspar 40Ar/39Ar plateau and isochron ages. The following abbreviations are used: Chl, chlorite; Kf, K-feldspar; WMPA, weighted mean plateau age; PA,
preferred age.

which yielded muscovite and whole rock 40Ar/39Ar ages of 130– pull-apart basins formed (Fig. 6), such as Laiyang Basin in central
110 Ma (e.g. Xu et al., 1987; Zhu et al., 2001a); at the same time, segment of the Tan-Lu fault system with andesite and sedimentary
 Y. Wang, S. Zhou / Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 34 (2009) 51–60 57

Fig. 6. Two-stage basin sedimentation in the North China during the Cretaceous and Cenozoic (modified from Ren et al., 2002). During the Cretaceous, along the Tan-Lu fault
system, the basin was related to the pull-apart of the sinistral strike-slip motion.

rocks filling. Meanwhile, mountains exhumation along the eastern
Dabie orogenic belt was recorded (Chen et al., 1992; Grimmer
et al., 2002). But in most of the North China area, no more Creta-
ceous sediments were deposited (e.g. Xu et al., 2001; Ren et al.,
2002) (Fig. 6). Thus from the above, there was no evidence showing
the rift formation in North China in the middle-late Cretaceous
(Fig. 7).
The normal faulting along the southern segment of the Tan-Lu
fault occurred 75–70 Ma ago. This episode of normal faulting cor-
responds in time to eastward extension of eastern Asia and oc-
curred prior to the opening of the Japanese Sea in early Cenozoic
time (e.g. Lallemand and Jolivet, 1986). Therefore, we suggest that
this episode of normal fault is not related to back-arc extension
along the west Pacific plate margin, nor triggered by subduction
roll-back of the oceanic Pacific plate from the Asian continent as
Allen et al. (1997) proposed. Although, there is a wealth of data
that indicates that the collision between India and Asia is much
younger than 75–70 Ma (i.e. 55–45 Ma, Patriat and Achache,
1984; Harrison et al., 1992, 2000; Beck et al., 1995; Butler, 1995;
Rowley, 1996), recent study also indicates that the syn- or pre-
58 Y. Wang, S. Zhou / Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 34 (2009) 51–60

Table 1
40
Dating results of Ar/39Ar plateau ages for chlorite and K-feldspar

Temp. (°C) 40
Ar/39Ar 36
Ar/39Ar 37
Ar/39Ar 40
Ar*/39Ark 39
Ar (E12 mol) 39
Ar (%) Ar*
40
Age (Ma) Error (lr, Ma)
0 0
DB-56chl(Chlorite), J = 0.002387, Wt = 0.01835 g, 30° 49.872 N, 116° 39.491 E
650 794.571 2.572 1.555 34.841 0.036 2.74 5.63 144.12 38.40
800 202.597 0.670 0.898 4.640 0.119 9.11 3.56 19.87 6.21
880 63.305 0.185 1.706 8.658 0.325 24.97 14.79 36.90 1.10
950 39.144 0.073 0.715 17.701 0.428 32.88 45.91 74.66 1.52
1000 45.598 0.095 0.766 17.727 0.111 8.54 39.65 74.76 2.48
1050 31.255 0.047 1.886 17.607 0.079 6.03 56.82 74.27 3.31
1100 50.701 0.113 1.125 17.481 0.045 3.45 35.30 73.75 4.16
1150 83.225 0.225 1.939 16.863 0.040 3.10 21.27 71.19 4.39
1200 116.174 0.323 4.557 21.008 0.043 3.33 19.09 88.27 5.41
1400 105.534 0.305 7.977 15.931 0.076 5.84 16.11 67.33 3.42
DB-51-lK(K-feldspar), J = 0.002536 Wt = 0.025g, 30° 49.8690 N, 116 ° 39.4890 E
750 61.383 0.171 1.675 11.061 0.088 1.01 19.07 49.91 5.18
860 52.673 0.135 37.514 15.845 0.035 0.40 30.11 71.07 11.07
950 16.286 0.004 0.264 15.093 1.703 19.65 92.75 67.76 0.97
1000 33.639 0.059 0.246 16.143 0.518 5.98 48.66 72.38 1.26
1040 17.985 0.006 1.584 16.206 0.516 5.96 90.13 72.66 1.42
1080 17.891 0.007 0.893 15.861 0.355 4.09 88.74 71.14 1.42
1120 18.326 0.008 4.095 16.407 0.412 4.75 89.38 73.54 1.77
1160 19.057 0.009 1.964 16.547 0.342 3.95 86.87 74.16 1.84
1200 19.615 0.012 3.713 16.391 0.354 4.09 83.54 73.47 1.28
1240 19.154 0.009 0.066 16.606 0.356 4.11 86.86 74.41 1.06
1280 18.516 0.007 0.139 16.348 0.590 6.81 88.44 73.28 0.75
1340 17.759 0.005 0.000 16.334 1.001 11.55 92.08 73.22 0.72
1400 17.820 0.006 0.000 16.128 2.396 27.65 90.63 72.32 0.71
DB-54K(K-feldspar), J = 0.002299, Wt = 0.0381 g, 30° 49.8690 N, 116° 39.4900 E
650 87.956 0.275 0.543 6.725 0.010 0.10 8.85 27.67 37.76
780 24.969 0.038 0.046 13.834 0.170 1.73 55.98 56.47 2.20
860 16.399 0.003 0.025 15.558 0.736 7.51 94.94 63.38 0.94
920 22.689 0.021 0.045 16.476 0.766 7.81 72.97 67.06 0.99
970 34.358 0.060 0.012 16.572 0.239 2.44 48.91 67.44 1.73
1010 19.421 0.008 0.032 17.189 0.307 3.13 88.66 69.90 1.39
1050 19.330 0.007 0.002 17.400 0.776 7.91 90.14 70.74 1.12
1090 20.091 0.011 0.037 16.871 0.191 1.95 84.18 68.63 2.17
1130 20.177 0.010 0.013 17.132 0.236 2.41 85.10 69.68 1.08
1180 22.467 0.018 0.028 17.119 0.431 4.40 76.50 69.62 0.98
1250 21.848 0.016 0.036 17.063 0.605 6.17 78.38 69.40 0.69
1320 19.398 0.007 0.000 17.283 1.684 17.17 89.24 70.28 0.69
1400 19.749 0.006 0.000 17.855 3.655 37.27 90.54 72.56 0.74
DB-56K(K-feldspar), J = 0.002357, Wt = 0.016g, 30° 49.8720 N, 116° 39.4910 E
700 267.420 0.775 12.033 39.632 0.005 0.12 15.79 161.10 170.12
780 12.907 0.044 0.722 0.099 0.119 3.15 2.06 0.42 0.47
860 31.487 0.064 0.283 12.731 0.156 4.13 41.20 53.34 1.63
920 17.527 0.012 0.578 14.169 0.389 10.33 81.06 59.26 1.15
970 19.752 0.011 0.231 16.648 0.237 6.28 84.47 69.43 2.39
1010 54.799 0.130 0.132 16.359 0.283 7.51 30.77 68.25 1.37
1050 27.306 0.036 0.292 16.661 0.226 5.99 61.51 69.49 2.00
1100 27.271 0.035 0.047 16.856 0.250 6.63 62.30 70.28 1.64
1150 38.225 0.071 0.147 17.197 0.215 5.71 45.70 71.68 1.11
1200 33.328 0.055 4.432 17.544 0.205 5.43 53.08 73.10 1.46
1250 25.267 0.027 0.120 17.175 0.263 6.97 68.39 71.59 0.75
1320 24.028 0.023 0.000 17.262 0.399 10.58 72.21 71.94 0.71
1400 21.990 0.016 0.000 17.357 1.024 27.16 79.21 72.33 0.71

Note: *radiogenic 40
Ar. Time of each step-heating is 10 min.

70–65 Ma collision occurred between the Indian and Asian plates
(e.g. Yin and Harrison, 2000; Yin and Chen, 2004; Ding et al., 2005;
Mo et al., 2006). One probability is that the far-field stress release
of the initial Indo-Asian collision (soft collision?) (pre 70 Ma)
drove the eastward motion of the eastern Asian continent and that,
passively, the Pacific plate changed its motion direction. If this is
true, it would explain the sudden change of the motion rates of
the Pacific plate relative to Eurasia during late Cretaceous to early
Cenozoic time (Northrup et al., 1995), the change in motion direc-
tion of the Pacific plate from the northwest to east and southeast
(Stock and Molnar, 1988), sudden and huge asthenosphere-derived
basaltic eruptions (since 65-present; Lu et al., 2006) in eastern
Asian continent and its margin, as well as the sudden formation
of NE-NNE-striking normal faulting 75–70 Ma ago. These epi-
sodes can not be interpreted by some lithospheric thinning (Men-
zies et al., 1993) in eastern China or the development of a mantle
plume (Deng et al., 2004). Changes of convergence rates and direc-
tion of Pacific–Eurasia may have caused NW–SE trending exten-
sional stress field which caused the rifting in eastern Asian
continental margin, followed by later basaltic eruptions which
might have implications for any lithospheric thinning in eastern
China.
 Y. Wang, S. Zhou / Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 34 (2009) 51–60
Fig. 7. Evolution of the eastern Asian continental margin related to the west Pacific
plate activation as well as the collision of Indo-Asia during the late Cretaceous to
present (modified from Northrup et al., 1995). (1) During the middle-early Creta-
ceous (130–100 Ma), the west Pacific plate underwent an oblique-subduction b-
eneath the eastern Asian continental margin, and region A began to its rift-
depression at this time; (2) At 75–65 Ma, region of B began its rifting, but regions
of C, D and E had not started on their evolution; (3) Post 55–45 Ma (late Paleoc-
ene–early Eocene), the eastern Asian continental margin documented the eastward
extension.
Acknowledgements
This study has been supported by the Program for New Century
Excellent Talents in University (NCET-2005) and Open Research
59
Program from State Key Laboratories of GPMR (No. 0536). The
authors are indebted to Drs. Hochstein, M., Lee, J., Wallis, S. and
Yin, A. for their kind pre-reviewing during the manuscript prepara-
tion, and two reviewers for their constructive comments and
suggestions.
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