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Five‐Stage Model of the Palaeozoic Crustal Evolution in Xinjiang
Author(s) -
Dequan LIU,
Yanling TANG,
Ruhong ZHOU
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
acta geologica sinica ‐ english edition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.444
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1755-6724
pISSN - 1000-9515
DOI - 10.1111/j.1755-6724.1998.tb00413.x
Subject(s) - geology , continental crust , crust , paleozoic , stage (stratigraphy) , oceanic crust , continental margin , paleontology , extensional definition , extensional tectonics , convergent boundary , tectonics , earth science , subduction
The great majority of the Palaeozoic orogenic belts of Central Asia are of the intercontinental type, whose evolution always follows a five‐stage model, i.e. the basal continental crust‐extensional transitional crust‐oceanic crust‐convergent transitional crust‐new continental crust model. The stage for the extensional transitional crust is a pretty long, independent and inevitable phase. The dismembering mechanism of the basal continental crust becoming an extensional continental crust is delineated by the simple shear model put forward by Wernike (1981). The continental margins on the sides of a gently dipping detachment zone and moving along it are asymmetric: one side is of the nonmagmatic type and the other of the magmatic type with a typical bimodal volcanic formation. In the latter case, however, they were often confused with island arcs. This paper discusses the five‐stage process of the crustal evolution of some typical orogenic belts in Xinjiang.