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Cenozoic Tilting History of the South Slope of the Altyn Tagh As Revealed by Seismic Profiling: Implications for the Kinematics GEOSPHERE; V

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Cenozoic Tilting History of the South Slope of the Altyn Tagh As Revealed by Seismic Profiling: Implications for the Kinematics GEOSPHERE; V Research Paper GEOSPHERE Cenozoic tilting history of the south slope of the Altyn Tagh as revealed by seismic profiling: Implications for the kinematics GEOSPHERE; v. 12, no. 3 of the Altyn Tagh fault bounding the northern margin of the doi:10.1130/GES01269.1 Tibetan Plateau 10 figures; 1 table Haifeng Zhao1, Yanyan Wei1, Ya Shen2, Ancheng Xiao1, Liguang Mao1, Liqun Wang3, Junya Guan2, and Lei Wu1 CORRESPONDENCE: Xiao: xiaoanch@ zju .edu .cn; 1School of Earth Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China Wu: leiwu@ zju .edu .cn 2Bureau of Geophysical Prospecting Inc., China National Petroleum Corporation, Zhuozhou 072750, China 3Research Institute of Oil and Gas Exploration and Exploitation of Qinghai Oilfield Company, PetroChina, Dunhuang 736202, China CITATION: Zhao, H., Wei, Y., Shen, Y., Xiao, A., Mao, L., Wang, L., Guan, J., and Wu, L., 2016, Ceno- zoic tilting history of the south slope of the Altyn Tagh ABSTRACT is important for understanding the growth of the Tibetan Plateau during the as revealed by seismic profiling: Implications for the Cenozoic era (Tapponnier et al., 2001; Yin et al., 2002; Cowgill et al., 2003; kinematics of the Altyn Tagh fault bounding the north- ern margin of the Tibetan Plateau: Geosphere, v. 12, The Altyn Tagh fault (ATF) plays a significant role in the northward growth Meng et al., 2012), as well as understanding the development of adjacent no. 3, p. 884–899, doi:10.1130/GES01269.1. of the Tibetan Plateau, but its Cenozoic kinematics and related structural re- basins (Chen et al., 2004; Ritts et al., 2004; Yue et al., 2001; Wu et al., 2012a, sponse in adjacent basins remain debated. In this study, we identified a tran- 2012b; Xiao et al., 2013). Since its identification on remote sensing images Received 19 September 2015 sition zone between the ATF and the Qaidam Basin interior and termed it the four decades ago (Molnar and Tapponnier, 1975), an increasing number of Revision received 25 January 2016 Altyn Slope, based on a dense network of two- and three-dimensional seis- studies have been carried out on this large-scale fault system, detailing its Accepted 28 March 2016 Published online 11 May 2016 mic reflection profiles and isopach maps. Tilted by a series of E-W–trending geometry (Cowgill et al., 2000; Wittlinger et al., 1998), kinematics (Bendick transpressional faults that constitute the positive flower structure of the ATF, et al., 2000; Mériaux et al., 2005; Cowgill et al., 2009; Elliott et al., 2015), and the present Altyn Slope is characterized by a southeast-dipping slope with evolution (Yue and Liou, 1999; Yin et al., 2002; Cowgill et al., 2003; Liu et al., its undulating southeastern boundary with peaks coincidentally located at 2007; Wu et al., 2012b). Some studies also examined possible source-to-sink the major anticlinal belts in the basin. We propose a method for restoring relationships between the Altyn Tagh and the sediments exposed along spe- the Ceno zoic tilting history of the Altyn Slope during different time periods cific sections (e.g., Chen et al., 2004; Wu et al., 2012b; Li et al., 2014; J.M. Sun by identifying growth-strata geometry from the recent isopach maps. The re- et al., 2005; Cheng et al., 2015). But few studies concentrated on the structural sults show that the Altyn Slope began to form in the late Eocene (ca. 40 Ma) responses to the activity of the ATF in the adjacent basins, which is also of and continued to expand until the mid-Miocene (ca. 15 Ma) albeit with a crucial importance for acquiring a detailed knowledge of the specific evolu- temporally developing shape. However, the Altyn Slope shrank toward the tion of the ATF. ATF and underwent significant NE-SW–directed folding since the mid-Mio- The Qaidam Basin is the largest sedimentary basin within the Tibetan cene (ca. 15 Ma), resulting in formation of undulations of its southeastern Plateau and is bounded by the ATF to the northwest (Fig. 1A). Thick and boundary. We thus infer that the left-slip motion on the ATF is divided into nearly continuous Cenozoic sediments (Wu et al., 2014) have been well pre- two distinct stages: during the first stage, ca. 40–15 Ma, the ATF was activated served within the basin, containing the most integrated information record- with slow slip rate, and most transpressional stress was converted to vertical ing the Cenozoic history of the ATF. Much work has been done to establish strain, raising the Altyn Slope instead of producing strike-slip motion. During a tectonic-sedimentary link between the ATF and the Qaidam Basin (e.g., the second stage, since ca. 15 Ma, faster sinistral strike-slip motion on the ATF Bally et al., 1986; Chen et al., 2002; Zhuang et al., 2011; Wu et al., 2012b; took place, releasing the stress beneath the Altyn Slope and inducing intense Wang et al., 2006; Wang et al., 2010). Bally et al. (1986) proposed that the ATF NE-SW–directed shortening within the Northern Tibetan Plateau. and the structures along the western edge of the Qaidam Basin were active since the middle Eocene. Wang et al. (2006) inferred that most of the sedi- INTRODUCTION ments within the depocenters of the Qaidam Basin were sourced from the Pamir folded belt in western Tibet and transported by a lengthy longitudinal As the northern boundary of the Tibetan Plateau, the ~1600-km-long left- river that developed along with the left-lateral motion of the ATF since the For permission to copy, contact Copyright slip Altyn Tagh fault (ATF) links all the major thrust belts and basins in and Oligocene, and that disappeared at ca. 2–4 Ma. Yin et al. (2002) suggested Permissions, GSA, or [email protected]. around the northern plateau (Yin et al., 2002). Knowledge of the ATF therefore that the Qaidam Basin was offset from the Tarim Basin by the left strikeslip © 2016 Geological Society of America GEOSPHERE | Volume 12 | Number 3 Zhao et al. | Cenozoic tilting history of the Altyn Tagh fault Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geosphere/article-pdf/12/3/884/3337902/884.pdf 884 by guest on 26 September 2021 Research Paper 38.5 E 39 E E Xorkol Basin Altyn Tagh E Lapeiquan AltynTagh Fault E 90 ( 92 94 ± 39.5 N ( 38 N Mang'ai ( Huatugou ( Qima Serten 39 N n T Lenghu 37. E ag E E 5 N h Huahaizi( 90 92 38 g 94 B 38 E .5 E 90 E 100 E A Legend 40 N Upper Pleisto- Middle Miocene Proterozoic- cene-Holocene Paleozoic 40 N ATF Lower-Middle Paleocene- ( Town Pleistocene Early Miocene EKF Late Miocene- Mesozoic Pliocene 30 N 30 N Elevation 050100 km 7859m 180m 90 E 100 E Figure 1. (A) Digital elevation model of Tibetan Plateau and adjacent areas superimposed with main traces of the Altyn Tagh fault (ATF) and the East Kunlun Fault (EKF); red rectangle marks the loca- tion of our study area. (B) Simplified geological map of the western Qaidam Basin. EK—East Kunlun Mountains; QB—Qaidam Basin; TB—Tarim Basin; TS—Tien Shan; WK—West Kunlun Mountains. of the ATF and developed internal drainage since the Oligocene or possibly mainly on newly obtained high-resolution seismic reflection data, borehole late Eocene due to the relative motion of the Altyn Tagh, i.e., the sliding logs, and isopach maps, which place new constraints on the Cenozoic move- door mechanism. These studies, however, lack a systematic understanding ment of the ATF. of the structural coupling between the ATF and the Qaidam Basin, possibly because they are mainly based on field investigations, although most areas of the western Qaidam Basin are now covered by late Quaternary sediments GEOLOGICAL SETTING (Fig. 1B). Fortunately, natural gas exploration during the past decade has yielded a growing number of two-dimensional (2-D) and three-dimensional The Qaidam basin, with an area of ~120,000 km2 and an average elevation (3-D) seismic surveys conducted in the northwestern Qaidam Basin adjacent of >3000 m, is a rhomb-shaped intermontane basin bounded by the Altyn Tagh to the ATF, providing a good opportunity to unravel its structural features to the northwest, the Qilian Shan to the northeast, and the East Kunlun Shan and to detail its structural coupling with the ATF. In this study, we identified to the south (Yin and Harrison, 2000) (Fig. 1A). It developed on Proterozoic– a structural transition zone between the ATF and the Qaidam Basin interior, Paleozoic basement and accumulated thick Mesozoic and Cenozoic terrestrial which we termed the “Altyn Slope” because its formation and evolution sediments with an obvious regional unconformity between the Paleogene and were closely related to the ATF. The tilting history of the Altyn Slope was re- the lower Cretaceous (Fig. 1B; GMBQP, 1991). The present-day Qaidam Basin is constructed through the analysis of the 3-D patterns of growth strata, based generally accepted to have formed in the Cenozoic in response to the ongoing GEOSPHERE | Volume 12 | Number 3 Zhao et al. | Cenozoic tilting history of the Altyn Tagh fault Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geosphere/article-pdf/12/3/884/3337902/884.pdf 885 by guest on 26 September 2021 Research Paper collision between India and Asia (Tapponnier et al., 2001; Yin and Harrison, beds on the Altyn Slope that are examined in this paper. We use these fea- 2000; Yin et al., 2008a, 2008b; Wang et al., 2006) and is characterized by a large tures to infer the geological evolution of the ATF and its relationship to the NW-trending syn-depositional Tertiary synclinorium with the depocenters that Qaidam Basin.
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