Late Mesozoic intracontinental deformation and magmatism in the Chinese Tianshan and adjacent areas, Central Asia

Abstract The Tianshan Range–Junggar Basin– Kalamaili Range system represents the southwestern Central Asian Orogenic Belt and is a natural laboratory for studying intracontinental deformation processes. Its current topography product of farfield effects Cenozoic India-Asia collision. However, Mesozoic topographic tectonic evolution Ranges their impacts on Junggar Basin remain enigmatic due to scarcity data. Here, we present comprehensive synthesis sedimentological geochronological data these ranges adjacent basins reconstruct from Early Jurassic Cretaceous. Based field observations seismic profile analysis, identified several unconformities within late strata in Basin. Detrital zircon U-Pb dating results Lower Cretaceous sandstones eastern southern Basin, with published paleocurrent data, reveal complex evolution. Moreover, tuffaceous gravels tuff samples yielded weighted mean 206Pb/238U ages 156.5 ± 3.2 Ma 156.3 2.2 Ma, respectively, which indicates presence contemporary magmatic activity. magmatism mentioned above were possibly related multi-plate convergence East Asia during Mesozoic. This study provides new insights into tectonic-magmatic its areas.