Meso‐Cenozoic Tectonic History of the Altai: New Insights From Apatite U‐Pb and Fission Track Thermochronology for the Fuyun Area (Xinjiang, China)

The Altai is an enigmatic, relatively young mountain belt with sharp relief (up to 4500 m high) that developed thousands of kilometres away from the nearest current plate margins. Fuyun area, at interface between southern margin Chinese and Junggar Basin, represents a key locality for understanding Meso-Cenozoic deformation exhumation history Altai. complex structural architecture area suggests multiple events affected which ultimately led Furthermore, hosts orogenic-type mineralisation, suggesting fluid alteration. However, in contrast well-constrained Palaeozoic history, timing deformation, metasomatism has not been comprehensively studied. This study presents new apatite U-Pb, trace element fission track data integrate these previous studies shed more light on tectonic history. U-Pb dates, associated LREE-depleted profiles, suggest phase Middle–Late Jurassic (∼170–160 Ma) Keketuohai potentially linked rare-metal mineralisation. results thermal models reveal rapid early Late Cretaceous (∼100–75 cooling throughout Altai, distant plate-margin processes. In addition, samples taken vicinity frontal thrusts record evidence Cenozoic partial resetting system.