Mesozoic superposed orogenic systems in eastern China

Abstract

The Indosinian and Yanshanian orogenic movements are both important Mesozoic orogenies in eastern China. The resulted tectonic belts are neither products of the third stage of crustal evolution, as proposed by Chen Guoda, nor intra-continental (or intraplate) orogenic belts generated by intraplate dynamics, as argued by some scholars —rather, they are superposed orogenic belts formed on the pre-existing continental crust in eastern China due to Mesozoic Paleo-Pacific dynamic system. In the past, these orogenic belts were called the marginal Pacific epicontinental activation belts of eastern China. In the Mesozoic, under the effect of Paleo-Pacific dynamic system, the East Asia margin orogenic system formed along Northeast Russia-Sikhote Alin (Russia)–Japan-Ryukyu-Taiwan (China)-Palawan (Philippines) regions, while simultaneously the Mesozoic superposed orogenic system formed in the pre-existing continental crust in eastern China adjacent to the East Asia continental margin. The two orogenic systems, both driven by Mesozoic Paleo-Pacific dynamic system, developed synchronously to form the giant Mesozoic orogenic system in the Pacific tectonic domain in eastern Asia, radically changing the pre-Indosian tectonic framework of the area.