Geoscience Frontiers 7 (2016) 171e180

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China University of Geosciences (Beijing)

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Research paper

Apatite fission track thermochronology in the Kuluketage and Aksuareas, NW China: Implication for tectonic evolution of the northernTarim

Zhiyong Zhang a,*, Wenbin Zhu b, Dewen Zheng c, Bihai Zheng b, Wei Yang b

a State Key Laboratory of Lithospheric Evolution, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, Chinab State Key Laboratory for Mineral Deposits Research, Department of Earth Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, Chinac State Key Laboratory of Earthquake Dynamics, Institute of Geology, China Earthquake Administration, Beijing 100029, China

a r t i c l e i n f o

Article history:Received 4 February 2015Received in revised form19 August 2015Accepted 31 August 2015Available online 8 October 2015

Keywords:Tarim CratonThe Kuluketage areaAksu Precambrian blueschistApatite fission trackThermo-tectonic evolution

* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ86 10 82998520; fax:E-mail address: zyzhang@mail.iggcas.ac.cn (Z. Zhang).Peer-review under responsibility of China University

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gsf.2015.08.0071674-9871/� 2015, China University of Geosciences (BND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-n

a b s t r a c t

Tarim Precambrian bedrocks are well exposed in the Kuluketage and Aksu areas, where twenty foursamples were taken to reveal the denudation history of the northern Tarim Craton. Apatite fission trackdating and thermal history modeling suggest that the northern Tarim experienced multi-stage coolingevents which were assumed to be associated with the distant effects of the Cimmerian orogeny andIndia-Eurasia collision in the past. But the first episode of exhumation in the northern Tarim, occurring inthe mid-Permian to Triassic, is here suggested to be induced by docking of the Tarim Craton and finalamalgamation of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt. The cooling event at ca. 170 Ma may be triggered by theQiangtang-Eurasia collision. Widespread Cretaceous exhumation could be linked with docking of theLhasa terrane in the late Jurassic. Cenozoic reheating and recooling likely occurred because of the north-propagating stress, however, this has not affected the northern Tarim much because the Tarim is char-acterized by rigid block-like motion.

� 2015, China University of Geosciences (Beijing) and Peking University. Production and hosting byElsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/

licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

1. Introduction

The Tarim Craton in NWChina is one of themajor cratons of Asia(Fig. 1). To the north of the Tarim, a vast array of active intra-continental mountain belts, extending into the interior of theEurasian continent, comprise the Central Asian Orogenic Belt(CAOB) (Sengör et al., 1993; Charvet et al., 2007; Windley et al.,2007; Xiao et al., 2009, 2015). The Tarim Craton consists of Pre-cambrian bedrocks, which are overlain by Phanerozoic sedimentsin the south and centre, but are well exposed in the north.

The Kuluketage area (Fig. 2), in the north-eastern Tarim Craton,provides an excellent geological exposure with an area of ca.100e250 km NeS and ca. 500 km EeW extension, suitable forstudying Precambrian bedrocks of the craton by means ofgeochronology (Zhang et al., 2009a; Zhu et al., 2011a; Cao et al.,

þ86 10 62010846.

of Geosciences (Beijing).

eijing) and Peking University. Produc-nd/4.0/).

2011a, b; Long et al., 2011a, b). (U-Th)/He and fission trackthermochronometries also have been applied to reveal the tectono-thermal evolution history (Qiu et al., 2009; Zhu et al., 2010; Xiaoet al., 2011; Zhang et al., 2011).

The Aksu area is located along the northwestern margin of theTarim Craton, NW China (Fig. 1). With a well-preserved late Pre-cambrian blueschist (Fig. 3a), many geochemical, geochronologicand paleomagnetic studies have been performed in recent decades(Liou et al., 1989; Nakajima et al., 1990; Liou et al., 1996; Chen et al.,2004; Zhan et al., 2007). The exhumation history has previouslybeen determined by apatite fission track (AFT) dating (Dumitruet al., 2001; Zhang et al., 2009b). The major erosion was proposedto initiate in middle Permian time (Dumitru et al., 2001). And theNeogene sample was suggested to have a local source, since ityielded an AFT age essentially identical with the ca. 214 Ma agefrom Sinian to Permian section (Dumitru et al., 2001). Thisdeduction was consistent with the detrital mineralogy of theNeogene rocks in the area (Graham et al., 1993). Cretaceous exhu-mation in the Aksu area was also documented by AFT dating ofPrecambrian bedrock (Zhang et al., 2009b).

ction and hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-

Figure 1. Tectonic setting of the Tarim, Tibetan Plateau and Tianshan (modified afterDeCelles et al., 2007). The background image is from ETOPO1 Global Relief Model(NOAA, National Geophysical Data Center) (Amante and Eakins, 2009). White rectan-gles show the study areas. White solid lines indicate major faults, while red linespresent suture zones in the Tibetan Plateau. ISZ: Indus-Yarlung suture zone, BSZ:Bangong suture zone, JSZ: Jinsha suture zone.

Z. Zhang et al. / Geoscience Frontiers 7 (2016) 171e180172

However, compared with the large Precambrian outcrops,only limited locations have been studied. Meanwhile, questionsstill remain about reactivations of Precambrian faults and tec-tonic implications of multi-stage cooling events. In this study,nineteen additional AFT samples from Kuluketage and fivemore from Aksu are analyzed to generate more representativeresults. Combined with previously published dataset, wediscuss the linkage between the cooling events and regionaltectonic activities, all the information leads to a better under-standing of thermo-tectonic evolution history of the northernTarim.

Figure 2. Simplified geological map of the Kuluketage area, NE Tarim Craton (modified afterOrdovician sandstone in Yuanbao Mountain except sample F12. See Fig. 4 for more detaile

2. Geological setting

2.1. The Kuluketage area

Situated between the southern Tianshan and Tarim Basin, theKuluketage area contains widespread Precambrian bedrock andPalaeozoic stable platform sediments (Fig. 2). The term “bedrock”used heremeans all kinds of Precambrian rocks includingmagmatic,sedimentary and metamorphic rocks (Hu et al., 2000; Lu et al.,2008). The Kuluketage area refers to the region between theXinger fault and the Kongquehe fault. The Xingdi fault extends fromeast to west and divides the area into two parts. In addition to theXinger and Xingdi faults extending from east to west, numeroussub-faults extend in various directions (Zhang et al., 2011). Abun-dant Neoarchean TTG (tonalite-trondhjemite-granodiorite) gneissesare well exposed along the Xinger and Xingdi faults. The Proterozoicrocks, mainly occurring on both sides of the Xingdi fault, are un-conformably overlain by early Palaeozoic sedimentary strata.Ordovician strata crop out to the south of the Xingdi fault, whereasCambrian to Lower Ordovician strata crop out between the Xingdiand Xinger faults. To the north of the Xinger fault, Devonian toLower Carboniferous strata are exposed together with minorJurassic sandstones (XJBGMR, 1993).

A simple tectonic evolution of the Xingdi fault zone is summa-rized into four periods by previous studies. The first period ischaracterized by strong folding, ductile shearing and the magma-tism dated at the interval of 900e1100 Ma (Deng et al., 2008; Shuet al., 2011); the second period is recorded by extensive bimodalmagmatism and diabase dyke swarm dated at 830e740 Ma, indi-cating rifting during the breakup of Rodinia (Xu et al., 2005; Luet al., 2008; Zhu et al., 2008b; Zhang et al., 2009a; Zhu et al.,2011a); the third period is suggested to be formed likely in themidelate Paleozoic, producing two anticlines of NeoproterozoicKuluketage Group and one syncline of Cambrian system (Shu et al.,

XJBGMR, 1993). The samples were collected from Precambrian outcrop near Korla andd geological information.

Figure 3. (a) Interpretation of satellite image of the Aksu area with geological information from Dumitru et al. (2001) and Zheng et al. (2010). Sample locations and apatite fissiontrack ages are shown from this study and published data (Dumitru et al., 2001; Zhang et al., 2009b). (b) Stratigraphic column of the Aksu area (after Chen et al., 2004). The thicknessis not to scale.

Z. Zhang et al. / Geoscience Frontiers 7 (2016) 171e180 173

2011); the fourth period is marked by multi-stage denudationduring MesoeCenozoic time (Zhu et al., 2010; Zhang et al., 2011).

2.2. The Aksu area

The Aksu area is regarded as one of the oldest well-substantiated Precambrian blueschist terranes in the world (Liouet al., 1989; Nakajima et al., 1990; Liou et al., 1996). Over the pastseveral years, our group has carried out geochemical, SreNd iso-topic, detrital zircon UePb and AFT geochronological analyses inthis area (Zhang et al., 2009b; Zheng et al., 2010; Zhu et al., 2011b).

The stratigraphic successions include the pre-Sinian Aksu Groupof metamorphic rocks, the late Sinian Sugetbrak and Chigebrakformations, and the lower Cambrian Yuertus Formation (Fig. 3b).The early Sinian is absent between the Aksu Group and SugetbrakFormation (XJBGMR, 1993).

The Aksu Group is composed primarily of psammitic, pelitic andmafic schists that are intercalated with quartzites, meta-ironstonesand metacherts. The mafic schists are dominated by greenschistsand contain some blueschists (Xiong and Wang, 1986; Liou et al.,1989; Nakajima et al., 1990; Xiao et al., 1990; Liou et al., 1996;Zhang et al., 1999). The Sugetbrak Formation is composed, frombottom to top, of red conglomerate (w10 m thick), red fluvialsandstones (w350 m thick), and gray lacustrine mudstones(w50 m thick) (Turner, 2010). The overlaying Chigebrak Formationis mainly composed of layered gray stromatolitic dolomite(w140 m thick). The formation of the stromatolites was con-strained to be late Neoproterozoic (Gao et al., 1985). The LowerCambrian Yuertus Formation, which unconformably overlies the

Chigebrak Formation, consists dominantly of siliceous rocks (Chenet al., 2004).

3. Sampling and analytical methods

AFTmethod registers the timingwhen the fission tracks become(partially) stable at a certain temperature. The closure temperatureof AFT is commonly assumed to be w110 � 10 �C, and the tem-perature of the apatite partial annealing zone (APAZ) is taken as60e110 �C (Green et al., 1989). Partial annealing will reduce theapparent AFT age and shorten the lengths of individual tracks,while fully annealing will reset the AFT age to zero (Naeser et al.,1979; Gleadow et al., 1986b; Green et al., 1989; Dumitru, 1990).The track length distribution records the details of the teT path, theAFT age and the length distribution can be combined using variousmodeling procedures to determine a best-fit thermal history that arock has experienced (Gallagher, 1995; Ketcham et al., 2007).

A portable GPS was used to determine the location of eachsample. The apatite crystals were separated from w3 kg rock sam-ples using conventional heavy liquid and magnetic techniques. Theanalytical procedures were performed at the State Key Laboratory ofEarthquake Dynamics, Institute of Geology, China EarthquakeAdministration, using the external detector method (Hurford andGreen, 1982). Apatite was embedded in epoxy resin, polished toexpose the internal surfaces of the crystals and etched in 5.5 NHNO3

at 20 �C for 20 s to reveal 238U spontaneous fission tracks. The in-ternal surfaces of the crystals were then covered with low-uraniummuscovite external detectors. The crystals with external detectorswere packed together with SRM612 standard dosimeter glasses andirradiated in the 492 Swim-Pool thermal neutron nuclear reactor at

Table 1Apatite fission track data from the Kuluketage and Aksu areas, northern Tarim, NW China.

Samplenumber/elevation (m)

Sample location Stratigraphic ageand lithology

Nc rd (�105 cm�2) Ns Ni P (x2) % Age (Ma � 1s) Cl (wt.% � 1s) Standarddeviation

Dpar (mm � 1s) Standarddeviation

Length(mm � 1s) (Nl)

Standarddeviation

The Kuluketage area, z value ¼ 344 � 18F61002 m

N40�4600300

E88�3402000Ordovician sandstone 7 10.36 157 215 35 130 � 16

F121360 m

N41�1302400

E88�2802400Proterozoictwo-mica granite

22 10.66 2723 2655 9 184 � 6 0.025 � 0.009 0.027 1.88 � 0.03 0.26 11.02 � 0.20125

2.28

F13970 m

N40�4800100

E88�3100600Ordovician sandstone 24 10.58 1615 1356 8 214 � 9 0.237 � 0.023 0.073 2.43 � 0.04 0.35 11.89 � 0.24

1122.49

F14968 m

N40�4800000

E88�3100800Ordovician sandstone 34 10.51 865 1908 0 95 � 12 2.50 � 0.05 0.36 11.82 � 0.57

212.59

F151065 m

N40�4601600

E88�3300500Ordovician sandstone 22 10.43 747 960 4 138 � 9 2.21 � 0.05 0.35 11.90 � 0.20

851.88

F161041 m

N40�4600900

E88�3301600Ordovician sandstone 21 10.28 1192 1628 6 129 � 7 2.14 � 0.06 0.43 11.38 � 0.27

812.45

F171024 m

N40�4603500

E88�3402000Ordovician sandstone 20 10.21 1363 1731 76 137 � 5 0.026 � 0.005 0.015 1.91 � 0.03 0.32 12.22 � 0.20

1012.00

F18853 m

N40�4601500

E88�2405600Ordovician sandstone 23 10.13 1719 2218 0 131 � 7 2.25 � 0.06 0.48 12.45 � 0.32

462.17

F19833 m

N40�4602300

E88�2202300Ordovician sandstone 21 10.06 1070 956 7 185 � 11 2.47 � 0.05 0.41 11.68 � 0.25

1062.53

K31131 m

N41�4701200

E86�1302700Proterozoic graniticgneiss

22 10.35 937 1955 1 85 � 5 0.015 � 0.001 0.004 12.18 � 0.17102

1.68

K91229 m

N41�4802700

E86�1403100Proterozoic graniticgneiss

15 10.05 399 952 39 72 � 4 13.02 � 0.2054

1.48

K101264 m

N41�4803800

E86�1404800Proterozoic hornblendeschist

9 10.00 128 203 33 108 � 13

K111209 m

N41�4805600

E86�1500100Proterozoic graniticgneiss

20 9.96 637 1516 60 72 � 3 0.056 � 0.005 0.017 12.32 � 0.16114

1.75

T11005 m

N41�4701900

E86�1003300Archean quartz schist 10 9.91 253 527 0 84 � 11

T3992 m

N41�4803300

E86�1103200Proterozoic biotitehornblende schist

5 9.81 63 106 87 100 � 16

T61017 m

N41�4902000

E86�1104800Proterozoic mica schist 20 9.66 500 862 96 96 � 5 13.53 � 0.23

511.63

T71028 m

N41�4901600

E86�1105800Proterozoic hornblendegneiss

26 9.61 990 2118 13 77 � 3 0.013 � 0.002 0.006 11.65 � 0.17116

1.84

T81039 m

N41�4901400

E86�1201100Proterozoic amphibolite 17 9.57 679 1272 2 85 � 6 0.018 � 0.001 0.004 13.01 � 0.14

1051.43

T91039 m

N41�4901400

E86�1201100Proterozoic amphibolite 11 9.52 610 1316 29 75 � 4 12.96 � 0.15

881.44

The Aksu area, z value ¼ 352.4 � 29A291392

N40�5903400

E79�5901800Proterozoicpsammitic schist

21 11.10 923 1418 8 126 � 7 12.31 � 0.15(80)

1.39

A331294

N40�5902200

E79�5903100Sinianred fluvial sandstone

9 10.90 97 350 66 53 � 6 12.13 � 0.22(35)

1.33

A341272

N40�5901400

E79�5903000Sinianred fluvial sandstone

11 10.80 103 474 23 42 � 5 13.29 � 0.23(30)

1.30

A351219

N41�0103300

E80�0204900Proterozoicpsammitic schist

30 10.70 1227 1904 76 121 � 5 12.69 � 0.15(82)

1.38

A371250

N41�0103800

E80�0203100Proterozoicpelitic schist

29 10.60 1496 2344 11 119 � 5 12.53 � 0.17(78)

1.51

Nc, number of apatite crystals analyzed per sample; rd, induced track density in external detector adjacent to SRM612 dosimetry glass; Ns, number of spontaneous tracks counted; Ni, number of induced tracks counted; P(x2), chi-square probability; Nl, number of measured confined track lengths. Measurement of Dpar values was applied to eight samples, three of which were also involved in Cl analysis. The Dpar value is positively correlated with the Clcontent.

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Z. Zhang et al. / Geoscience Frontiers 7 (2016) 171e180 175

the China Institute of Atomic Energy, Beijing. Induced tracks wererevealed in the muscovite external detectors by etching in 40% HF atroom temperature for 20 min. The fission track counting and track-lengthmeasurements were performed on an Autoscan Fission TrackDating Systemwith a Zeiss Axioplan 2microscope (�10 ocular,�100dry objective). The apatite crystals were dated using the z calibrationmethod (Hurford and Green, 1983; Hurford, 1990).

To assess the kinetic parameters of apatite, seven samples wereanalyzed on a JXA-8800M (JEOL Ltd., Tokyo, Japan) electronmicroprobe at Nanjing University in order to determine their Clcontent. Accelerating voltage was 15 keV with a 20 nA beam cur-rent and a 5 mm beam diameter.

The detailed analytical data are listed in Table 1. Sites andapparent AFTages of the samples are shown on Figs. 2e4. Age radialplots and confined track length distribution patterns are displayedon Figs. 5 and 6, respectively.

It is generally accepted that,most apparent AFTages donot revealthe time of any particular event, so apparent AFT ages could not besimply interpreted as dating the cooling below some critical tem-perature. Usually apparent AFT ages are mixed ages intermediatebetween the time of other events (Gleadow et al., 1986a). The key tointerpreting an apparent AFT age is the form of the correspondingtrack length distribution (Gleadow et al., 1986b). To further under-stand the thermal history of the northern Tarim, thermal historymodeling was performed using the computer program HeFTy(Ketcham, 2005b)with theannealingmodel of Ketchamet al. (2007).HeFTypresents candidate teT paths using a constrainedMonte Carloscheme that allows the user to specify teT box-constraints throughwhich each statistically acceptable teT path must pass. Generally,the number of measured confined track lengths should exceed atleast 40, while high reliability requires 100 measured track lengths

Figure 4. Map of the two areas labeled in Fig. 2 showing geology, structures, samplelocations and apparent AFT ages from the Kuluketage area (modified after XJBGMR,1993).

(Rahn and Seward, 2000). In order to evaluate the cooling history ofthe northern Tarim, ten representative samples are selected forthermal modeling according to their data quality (Fig. 7).

4. Results

The samples from the Kuluketage area are subdivided into threegroups depending on their locations and stratigraphic ages. Thesamples of the first group were collected from Precambrianbedrock near Korla (Fig. 4a), producing AFT ages between 108 and72 Ma with mean confined track lengths ranging from 11.65 � 0.17to 13.53 � 0.23 mm. The samples of the second group, taken fromOrdovician sandstone in Yuanbao Mountain (Fig. 4b), yielded alarge range of AFT ages from 214 to 95 Ma with mean track lengthsof 11.38 � 0.27 to 12.45 � 0.32 mm. Proterozoic Sample F12,belonging to the last group, was taken from the northern side of theXingdi fault, and gave an AFT age of 184 Ma with a mean tracklength of 11.02 � 0.20 mm. As for samples from the Aksu area, theAFT ages have a wide range from 126 to 42 Ma, with mean confinedtrack lengths between 12.13 � 0.22 and 13.29 � 0.23 mm.

All the AFT ages are far younger than their stratigraphic ormetamorphic ages, indicating that all the samples had been totallyannealed before final exhumation. Individual grains in sedimentaryrocks or meta-sedimentary rocks usually have a range of annealingsusceptibilities correlated with apatite composition. This is prob-ably the main reason why single-grain ages of some samples arewidely spread.

5. Discussion

The Tianshan orogenic collage records the long-lived, NeS ac-cretion of the CAOB, forming one of the largest accretionary oro-gens (Sengör et al., 1993;Windley et al., 2007; Xiao et al., 2015). Thesouthern part of the orogenic collage developed by the consump-tion of the South Tianshan Ocean gave rise to a continuous accre-tionary complex, which separated the Central Tianshan in the eastand other Paleozoic arcs in the west from the Tarim Craton to thesouth (Xiao et al., 2013). Located to the south of the Tarim Cratonalong the Jinsha, Bangong and Indus-Yarlung suture zones, theQiangtang, Lhasa and Indian terranes, rifted off Gondwana, movednorthwards, and collided with Eurasia during the Mesozoic andearly Cenozoic (Sengör, 1984; Otto, 1997; Yin and Harrison, 2000;Tapponnier et al., 2001; Zhang et al., 2002; Zhang, 2007; Li et al.,2008; Wilmsen et al., 2009).

In the Kuluketage area, thermal history modeling of our samples(F12, F13 and F19) shows that slow cooling probably started at ca.270e250Ma. In Aksu area, this episode of exhumation has not beendocumented in our samples. However, this cooling event was re-ported to have occurred with eight AFT samples from this area byDumitru et al. (2001). Seven of the eight samples are from Sinian(late Precambrian) to Permian units, one fromNeogene clastics. Fiveof the sampleswere chosen for themodelingwhich indicatedmajorcooling of these samples through 100 �C isotherm at ca. 250�10Ma(Dumitru et al., 2001). Mesozoic strata are completely absent in thisarea. The stratigraphic relationships suggested that this area wasrelatively high throughout Mesozoic time (Carroll et al., 2001). TheAFT data were consistent with significant exhumation followed byrelative quiescence (slow erosion) during the Mesozoic (Dumitruet al., 2001). The middle PermianeTriassic episode of exhumationhas also been documented in the adjacent areas by thermochro-nological studies (Sobel and Dumitru, 1997; Jolivet et al., 2007; DeGrave et al., 2011; De Grave et al., 2013). This cooling event wasgenerally thought to be induced by the collision of the Qiangtangterrane with the South Eurasian continental margin (Hendrix et al.,1992; Sobel and Dumitru, 1997; Jolivet et al., 2007; Zhu et al., 2010;

Figure 5. AFT dating results are shown as radial plots with ages for each grain population using the RadialPlotter program (Vermeesch, 2009).

Z. Zhang et al. / Geoscience Frontiers 7 (2016) 171e180176

Figure 6. Distributions of confined AFT lengths. Ten samples labeled M yielded sufficient length data and single grain age data to permit modeling.

Z. Zhang et al. / Geoscience Frontiers 7 (2016) 171e180 177

De Grave et al., 2011; Zhang et al., 2011; De Grave et al., 2013; Changet al., 2014; Yang et al., 2015). The Paleo-Tethys Ocean (the Songpan-Ganzi Sea) closed and the Qiangtang terrane collided with Eurasiaalong the Jinsha suture during late Triassic times (probably startingat 223e217 Ma) (Hendrix et al., 1992; Yin and Harrison, 2000; Liet al., 2008). Considering the time of stress propagation, subse-quent exhumation induced by accretion of the Qiangtang terrane toEurasia could not happen before mid-Triassic. The initial docking ofthe southerly Tarim and Karakum cratons to the CAOB occurred inthe late Carboniferouseearly Permian in the eastern part of theTianshan and in the late Permian in the western part (Xiao et al.,2013). Therefore, it is preferred that the first episode of coolingevent in the mid-Permian to Triassic in the northern Tarim could belinked with docking of the Tarim Craton and final amalgamation ofthe CAOB (Fig. 8). The earlyemiddle Triassic cooling ages obtainedfor the Kyrgyz Tianshan and especially for the Altai-Sayan could alsobe induced by this collisional event (Glorie and De Grave, 2015).Meanwhile, the contribution of the collision between the Qiangtangterrane and Eurasia could not be excluded. According to the thermalhistorymodeling results, cooling event of samples F17, A29, A35 andA37 at ca. 170 Ma may be triggered by the stress propagation of theQiangtang-Eurasia collision. So this research result does not supporta subsequent period of relative quiescence in the Aksu area duringMesozoic time, which was proposed by Dumitru et al. (2001).

The Tethyan subduction zone and its associated volcanic arcmoved southward and pulled the Lhasa terrane into the activemargin during the late Jurassic (starting at 154e151 Ma) along theBangong suture (Zhang, 2007). Continued NeS contraction relatedto the collision lasted until the earlyelate Cretaceous within theLhasa block and resulted in at least 180 km of internal NeS short-ening (Yin and Harrison, 2000; Zhang et al., 2002; Zhang, 2007).Then India collided with Eurasia at the end of the Cretaceous,forming the Indus-Yarlung suture (Hendrix et al., 1992; Yin andHarrison, 2000; Zhang et al., 2002). However, the timing of theIndia-Eurasia collision is still debatable, whichwas also proposed tobe ca. 30Ma in some recent publications (Aitchison et al., 2007; vanHinsbergen et al., 2012).

Thermal history modeling results of samples K3, K11 and T7record the Cretaceous cooling event at ca. 110 Ma, which has beendocumented in our previous AFTstudies in theKuluketage area (Zhuet al., 2010; Zhang et al., 2011). The Cretaceous exhumation has alsobeen widely reported by AFT analyses in the northern Tarim,

Tianshan and adjacent regions. AFT data from Kuqa and the centralTianshan recorded Cretaceous exhumation (Dumitru et al., 2001).Cretaceous exhumation had been reported in the southwesternChinese Tianshan (Sobel et al., 2006). AFT dating and thermal his-tory modeling of samples from the Kyrgyz Tianshan recordedCretaceous exhumation (Glorie et al., 2010; De Grave et al., 2011;Glorie et al., 2011; De Grave et al., 2012). The exhumation event inthe TurpaneHami Basin occurred in the lateeearly Cretaceous,except for in the northern region, where the onset of the firstexhumation started in the earlyelate Cretaceous (Zhu et al., 2005).The AFT study in the Jueluotage indicated the earlyelate Cretaceouscooling event which occurred at ca. 90 Ma (Zhu et al., 2008a). TheseCretaceous cooling events, recorded by the thermal chronologicaldata in the northern Tarim, Tianshan and neighboring regions, areinferred to have occurred in response to far-field stresses from thedocking of the Lhasa terrane, which propagated deformation to theinterior of Eurasia by reactivating the pre-existing structural fabric(Jolivet et al., 2010; De Grave et al., 2013). The distant effects of thecollision induced tectonic reactivation further north to the SiberianAltai Mountains (De Grave et al., 2007; Jolivet et al., 2010; Glorieet al., 2012a,b; Glorie and De Grave, 2015).

The India-Eurasia collision and ongoing convergence havedominated much of Asia’s Cenozoic geologic, tectonic, and evenclimatic evolution in several ways (Molnar et al., 1994). Asconvergence continued, the accumulation of stress and strain hadbeen partitioned by propagation of deformation northwards intothe interior of Central Asia and by reactivation of pre-existingstructural fabrics (Allen and Vincent, 1997; De Grave et al., 2007;Glorie et al., 2011). Cenozoic exhumation is recorded in the Qai-dam, Qilianshan, Tianshan, KunlunMountains and Altai Mountains,which has been interpreted as resulting from the far-field effects ofthe collision between Indian and Eurasian plates. The rapid Ceno-zoic cooling event in Central Asia began in the Paleogene andcontinued to the present (Glorie et al., 2011). The detrital AFTanalysis documented an episode of rapid unroofing of the northernTianshan beginning at ca. 24 Ma, which recorded the initial stagesof Cenozoic deformation of the Tianshan (Hendrix et al., 1994). Thesame technique had been applied to study the tectonic history ofthe western Tianshan, and two periods of cooling were identified atca. 20 Ma and ca. 13 Ma (Sobel and Dumitru, 1997). Sobel et al.(2006) combined 19 new AFT results from the southwestern Chi-nese Tianshan with structural data and suggested that the

Figure 7. Thermal history modeling of ten selected samples, using the computer program HeFTy (Ketcham, 2005a). The envelope encompassing all good (GOF > 0.5) paths iscolored in magenta, and the region encompassing all acceptable (GOF > 0.05) paths is colored in green. The blue line represents the weighted mean path of the model. The initialteT constraint boxes (blue rectangles) are placed somewhat earlier than each sample’s oldest grain age with time range of 80 Ma and temperature range of 40e160 �C. For foursamples with mean confined track length less than 12 mm, three additional and loosely constraint boxes with temperature between 20 and 100 �C are specified to test the sub-sequent reheating and recooling.

Z. Zhang et al. / Geoscience Frontiers 7 (2016) 171e180178

southwest Tianshan experienced a renewed episode of exhumationfrom 24 to 16 Ma. Rapid cooling at ca. 25 Ma has been found in theKyrgyz Tianshan (Glorie et al., 2011; De Grave et al., 2012; De Graveet al., 2013). Periods of rapid cooling in the late Miocene have alsobeen recorded on both sides of the Qaidam and in the Kunlunshan,Qilianshan and Altunshan (Jolivet et al., 2001). Regarding oursamples from the northern Tarim, Cenozoic cooling event is onlyidentified in two samples (younger age peak in F14 and T1) fromthe Kuluketage area and two samples (A33 and A34) from the Aksuarea. Thermal history modeling indicates that sample T7 hasexperienced slight Cenozoic reheating and recooling. Sample F12also might have undergone a faint Cenozoic recooling after Meso-zoic reheating. The Cenozoic denudation recorded by these samples

from the northern Tarim could be induced by the India-Eurasiacollision or continued convergence after each collision, becausepost-collisional subduction, deformation and uplift are typical ofthe entire Himalayan orogen. We acknowledge that Cenozoicreheating and recooling likely occurred in the northern Tarimbecause of the north-propagating deformation. However, this hasnot affected the northern Tarim much because the Tarim is char-acterized by rigid block-like motion (Wang et al., 2001). A sub-stantial amount of shortening is accommodated to the northbetween the Tianshan and Altai Mountains, as well as further northin Mongolia (Wang et al., 2001). Using the geochronology withlower closure temperature (apatite (U-Th)/He or cosmogenicdating) probably could detect the last cooling event.

Figure 8. Schematic histogram of granitoids of the Tianshan collage (modified afterSeltmann et al., 2011 and Xiao et al., 2013). The first episode of cooling event caused bythe mid-Permian to late Triassic termination is indicated by a red rectangle.

Z. Zhang et al. / Geoscience Frontiers 7 (2016) 171e180 179

Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by 973 Program (Grant No.2014CB440801), NSFC (Grant Nos. 41230207 and 41302167), ChinaPostdoctoral Council (Grant Nos. 20100480452, 2012T50135 andInternational Postdoctoral Exchange Fellowship), and State KeyLaboratory of Earthquake Dynamics (Grant No. LED2013B03). Thisis also a contribution of IGCP 592. We thank K. Cao and an anon-ymous reviewer for their critical and constructive comments thatpromoted substantial improvements in this manuscript.

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