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The Beishan orogenic zone is a key area to understand evolution of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt that is an accretionary factory well‐enough preserved in the Paleozoic. In early Paleozoic, the tectonic mélange zone containing the coherent unit and mélange unit is triggered by the complicated accretionary process of the Beishan area. The early Paleozoic tectonic evolution of the Beishan orogenic zone is investigated in this study using sedimentology and stratigraphic correlations of the lowe Paleozoic deposits. From the Cambrian to the middle Ordovician, this region was characterized by geographically extensive, flat‐bedded siliceous mudstone, indicating the existence of a large ocean basin. The oceanic plate entered the convergence phase in terms of the Wilson Circle during the Middle Ordovician, when numerous magmatic arcs formed along two opposite sides of the ocean. The magmatic arcs became the widest during the Silurian, suggesting that the Hongliuhe‐Niujuanzi‐Xichangjing Ocean (HNX; a southern branch of the Paleo Asian Ocean) was reduced to a small residual ocean in the central Beishan region by that time, and probably lasted till the Carboniferous or later by newly published data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Jiangshan‐Shaoxing‐Pingxiang Fault (JSP Fault) is traditionally considered as the boundary between the Yangtze and Cathaysia blocks in South China. Whether the previously defined Shenshan and Kuli formations located along the JSP fault and near the Xinyu City, Jiangxi Province, are continuous strata or parts of a tectonic mélange is important for understanding the geological history of South China. A carbonaceous phyllite from the area, previously considered as part of the Neoproterozoic Shenshan and Kuli formations, is analyzed palynologically in this study. The Asteridium‐Comasphaeridium acritarch assemblage found in the slate can be correlated with the basal Cambrian Asteridium‐Heliosphaeridium‐Comasphaeridium (AHC) acritarch assemblage in Tarim and the Yangtze Block. The early Cambrian biostratigraphical age assignment for the carbonaceous phyllite indicates the presence of both Neoproterozoic and Cambrian rocks in the sedimentary package, and supports that the package is a part of tectonic mélange rather than a continuous Neoproterozoic strata. The Cambrian slate is the youngest known lithology in the mélange at present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The continent of China developed through the coalescence of three major cratons (North China, Tarim and Yangtze) and continental micro‐blocks through the processes of oceanic crust disappearance and acceretionary‐collision of continental crusts. The strata of the Chinese continental landmass are subdivided into 12 tectonic‐strata regions. Based on the composition of geological features among the three main cratons, continental micro‐blocks and other major global cratons, their affinities can be preliminarily deduced during the Tonian period, using evidence from sedimentary successions, paleobiogeography, tectonic and magmatic events. The Yangtze and Tarim cratons show that they have close affinities during the assembly‐dispersal milestone of the Rodinia Supercontinent. The sedimentary record and magmatic age populations in the blocks suggest that there was a widespread, intensive magmatic event that resulted from a subduction process during ∼1000–820 Ma, related to continental rifting around the Yangtze and Tarim cratons. However, they differ greatly from the North China Craton. The continental micro‐blocks in the Panthalassic Ocean could have some missing connection with the North China Craton that persisted until the Middle‐Late Devonian. In contrast, the Alxa Block showed a strong affinity with the Tarim Craton. The revised Tonian paleogeography of the Rodinia Supercontinent is a good demonstration of how to show the relationship between the main cratons and the continental micro‐blocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With a thick sequence of early Eocene to Pleistocene terrestrial records, the Qaidam Basin on the northern Tibetan Plateau provides an important sedimentary archive for understanding the paleoenvironmental evolution of the northeast Tibetan Plateau. In this study, specimens of fossil fish remains are collected from the late Middle Miocene (Serravallian, ∼12Ma) of the middle member of the Shang Youshashan Formation, Dahonggou (DHG) section, in the northern Qaidam Basin. Based on a systematic study of these materials, the remains have assigned to Cyprinidae, with typical pharyngeal teeth and dorsal fin spines with serrations on the posterior edge. Our discovery improves understanding of the cyprinid fish distribution characteristics in the Qaidam Basin during the Cenozoic. Cooccurrences of terrestrial brackish ostracod species Cyprideis and long chain alkenonesin the layer indicate that the studied cyprinid fish lived in a generally large brackish to saline water body during the late middle Miocene (Serravallian), when the climate of Qaidam Basin was still not sufficiently dry to form an extreme saline water lake. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cenozoic climatic and environmental changes in the arid Asian interior, and their possible relations with global climatic changes and the Tibetan Plateau uplift, have been intensively investigated and debated over past decades. Here we present 40-Myr (million years)-long n-alkane records from a continuous Cenozoic sediment sequence in the Dahonggou Section, Qaidam Basin, northern Tibetan Plateau, to infer environmental changes in the northern basin. A set of n-alkane indexes, including ACL, CPI and Paq, vary substantially and consistently throughout the records, which are interpreted to reflect relative contributions from terrestrial vascular plants vs. aquatic macrophytes, and thus indicate depositional environments. ACL values vary between 21 and 30; CPI values range from 1.0 to 8.0; and Paq values change from <0.1 to 0.8 over the past 40-Myr. We have roughly identified two periods, at 25.8-21.0 Ma (million years ago) and 13.0-17.5 Ma, with higher ACL and CPI and lower Paq values indicating predominant lacustrine environments. Lower ACL and CPI values, together with higher Paq values, occurred at >25.8 Ma, 17.5-21.0 Ma, and <13.0 Ma, corresponding to alluvial fan/river deltaic deposits and shallow lacustrine settings, consistent with the observed features in sedimentological facies. The inferred Cenozoic environmental changes in the northern Qaidam Basin appear to correspond to global climatic changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study collected the early Oligocene to middle Miocene sediments from the Gerze Basin of Tibet, and used X-Ray diffraction (XRD) and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) to discuss their clay mineralolgy, clay indices, better understand the clay mineralogy and its paleoclimatic significance. The results show that clay minerals of the Gerze Basin sediments are mainly composed of illite and chlorite, with minor amounts of smectite and kaolinite, and their relative content varies along the section. Variations of relative contents and clay indices suggest that the Gerze Basin has experienced three-stage evolution of paleoclimate: I) high illite and chlorite contents, with fluctuant smectite and low (I+Ch)/(K+S) ratio, indicative of a dominant seasonal arid climate from the early Oligocene to late Oligocene; II) higher illite and chlorite contents and larger (I+Ch)/(K+S) ratio but absence of kaolinite, indicating a colder and drier climate from the late Oligocene to early Miocene; III) high illite and chlorite contents with fluctuant (I+Ch)/(K+S) ratios and occasional occurrence of kaolinite, suggesting that the climate became warmer and more humid compared with that of stage II in the mid-Miocene. These conclusions were also reinforced by the clay morphology, which suggests that physical weathering dominated in stage II, while relatively strong chemical weathering was dominant in stages I and III. Clay minerals of the sediments mainly consist of illite and chlorite, indicating that the source rock played a significant role in clay origin. It is inferred that global cooling and the enhancement of denudation and obstruction of northward moisture due to the uplift of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau were responsible for the provenance of illite and chlorite under weak chemical weathering. Though the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau reached a certain elevation by the mid-Miocene, yet the mid-Miocene widespread warming might have largely impacted the Gerze climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses articles in the issue on topics including China Geological Survey, and Technological Basic Research Special Project of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China.

The Cryogenian is a critical period in the history of the Earth. It is marked by multiple extreme climate changes that caused alternating global glacial and interglacial intervals. These dramatically changed the sedimentary system, and metal ores and source rocks distributed widely during this period. Therefore, studying the Cryogenian stratigraphic framework and sedimentary basins is important to improve the stratigraphic resolution for metal mineral and hydrocarbon prospecting and exploration in China. This review paper firstly divides three tectonic‐stratigraphic regions in China in the Cryogenian, including the tectonic‐stratigraphic regions of Great South China, Xingmeng‐Tarim, and North China. Secondly, geochronologic data and geological records are combined to clearly depict the Cryogenian sedimentary sequence of continental blocks and micro‐continental blocks in different tectonic‐stratigraphic regions. The results were used to propose a new comparison scheme of stratigraphy for the Cryogenian in China. Finally, according to differences of sedimentary evolution and tectonic evolvement, sedimentary basins and their lithofacies paleogeography are identified and summarized, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Multi-stage uplift of the Tibetan Plateau during the Cenozoic implies a complex geodynamic process. In this paper, we review main geodynamic models for the uplift of the plateau, and, in particular, analyze the spatio-temporal framework of the Cenozoic deformation structures, which are closely related to the deep geodynamic mechanism for the plateau uplift. From this perspective, significant change of the deformation regime over the Tibetan Plateau occurred by the middle-late Miocene, while thrust and thrust-folding system under NS compression was succeded by extension or stress-relaxation. Meanwhile, a series of large-scale strike-slip faults commenced or was kinemtically reversed. Based on a systematic synthesis of the structure deformation, magmatism, geomorphological process and geophysical exploration, we propose a periodical model of alternating crustal compression and extension for episodic uplift of the Tibetan Plateau. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]