Differential Exhumation and Crustal Tilting in the Easternmost Tianshan (Xinjiang, China), Revealed by Low‐Temperature Thermochronology

A new study on the easternmost Tianshan, part of China's Xinjiang region and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, reveals that this area has experienced two distinct phases of rapid cooling during the Mesozoic era—specifically in the Early to Middle Triassic and Late Cretaceous periods. These cooling events are linked to distant tectonic activities, such as the closure of the Paleoasian Ocean and the Mongol Okhotsk orogeny, rather than more recent Cenozoic collisions like that of India with Eurasia. The research utilized apatite fission track and (U-Th-Sm)/He thermochronology to demonstrate fault-controlled differential exhumation and block tilting across the region. This finding suggests that the easternmost Tianshan's geological history is dominated by older Mesozoic tectonic events, rather than Cenozoic reactivation.

Gillespie, J., Glorie, S., Jepson, G., Zhang, Z. Y., Xiao, W. J., Danišík, M., & Collins, A. S. (2017). Differential Exhumation and Crustal Tilting in the Easternmost Tianshan (Xinjiang, China), Revealed by Low‐Temperature Thermochronology. Tectonics, 36(10), 2142–2158. Portico. https://doi.org/10.1002/2017tc004574