Research interests

Late Mesozoic and Cenozoic kinematics and deformations in Central Asia.

(1) Recent study suggests that the Turfan Basin displaced with no (or slight) vertical-axis rotation with respect to its surroundings since the Miocene. Together with paleomagnetic declinations in both sides of the Talas-Ferghana fault, we proposed that the Tian Shan to the east of the Talas-Ferghana fault might have remained relatively stationary with respect to its adjacent blocks or areas since the Miocene.

(2) Cretaceous and Paleogene basalts and some interbedded red beds of Central Asia imply that Neogene and Quaternary paleolatitudes are statistically concordant with predicted values from Eurasian references, suggesting that no significant northward convergence has occurred north of Tibet during the last 20 Ma. Cretaceous and Paleogene paleolatitudes lie 5-6±7°south of predicted values from the Eurasian path and suggest that neotectonic convergence of the order of several hundred kilometers has occurred north of the southwest Tian Shan. Then neotectonic northward convergence north of Tibet is likely to be paleomagnetically undetectable.

(3) Magnetostratigraphic and rock magnetic studies in Paleogene and Neogene sediments within the Kuche Depression of the Tarim Basin, NW China, are used to evaluate postcollisional uplift and deformation in the Tian Shan Range. Observed height-dependent changes of rock magnetic parameters (figure 1, figure 2) indicate that these sediments were influenced by weak deformation with the succession accumulated before ~15 Ma recording the effects of compressive deformation. This finding, together with two substantial increases in accumulation rate at ~16-17 and ~7 Ma, define a framework for Cenozoic uplift and deformation of the Tian Shan Range.

Neoproterozoic and Phanerozoic paleogeography of the major blocks of China.

(1) Reconstruction of Paleozoic APW path and subsequent paleogeographic reconstruction for the North China Block (NCB).

(2) Paleomagnetic and rock magnetic study on Mesozoic terrestrial sediments from Datong, Jiaocheng, and Yushe of Shanxi province suggest that at least some localities of the Taihang terrane were suffered from local vertical-axis rotations, as clockwise rotation of the Colorado plateau relative to stable North America. New Triassic-Early Jurassic APW path for the NCB indicates that the NCB and South China Block (SCB) had collided in the Dabie-Sulu area by the Early Triassic, and then followed by a large amount of opposite relative rotations between the two Chinese blocks during the period between the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic. However, it could be that the two Chinese blocks had not completely welded into a rigid united China block until the Late Jurassic.

(3) Paleogeography of Tarim in the Neoproterozoic era.

Local rotation and deformation in Eastern China.

Low-temperature properties of the nature samples and magnetic pollution.