Research interests

Cenozoic kinematics and tectonics of Central Asian blocks including Cretaceous and Cenozoic vertical-axis rotation patterns of intramontane basins of Tian Shan, postcollisional northward convergence within the Tian Shan Range and its surroundings, and Tertiary magnetostratigraphy in west China.

(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.It is possible that neotectonic northward convergence north of Tibet will prove to be paleomagnetically undetectable.

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), one of major continental blocks of China. Five Early Paleozoic poles for the NCB were obtained from some limestone rocks collected from three margins of the Ordos Basin, which prolongs the post-Permian APW path for the NCB to the early stage of the Cambrian, and help to best understand the paleopositions of the NCB in the global settings. The relationship between the Hexi Corridor terrane and stable NCB has been constrained by paleomagnetic studies, implying that the Hexi Corridor had been part of the NCB since the Ordovician. This finding forms the basis for consideration of post-Ordovician Paleozoic problems of the NCB using Silurian, Devonian and Carboniferous results from the eastern part of the Hexi Corridor terrane, and a relatively complete Paleozoic APW path was consequently constructed.

(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.

Moreover, I am interested also in the LT properties of the nature samples and magnetic pollution.