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Deciphering the relationship between polyphase tectonic foliations and their associated mineral assemblages is significant in understanding the process from diagenesis to low‐/medium‐/high‐grade metamorphism. It can provide information related to strain, metamorphic conditions and overprinting relationships and so help reveal the tectonic evolution of orogenesis. In this study, we predominately focus on the formation of foliations and their related minerals, as developed in two separate basins. First of all, two stages of axial plane cleavages (S1 and S2) were recognized in the Hongyanjing inter‐arc basin, the formation of the S1 axial plane cleavage is associated with mica rotation and elongation in mudstones in the local area. The pencil structure of S2 formed during the refolding phase, the minerals in the sedimentary rocks not changing their shape and orientation. Secondly, in the Liao‐Ji backarc basin, foliations include diagenetic foliation (bedding parallel foliation), tectonic S1 foliation (secondary foliation or axial plane cleavage of S0 folding) and crenulation cleavage (S2). The formation mechanism of foliation changes from mineral rotation or elongation and mineral solution transfer in S1 to crystal‐plastic deformation, dynamic recrystallization and micro‐folding in S2. Many index metamorphic minerals formed from low‐grade to medium‐grade consist of biotites, garnets, staurolite and kyanite, constituting a typical Barrovian metamorphic belt. Accordingly, a new classification of foliation is presented in this study. The foliations can be divided into continuous and disjunctive foliations, based on the existence of microlithons, detectable with the aid of a microscope. Disjunctive foliation can be further sub‐divided into spaced foliation and crenulation cleavage, according to whether (or not) crenulation (micro‐folding) is present. The size of the mineral grains is also significant for classification of the foliations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For many tectonicists, the structural development of the northern Tibetan Plateau stops at the Altyn Tagh Fault (ATF). This study challenges that assumption. Structural field observations and remote sensing analysis indicate that the Sanweishan and Nanjieshan basement cored ridges of the Archean Dunhuang Block, which interrupt the north Tibetan foreland directly north of the ATF, are bound and cut by an array of strike-slip, thrust and oblique-slip faults that have been active in the Quaternary and remain potentially active. The Sanweishan is a SE-tilted block that is bound on its NW margin by a steep south-dipping thrust fault that has also accommodated sinistral strike-slip displacements. The Nanjieshan consists of parallel, but offset basement ridges that record NNW and SSE thrust displacements and sinistral strike-slip. Regional folds characterize the extreme eastern Nanjieshan and appear to have formed above blind thrust faults which break the surface further west. Previously published magnetotelluric data suggest that the major faults of the Sanweishan and Nanjieshan ultimately root to the south within conductive zones that are inferred to merge into the ATF. Therefore, although the southern margin of the Dunhuang Block focuses significant deformation along the ATF, the adjacent cratonic basement to the north is also affected. Collectively, the ATF and structurally linked Sanweishan and Nanjieshan fault array represent a regional asymmetric half-flower structure that is dominated by non-strain partitioned sinistral transpression. The NW-trending Dengdengshan thrust fault system near Yumen City appears to define the northeastern limit of the Sanweishan-Nanjieshan block, which may be regionally viewed as the most northern, but early-stage expression of Tibetan Plateau growth into a slowly deforming, mechanically stiff Archean craton. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The underlying cause of Indosinian thermotectonism remains unclear, in part because the term has also been adopted to explain Triassic orogenesis across southern China. This paper puts forward the case that use of the term Indosinian should be confined to Vietnam where deformation is linked to continental accretion as opposed to southern China where Triassic igneous activity, metamorphism and deformation are linked to the development of an active plate margin through north-directed subduction of the Pacific oceanic plate. A review of the regional palaeogeography, as well as palaeontological and thermochronological data, highlights the lack of evidence to support the Indosinian as a major mountain building event. There is no definitive evidence for Triassic collision between the Indochina and South China blocks. Preference is given to a plate tectonic model that explains the Indosinian as a reactivation event driven by accretion of Sibumasu block to Indochina. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Seventy skarn-type gold deposits, including 1 super-large, 19 large and 24 medium-sized, are known from different geotectonic units of China. They contain a total resource of approximately 1000 t of gold (625 t in South China), and account for 20% of China''s gold reserves. These skarn deposits are sited in collisional orogenic belts, fault-controlled magmatic belts and reactivated cratonic margins. All of the Chinese skarn gold provinces were affected by Phanerozoic collisional orogenesis. The timing of the metallogenic events and the spatial–temporal distribution of the Chinese skarn gold deposits indicates that they were formed during ore-forming processes linked to the transition from shortening to extension in the geodynamic evolution of a collision orogen, and not to subduction systems as is commonly advocated for porphyry copper systems around the Pacific Rim. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]