A Large Ductile Sinistral Strike-Slip Shear Zone and Its Movement Timing in the South Qilian Mountains, Western China

There is a large ductile shear zone, 2 km wide and more than 350 km long, in the South Qilian Mountains, western China. It is composed of volcanic, granitic and calcareous mylonites. The microstructures of the ductile shear zone show nearly E-W extending subvertical foliation, horizontal and oblique stretching lineations, shearing sense from sinistral to oblique sinistral strike-slip from east to west, “A” type folds and abundant granitic veins. Measured lattice preferred orientations (LPOs) of the mylonitic and recrystallized quartz of the granitic mylonite in the west segment suggest a strong LPO characterized by the dominant slip systems {10times10} formed at high temperature (>650°C). K-feldspar of the mylonite shows an 39Ar/40Ar high-temperature plateau age of 243.3±1.3 Ma, and biotite, 250.5±0.5 Ma, which represent the formation age of the ductile shear zone. The 39Ar/40Ar plateau ages of 169.7±0.3 Ma and 160.6±0.1 Ma and the 39Ar/40Ar isochron ages of 166.99±2.37 Ma and 160.6±0.1 Ma of biotites in the mylonite represent the subsequent deformation age. These ages indicate that this ductile shear zone is similar to the Altun and South Kunlun sinistral ductile shear zones in its ages of movement, formation, reactivation and duration.