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Original Articles
1.
Introduction
Pre-existing structures play an important role in the evolution of a rift basin, and their effects on extensional structures in a basin have been investigated by many geologists (McConnell, 1972; Dunbar & Sawyer, 1988; Milani & Davison, 1988; Quinlan et al. 1993; Jutz & Chorowicz, 2010; Lasky & Glikson, 2011). Numerous laboratory experiments have been conducted to study the role of pre-existing structure geometry on fault activation in rift basins (McClay & White, 1995; Bonini et al. 1997; Higgins & Harris, 1997; Keep & McClay, 1997; Schlische, Withjack & Eisenstakt, 2002; Corti et al. 2011). Recently, 'Mohr space' has been proposed to investigate the influence of pre-existing structures on the formation and evolution of rift basins (Tong & Yin, 2011; Tong et al. 2014). Although some laboratory experiments have modelled fault systems using natural datasets, such as in the Gulf of California, the Revfallet fault system offshore of Norway and the Eastern Alps (Withjack & Jamison, 1986; Dooley, McClay & Pascoe, 2003; Rosenberg et al. 2007), the variety of pre-existing weaknesses in the models is limited. The analysis of natural systems is therefore particularly significant for rift basin research.
It is widely accepted that the Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB) is one of the largest accretionary orogens in the world. It separates the Siberian craton from the Tarim and Sino-Korean cratons (Sengör, Natal'in & Burtman, 1993; Windley et al. 2007; Su et al. 2012; Wilhem, Windley & Stampfli, 2012; Li et al. 2014; Xu et al. 2015; Shi et al. 2016) (Fig. 1a). The Xing'an-Mongolia Orogenic Belt (XMOB) is the eastern segment of the CAOB. It extends across the Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning provinces of NE China (Jian et al. 2012; Zeng et al. 2012; Xu et al. 2015) (Fig. 1b).
Figure 1.
Palaeozoic blocks, sutures and late Mesozoic rift basins in XMOB, NE China: (a) location of the CAOB (modified after Xu et al. 2015); (b) blocks and sutures in the XMOB and adjacent area emphasizing the location of Erlian Basin and Hegenshan-Heihe suture (modified after Robinson et al. 1999; Miao et al. 2008; Han et al. 2017; Li et al. 2017).
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