Thrust Structure and Bidirectional Paleocurrent in the Jingzhushan Formation during the Late Cretaceous in the Nyima Basin, Tibet Plateau, China: Approach of Magnetic Fabric and Zircon Chronology

Abstract

(1) Background: The widely developed thrust structures in the Jingzhushan Formation of late Cretaceous in Nyima Basin are related to the collision which leads to orogeny between the Lhasa and Qiangtang blocks. Clarifying the tectonic properties of the Nyima Basin is of great significance to characterize the evolution of the collision between the Lhasa block and the Qiangtang block. (2) Methods: Combined with mineralogy and petrology and U-Pb zircon dating of extrusive rocks, a detailed magnetic fabric test and rock magnetic experiment were carried out on the red sandstones of the Late Cretaceous Jingzhushan Formation in Nyima Basin. (3) Results: The sedimentary magnetic fabrics developed at the three sampling locations in the southern part of the basin are related to paleocurrents. The strained magnetic fabrics developed at one sampling site in the north, including pencil-like fabrics and tensile linear fabrics, are related to SE-NW tectonic stress. The average magnetic susceptibility value of the strained fabric with sandstone is lower than that of the sedimentary fabric, and its size is controlled by mica paramagnetic minerals. Ferromagnetic minerals are magnetite or hematite. In addition, the age of sandstone in the Jingzhushan Formation from the Nyima Basin matches the age of the eruptive rock in the Jingzhushan Formation from Coqen Basin, which is 92 Ma. (4) Conclusions: The strained fabric is developed near the thrust fault, which can explain the widely developed thrust structures in the basin. The Nyima Basin of the Jingzhushan Formation in the Late Cretaceous was an ocean-continent transitional foreland basin developed under the background of arc-arc “soft collision”.