Mesozoic structural architecture of the Lang Shan, North-Central China: Intraplate contraction, extension, and synorogenic sedimentation

The Lang Shan, North-Central China, has experienced a complex Mesozoic to recent history of intraplate deformation and sedimentation. Well-exposed cross-cutting relationships document Jurassic right-lateral strike-slip faulting (transtension) followed by several tens of kilometers of Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous north-northwest–south-southeast crustal shortening and development of an associated foreland basin. Since the Early Cretaceous, the south-central Lang Shan has undergone two phases of extension. The first, which occurred along north–south oriented structures, may represent collapse of an overthickened crust. The youngest deformation is represented by the active Cenozoic mountain-front normal fault system. This compound history may be the result of the complicated far-field effects of plate interactions combined with structural inheritance in a region adjacent to a rigid and undeformed crustal block, the Ordos block.