Paleozoic multiple accretionary and collisional tectonics of the Chinese Tianshan orogenic collage

Subduction-related accretion in the Junggar–Balkash and South Tianshan Oceans (Paleo-Asian Ocean), mainly in the Paleozoic, gave rise to the present 2400 km-long Tianshan orogenic collage that extends from the Aral Sea eastwards through Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, to Xinjiang in China. This paper provides an up-to-date along-strike synthesis of this orogenic collage and a new tectonic model to explain its accretionary evolution. rthern part of the orogenic collage developed by consumption of the Junggar–Balkash Ocean together with Paleozoic island arcs (Northern Ili, Issyk Kul, and Chatkal) located in the west, which may have amalgamated into a composite arc in the Paleozoic in the west and by addition of another two, roughly parallel, arcs (Dananhu and Central Tianshan) in the east. The western composite arc and the eastern Dananhu and Central Tianshan arcs formed a late Paleozoic archipelago with multiple subduction zones. The southern part of the orogenic collage developed by the consumption of the South Tianshan Ocean which gave rise to a continuous accretionary complex (Kokshaal–Kumishi), which separated the Central Tianshan in the east and other Paleozoic arcs in the west from cratons (Tarim and Karakum) to the south. Cross-border correlations of this accretionary complex indicate a general southward and oceanward accretion by northward subduction in the early Paleozoic to Permian as recorded by successive southward juxtaposition of ophiolites, slices of ophiolitic mélanges, cherts, island arcs, olistostromes, blueschists, and turbidites, which are mainly Paleozoic in age, with the youngest main phase being Late Carboniferous–Permian. The initial docking of the southerly Tarim and Karakum cratons to this complicated late Paleozoic archipelago and accretionary complexes occurred in the Late Carboniferous–Early Permian in the eastern part of the Tianshan and in the Late Permian in the western part, which might have terminated collisional deformation on this suture zone. The final stages of closure of the Junggar–Balkash Ocean resembled the small ocean basin scenario of the Mediterranean Sea in the Cenozoic. In summary, the history of the Altaids is characterized by complicated multiple accretionary and collisional tectonics.