title: Mantle Subduction and Uplift of Intracontinental Mountains: A Case Study from the Chinese Tianshan Mountains within Eurasia.
abstract: The driving mechanism that is responsible for the uplift of intracontinental mountains has puzzled geologists for decades. This study addresses this issue by using receiver function images across the Chinese Tianshan Mountains and available data from both deep seismic profiles and surface structural deformation. The near-surface structural deformation shows that the Tianshan crust experienced strong shortening during the Cenozoic. The receiver function image across the Tianshan Mountains reveals that the lithosphere of the Junggar Basin to the north became uncoupled along the Moho, and the mantle below the Moho subducted southwards beneath the northern part of the Tianshan Mountains, thereby thickening the overlying crust. Similar deep structures, however, are not observed under the Tarim Basin and the adjacent southern Tianshan Mountains. This difference in the deep structures correlates with geomorphological features in the region. Thus, a new model of mantle subduction, herein termed M-type subduction, is proposed for the mountain-building processes in intracontinental compressional settings. The available geomorphological, geological and seismic data in the literatures show that this model is probably suitable for other high, linear mountains within the continent.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Beijing 100037, China.
authors.forename: Jinyi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Institute of Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Beijing 100037, China.
authors.forename: Jin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: School of Ocean and Earth Sciences, State Key Lab of Marine Geology, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China.|Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California, Santa Cruz, California 95064, USA.
authors.forename: Xixi
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Institute of Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Beijing 100037, China.
authors.forename: Mei
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Beijing 100037, China.
authors.forename: Yaping
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Institute of Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Beijing 100037, China.
authors.forename: Zhixin
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: Institute of Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Beijing 100037, China.
authors.forename: Qianwen
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.affiliation: Institute of Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Beijing 100037, China.
authors.forename: Lijia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Beijing 100037, China.
authors.forename: Guihua
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Institute of Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Beijing 100037, China.
authors.forename: Jianfeng
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Institute of Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Beijing 100037, China.
authors.forename: Tiannan
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yang