In North China, the Mesozoic terrestrial basins, sedimentary palaeogeography and tectonic settings involved five evolutionary stages:(1) the Early-Middle Triassic,(2) the Late Triassic to Early-Middle Jurassic,(3) the Late Jurassic to early Early Cretaceous,(4) the middle-late Early Cretaceous and(5) the Late Cretaceous. The regional punctuated tectonic events occurred during these evolutionary stages. During the Early-Middle Triassic(stage 1), the Xingmeng Orogenic Belt(XMOB, i.e., eastern part of Central Asia Orogenic Belt, CAOB) of the northern North China was settled in the transition of tectonic environment from syn-orogenic compression to post-orogenic extension with intensive uplifting. It is a main provenance in the unified Ordos-North China Basin.The united continental plate of China and the Qinling-Dabie-Sulu Orogenic Belt formed due to convergence and collision between the North China Plate and the Yangtze Plate along two suture zones of the Mianlue and the Shangdan in the terminal Middle Triassic. During the Late Triassic to the Early-Middle Jurassic(stage 2), the Late Triassic mafic or alkaline rocks and intrusions occurred on the northern and southern margins of North China Craton(NCC) and XMOB, implying that intensified extension happened all over the North China(early phase of stage 2). Additionally, in the late phase of stage 2, the basic volcanicfilling faulted basins were widely distributed in the northeastern North China during the EarlyMiddle Jurassic, including a series of small- to medium-sized basins with coal-bearing strata and some volcanic rocks in other areas of North China, which was the result of subduction of the Palaeo-Pacific Plate during the Early-Middle Jurassic. An active continental margin with accretionary complex developed in the eastern Heilongjiang of China, Japan and the Far East of Russia at that time. However, in the end of the Early-Middle Jurassic, because of the Yanshanian orogeny characterized by complicated thrust and fold, the previous unified OrdosNorth China Bas
Yong-Qing LiuHong-Wei KuangNan PengHuan XuPeng ZhangNeng-Sheng WangWei An
