Change in the direction of Early Cretaceous tectonic extension in eastern North China Craton as the result of Paleo-Pacific/Eurasian plate interaction

Abstract

How the subduction direction of the Paleo-Pacific plate beneath the Eurasian plate changes in the Early Cretaceous remains highly controversial due to the disappearance of the subducted oceanic plate. Intraplate deformation structures in the east Asian continent, however, provide excellent opportunities for reconstructing paleostress fields in continental interior in relation to the Paleo-Pacific/Eurasian plate interaction. Anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS), geological, and geochronological analyses of post-kinematic mafic dykes intruding the detachment fault zone of the Wulian metamorphic core complex (WL MCC) in Jiaodong Peninsula exemplify emplacement of mantle-sourced dykes in a WNW–ESE (301°–121°) oriented tectonic extensional setting at ca. 120 Ma. In combination with the results from our previous kinematic analysis of the MCC, a ca. 21° clockwise change in the direction of intraplate extension is obtained for early (135–122 Ma) extensional exhumation of the MCC to late (122–108 Ma) emplacement of the dykes. Such a change is suggested to be related to the variation in subduction direction of the Paleo-Pacific plate beneath the Eurasian plate, from westward (pre-122 Ma) to west-northwestward (post-122 Ma).