Relationship between the TanLu Fault and Dabie Orogenic Belt in Eastern China

There are different and debated viewpoints on the relationship, evolutionary processes and dynamic models of the Tan Lu strike slip fault and Dabie orogenic belt. The Tan Lu fault, as a sinistral strike slip fault, evolved initially from the Middle Jurassic, but its real left lateral strike slip movement developed during 120-100 Ma. New geologic evidence indicates that the formation of the Tan Lu fault was based on the NE trending tectonic belts which were formed during the period from the Middle Jurassic to Early Cretaceous in eastern China. The Dabie orogenic belt underwent the following evolutionary processes: collision of two continental plates, extension and uplift, N verging thrusting and S verging thrusting, magmatic intrusion, then renewed extension and uplift. Later, it was cut by the Tan Lu strike slip fault in the eastern section. In the Jiaonan block (southern Shandong Peninsula), extensional processes are similar to that which evolved in the Dabie orogenic belt before the Middle Jurassic. Deformation appeared in the basement of some basins, such as the Hefei Basin, suggesting the tectonic transformation from E W trend to NE NNE strike during the Middle Jurassic to Early Cretaceous. All of the infor mation implies that the Tan Lu strike slip fault was not the result of the collision between the Yangtze and Sino Korean plates, nor was formed prior to the collisional event. The NE trending tectonics in eastern China demon strates that the development of the Tan Lu fault was consistent with the formation of the west Pacific plate sub duction.