Tectonic framework and main characteristics of North China and its northward areas in Late Paleozoic-Early Mesozoic period

Abstract：A comparative study of geotectonic cycles and evolution characteristics of the tectonic domain from the Atlantic Ocean to Paleo-Asia Ocean on the global scale is beneficial to understanding the regional tectonic evolution of the giant tectonic domain. The establishment of the concept of “dynamic behaviors” of the attributes of paleocontinents tectonic units and the correlation analysis of the composite orogenic area and its neighboring tectonic units have revealed that the formation and development of the North China foreland basin were closely related to the tectonic evolutionary process of the neighboring composite orogenic area. In North China and its northward areas, Late Paleozoic-Early Mesozoic tectonic framework has the following features：1）In the Mongolian-Da Hinggan composite orogenic area, Paleozoic fold belts were interwoven with intermediate massifs, leading to the development of the epicontinental sea basin and the aulacogen and superposed basins during the Carboniferous-Permian period and the inter-mountainous basin during the Triassic period, based on the fold belt of the earlier stage. 2）The foreland basin in North China was developed synchronically with the tectonic evolution process of the northern composite orogenic area and formed the marine facies, marine-continental interaction sediments on the old land during the Carboniferous period and the continental facies sediments during the Permian-Middle Triassic period, characterized by red bed and gypsum salt in local areas. 3）The “tectono-magmatic activation belt” on the North China continental margin in the Late Paleozoic?Early Mesozoic period was the southernmost tectonic unit of the Mongolian-Da Hinggan composite orogenic area.