The localized rotations in Junggar Block for the last 50 Myr: new paleomagnetic constraints

We present an analysis of paleomagnetic data from Cenozoic sedimentary rocks of the northern Junggar Block in central Asia to assess if the northern Junggar Block has suffered vertical axis rotations with respect to stable Eurasia. Stepwise thermal demagnetizations isolated a stable high-temperature component of magnetization in most specimens, which we interpret as the primary magnetization from the positive reversal test. Based on high-resolution magnetostratigraphic studies (Zhang et al., 2007, 2012), we calculated the mean direction of each 5 Myrs of 44-30 Ma and 25-17 Ma covered by the sample age and yielded seven mean directions in 45-37.5 Ma, 40-35 Ma, 37.5-32.5 Ma, 35-30 Ma, 25-20 Ma, 22.5-17.5 Ma, respectively. The variation between the observed declination from the study area and the reference declination from Eurasia indicates that a local counterclockwise rotation of 18.8 ± 11.4° took place during 40±2.5 - 35±2.5 Ma. Together with the paleomagnetic data during 23-3.1 Ma in the southern part of the Junggar Basin (Charreau et al., 2005, 2009), it can be concluded that Junggar Block experienced local counterclockwise rotation with respect to the Eurasia in the piedmont of the north and south rim successively due to the strike-slip fault. At a larger scale, the blocks in the Central Asia Right–Slip Fault Zone have experienced tectonic rotation at different times under the far-field effect of India-Eurasia collision, that is, formed an overall counterclockwise vertical axis rotation mode of different stages because of strike-slip faulting.