AN ENORMOUS THRUST NAPPE AND EXTENSIONAL METAMORPHIC CORE COMPLEX NEWLY DISCOVERED IN SINO-MONGOLIAN BOUNDARY AREA

An enormous thrust nappe and a metamorphic core complex of extensional origin have been recently discovered within the Hercynian-Indosinian orogen of Inner Mongolia. Both features are of the Mesozoic age, but the former is older. The thrust nappe strikes WNW-ESE and Proterozoic dolomite was thrust southwards atop strata ranging from the Cambrian to the Triassic in age. The visible displacement of the thrust is ca. 70 km and the deduced one is over 140 km. The metamorphic core complex (mainly mylonites) extends in an N-E direction, forming itself into a dome geometry and lying under an extensional detachment fault. The mylonitic foliation dips gently and the stretching mineral lineation, as a whole, plunges SSE. Various shear sense markers show a normal-sense shear movement. Some significant problems atise from the coexistence of nappe and extensional structures at a postoro-genic stage.