Pattern and timing of late Cenozoic rapid exhumation and uplift of the Helan Mountain, China

The Helan Mountain, an intraplate deformation belt in the North China Craton, is located in the northern portion of the China North-South seismic belt, and at the northwestern margin of the Ordos Block. The Cenozoic deformation history of the Helan Mountain is characterized by extension along the eastern Helan Mountain fault (EHSF), resulting in the exhumation and uplift of the Helan Mountain, relative to the rifting of the adjacent Yinchuan Basin. Here we present new apatite fission track (AFT) data from several transects adjacent to the EHSF in the central and northern Helan Mountain. AFT ages from the northern Helan Mountain (Dawukou and Zhengyiguan transects) range from 10 Ma to 89 Ma, whereas AFT ages from the southern Helan Mountain (Suyukou transect) are greater than 71 Ma. The AFT data analysis reveals initiation of rapid uplift and exhumation of the Helan Mountain at 10–12 Ma. Additionally, a plot of the AFT ages versus their mean track length shows a distinctive “boomerang” pattern indicating that the Helan Mountain experienced a discrete phase of accelerated exhumation beginning at 10–12 Ma. Spatially, AFT samples systematically increase in age away from the EHSF and are consistent with late Cenozoic exhumation that was slow in the southwestern Helan Mountain and rapid in the northeastern Helan Mountain, as well more rapid adjacent to the EHSF and slower away from the EHSF. Obviously, the spatial distribution of late Cenozoic exhumation indicates that normal faulting of the EHSF is related to southwestward tilting and rapid exhumation of the Helan Mountain beginning at 10–12 Ma. The uplift and exhumation of the Helan Mountain was a response to the intensive extension of the northwestern margin of the Ordos Block in the late Cenozoic; this occurred under a regional extensional stress field oriented NW-SE along the Yinchuan-Jilantai-Hetao and the Weihe-Shanxi graben systems adjacent to the Ordos Block.

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