Granites sampled from Garzê-Litang thrust, Longmen Shan thrust, Garzê and Litang strike-slip faults in the eastern Tibetan
Plateau have been analyzed with apatite fission track thermochronological method in this study. The measured fission track
apparent ages, combined with the simulated annealing modeling of the thermal history, have been used to reconstruct the thermal
evolutionary histories of
... [Show full abstract] the samples and interpret the active history of the thrusts and faults in these areas. Thermal history
modeling shows that earlier tectonic cooling occurred in the Garzê-Litang thrust in Miocene (∼20–16 Ma) whereas the later
cooling occurred mainly in the Longmen Shan thrust since ∼5 Ma. Our study suggests that the margin of eastern Tibetan Plateau
was extended by stages: through strike-slip faults deformations and related thrusts, the upper crust formed the Garzê-Litang
margin in the Miocene epoch and then moved to the Longmen Shan margin since ∼5 Ma. During this process, the deformations of
different phases in the eastern Tibetan Plateau were absorbed by the thrusts within them and consequently the tectonic events
of long-distance slip and extrusion up to hundreds of kilometers have not been found.