RUSSIAN JOURNAL OF EARTH SCIENCES VOL. 7, ES6002, doi:10.2205/2005ES000187, 2005
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[3] The South Tien Shan Mountains experienced a complex and multistage geologic history which resulted in the formation of a fold-nappe structural feature, elevated by the present time to the heights of more than 5000 m above the sea level. The complexity and heterogeneity of the multistage formation of the South Tien Shan Mountains caused a great difference between the views offered for the normal mechanisms of the geotectonic evolution of these mountains and for the geodynamic processes that had operated in the region discussed. These mechanisms are the block (fold-block) mechanism of vertical movements [Beloussov et al., 1984; Rezvoi, 1956; Schultz, 1979, to name but a few]; the mechanism of general horizontal compression, and the significant horizontal movements of crustal blocks [Makarov, 1990; Nikonov, 1990; Zakharov, 1970; Zonenshain and Savostin, 1979, to name but a few]. Other geologists admitted the joint effect of general compression, mantle processes, and the transformation of compression stress to a fold-block structural feature [Chedia and Utkina, 1990; Kuchai, 1981; Makarov, 1990]. Artyushkov [1978] and Belousov et al. [1984] suggested the leading role of mantle and asthenospheric diapirs. Substantial attention was given to the effect of the structural layering of the lithosphere in the region concerned [Makarov, 1990]. Views differ also concerning the inherited or independent geodynamics of the Alpine geologic history of the region [Rezvoi, 1956; Yablonskaya, 1989]. In my earlier paper [Leonov, 1996] I offered a view about the complex interference between different mechanisms and tectonic conditions during the formation of the modern structure of the South Tien Shan orogenic belt, although the main attention was given to the Paleozoic geologic history of the region, whereas in this paper the main attention is given to its Mz-Kz (Alpine) history, reflecting the geodynamics of the mobile belts during the post-collision, platform and orogenic, periods of their evolution.
Citation: 2005), The Post-Oceanic Geodynamics of the South Tien Shan Region, Russ. J. Earth Sci., 7, ES6002, doi:10.2205/2005ES000187.
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