Neotectonic evolution of the Tarim Basin Craton from Neogene to quaternary

The Tarim Basin Craton is located in the center of the Tarim Basin. Since the beginning of the Miocene, the tectonic activity has been weaker in the Tarim Basin Craton than in the marginal depression and the peripheral orogenic belts. This study investigates the tectonic movements in the Tarim Basin Craton by calculating the sedimentation rates and constructing balanced cross-sections based on well, seismic and geologic data. The tectonic movements in the Tarim Basin Craton have mainly been revealed by geological processes such as sedimentation and subsidence, structural inversion, changes in the structural feature, migration of the structural highs, and faulting. The Neogene sedimentary strata were mainly deposited in two sedimentation centers, the southern and northern sedimentation centers, and the strata in the Central Uplift Zone are relatively thin. The different depressions in different geological periods experienced wide variations in tectonic activity. Tectonic subsidence was significant and the sedimentation rates were high in the Tarim Basin Craton during the Pliocene Period (phase II). During the Neotectonic period, the stresses in the South-North direction converged in the Central Uplift Zone (the Bachu uplift–Central Tarim uplift), and the tectonic activity in this region was more intense than that in the Northern Depression and the Maigaiti Slope in the southwest. In addition, the scale of the paleo-uplift, including paleo-North Tarim Uplift and paleo-Central Uplift Zone, gradually decreased. The faults and fault systems developed zonationally in Neotectonic formations in different structural units, and always distributed discontinuously in vertical direction in sections.