http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1674987111001095

During the Late Mesozoic Middle JurassiceLate Cretaceous, basin and range tectonics andassociated magmatism representative of an extensional tectonic setting was widespread in southeasternChina as a result of Pacific Plate subduction. Basin tectonics consists of post-orogenic (Type I) andintra-continental extensional basins (Type II). Type I basins developed in the piedmont and intralandduring the Late Triassic to Early Jurassic, in which coarse-grained terrestrial clastic sediments weredeposited. Type II basins formed during intra-continental crustal thinning and were characterized bythe development of grabens and half-grabens. Graben basins were mainly generated during the MiddleJurassic and were associated with bimodal volcanism. Sediments in half-grabens are intercalated withrhyolitic tuffs and lavas and are Early Cretaceous in age with a dominance of Late CretaceousePaleogenered beds. Ranges are composed of granitoids and bimodal volcanic rocks, A-type granites and dome-typemetamorphic core complexes. The authors analyzed lithological, geochemical and geochronologicalfeatures of the Late Mesozoic igneous rock assemblages and proposed some geodynamical constraintson forming the basin and range tectonics of South China. A comparison of the similarities and differencesof basin and range tectonics between the eastern and western shores of the Pacific is made, and the geodynamicalevolution model of the Southeast China Block during Late Mesozoic is discussed. Studiedresults suggest that the basin and range terrane within South China developed on a pre-Mesozoic foldedbelt was derived from a polyphase tectonic evolution mainly constrained by subduction of the westernPacific Plate since the Late Mesozoic, leading to formation of various magmatism in a back-arc extensionalsetting. Its geodynamic mechanism can compare with that of basin and range tectonics in the eastern shore of the Pacific. Differences of basin and range tectonics between both shores of the Pacific,such as mantle plume formation, scales of extensional and igneous rock assemblages and the age of basinand range tectonics, were caused mainly by the Yellowstone mantle plume in the eastern shore of thePacific.