| Abstract: | As the northern boundary of Tibetan Plateau, the Altyn strike\|slip fault in western China has a very important implication to the tectonic division in the middle Asia continent, and has become a hot topic for the research on continental dynamics of Tibetan Plateau. During the research of our project funded by NSFC, we collected a sample of Caledonian mylonitized granite in the north of Dangjin pass and two samples of Jurassic meta\|sedimentary rocks in Qaidam gate fault\|valley and Geshi fault\|valley. The texture study shows that all samples were reformed by ductile deformation with undulating extinction and elongated quartzes. The metamorphic p\|T condition are estimated to be 350～500℃ and 150～450MPa They contain the syntectonic\|growing minerals such as white mica, chlorite, sericite and biotite etc. By dating these minerals, we obtain a group white mica 40 Ar/ 39 Ar isochronal age of 89 2～91 7Ma and a (46 6±6 4)Ma sericite 40 Ar/ 39 Ar apparent age. These data are very important to determine the strike\|slip age of Altyn fault.The 40 Ar/ 39 Ar age data (91～46Ma), we obtained, are reported for the first time in the researches of Altyn fault belt. The ages of 91～89Ma indicate that Altyn fault began to slip with slight metamorphism around late Jurassic. These ages are consistent with the ages of the collision between Kohistan\|Ladakh massif (northwestern India) and Eurasian continent at 102～85Ma.This suggests that the strike\|slip movement of Altyn fault should be related to the formation of the so\|called“Western tectonic joint" in Nepal\|western Kunlun area. The age of 46Ma should represent the overprint age of the tectono\|thermal event during main collision between Indian and Eurasian continents along the Yarlung Zangbo River. With the continent\|continent collision of Indian and Eurasian Plates, Altyn fault underwent Multi\|phase strike\|slip events in late Paleocene—Oligocene (37～35Ma), Miocene (22～20Ma), Miocene—Pliocene (8～6Ma), Pliocene (2 5Ma) and early Pleistocene (1～0 7Ma), respectively. The eastern extension of Altyn fault has two branches, one to Xar Moron River with around 3500km length, and another to Okhotsk Ocean with about 4500km length. So Altyn fault is the biggest strike\|slip fault in Cenozoic in the Middle Asia continent, it is characterized by sinistral strike\|slip movement. The basins and tectonic belts, formed before late Jurassic, on the both side of Altyn fault should be displaced. Therefore, the tectonic outline of western China should be re\|recognized. |
