Signatures of tectonic-climatic interaction during the Late Cenozoic orogenesis along the northern Chinese Tian Shan

The Chinese Tian Shan is one of the most actively growing orogenic ranges in Central Asia. The Late Miocene-Quaternary landscape evolution of northern Tian Shan has been significantly driven by the interaction between tectonic deformations and climate change, further modulated by the erosion of the upstream bedrocks and deposition into the downstream basins. In this study, only the accessible Kuitun River drainage basin in northern Tian Shan was considered, and detrital zircon geochronology and heavy minerals were analyzed to investigate the signature of the driving forces for Miocene sedimentation in northern Tian Shan. This study first confirmed a previously recognized tectonic uplift at ca. 7.0 Ma and further revealed that the basin sediments were mainly derived from the present glacier-covered ridge-crest regions during 3.3–2.5 Ma. It is suggested Late-Pliocene to Early Pleistocene sedimentation was likely a response to the onset of the northern hemispheric glaciation. Although complicated, this study highlights that the tectonic-climatic interaction during the Late Cenozoic orogenesis can be discriminated in the northern Chinese Tian Shan.