Coupling Between Exhumation and Subduction: A Case Study From the Southern Great Xing'an Range, NE Asia

Abstract

Abstract The link between subduction and continental exhumation is explored using high‐resolution thermal histories from southern Great Xing'an Range (GXR), NE Asia and integrated with a regional low‐temperature thermochronology data synthesis from the NE Asian continental margin. The GXR thermal histories are constrained by multiple thermo‐, geochronometers (zircon, titanite, apatite U‐Pb, zircon, apatite (U‐Th)/He and apatite fission track). These data yield a large range in U‐Pb ages (292–119 Ma) with enhanced exhumation mainly during the early Cretaceous (ca. 155–110 Ma) in an extensional regime linked to roll‐back of the Paleo‐Pacific Ocean and consequent lithospheric thinning and delamination. Integrated with Cretaceous‐Cenozoic low‐temperature thermochronological data from the NE Asian continent margin, three regional phases of exhumation are recognized, which can be linked to changes in the geometry and kinematics of the subduction systems of the Paleo‐Pacific and Pacific oceans, demonstrating coupling between the subducting plate and the continental margin at active plate boundaries.