The Ming-Kush-Kokomeren zone of recent transpression in the Middle Tien Shan

The Ming-Kush-Kokomeren Zone in the Middle Tien Shan is a transpressional structural unit, i.e., a longitudinal recent faultline depression, where manifestations of transverse shortening (intense folding, reverse and thrust faulting) are combined with left-lateral offset along the same faults; the left-lateral offset is commensurable to vertical separation along reverse and thrust faults or it even exceeds the latter. The complicated deformation within this zone has developed most intensely since the late Pliocene and reached a peak in the Pleistocene. However, the origin of this structural unit was at the onset of neotectonic stage, as evidenced from the Oligocene-lower Miocene conglomerate unit, which was formed as a product of the destruction of reactivated Hercynian thrust faults and nappes in the southern wall of the zone. The conglomerate filled a narrow ramp valley that formed in front of thrusts, probably due to the strike-slip offsets along boundary faults. Similar transpressional linear zones-Tessyk-Sary-Bulak, Uzunbulak-Oy-Kain, Kara-Kol, and Chong-Kemin (Kemin-Chilik)-are known in the Middle Tien Shan.