Late Paleozoic faults of the Altai region, Central Asia: tectonic pattern and model of formation

The present kinematic and dynamic analysis of large-scale strike-slip faults, which enabled the formation of a collage of Altai terranes as a result of two collisional events. The Late Devonian-Early Carboniferous collision of the Gondwana-derived Altai-Mongolian terrane and the Siberian continent resulted in the formation of the Charysh-Terekta system of dextral strike-slip faults and later the Kurai and Kuznetsk-Teletsk-Bashkauss sinistral strike-slip faults. The Late Carboniferous-Permian collision of the Siberian and Kazakhstan continents resulted in the formation of the Chara, Irtysh and North-East sinistral strike-slip zones. The age of deformation of both collisional events becomes younger toward the inner areas of the Siberian continent. In the same direction the amount of displacement of strike-slip faulting decreases from several thousand to several hundred kilometers. The width of the Late Paleozoic zone of deformation reaches 1500 km. These events deformed the accretion-collision continental margins and their primary paleogeographic pattern. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.