Basin evolution in a folding lithosphere: Altai–Sayan and Tien Shan belts in Central Asia

Central Asia is a classical example for continental lithospheric folding. In particular, the Altay–Sayan belt in South-Siberia and the Kyrgyz Tien Shan display a special mode of lithospheric deformation, involving decoupled lithospheric mantle folding and upper crustal folding and faulting. Both areas have a heterogenous crust with a long history of accretion–collision, subsequently reactivated as a far-field effect of the Indian–Eurasian collision. Thanks to the youthfulness of the tectonic deformation in this region (peak deformation in late Pliocene–early Pleistocene), the surface expression of lithospheric deformation is well documented by the surface topography and superficial tectonic structures. A review of the paleostress data and tectono-stratigraphic evolution of the Kurai-Chuya basin in Siberian Altai, Zaisan basin in Kazakh South Altai and Issyk-Kul basin in Kyrgyz Tien Shan suggests that they were initiated in an extensional context and inverted by a combination of fault-controlled deformation and flexural folding. In these basins, fault-controlled deformation alone appears largely insufficient to explain their architecture. Lithospheric buckling inducing surface tilting, uplift and subsidence also played an important role. They form typical basins in a folding lithosphere (FLB). Their characteristic basin fill and symmetry, inner structure, folding wavelength and amplitude, thermal regime, time frame are examined in relation to basement structure, stress field, strain rate, timing of deformation, and compared to existing modelling results.

► Intramontane Cenozoic basins of Central Asia are examined in a folding lithosphere context.
► Surface expression of lithospheric deformation is still well documented in tectonic morphology.
► Deformation occurred by decoupled lithospheric mantle and upper crustal folding.
► The intramontane basins in Altai–Sayan and Tien Shan form typical Folded Lithospheric Basins.