Coupling and transition of Meso–Cenozoic intracontinental deformation between the Taihang and Qinling Mountains

•The transition of compression to extension in East China is in late Early Cretaceous.•The transition is caused by the collision to the west and the subduction to the east.•The transition of the two tectonic belts is related to lithospheric heterogeneity.•Intraplate extension is characterized by diffuse multi-directional cracking.•Differential deformation is controlled by preexisting tectonic pattern in basements.

During the Mesozoic and Cenozoic, the Qinling Mountains formed a nearly E–W-striking uplifted mountain range separating the North China and South China blocks, while the Taihang Mountains formed a S–N-striking uplifted mountain range within the central North China Block. Thus, the strikes of both are perpendicular to each other. In order to investigate the exhumation, uplift history and transition of tectonic stress fields between these two mountain ranges within the Eurasian Plate, by systematic comparison and analysis of their regional compressive and extensional tectonics, and contrasting the transitions of tectonic regimes during the Mesozoic and Cenozoic interval, it is concluded that the transition period of the two tectonic regimes occurred around the late Early Cretaceous. Through analysis and comparison of coeval stress fields in different tectonic units, it is revealed that their shortening and compressive deformation is related to intraplate heterogeneity of lithospheric structures caused by the formation of ancient orogenic belts, and their subsequent extension is closely related to penetrative intraplate rifting in East China. Therefore, the extensional tectonics displays the formation of wide rift valleys, whose overall tectonic framework is inherited from its pre-existing basement tectonic framework. In summary, the difference between intraplate deformations is controlled by pre-existing basement tectonics, and the responses of complex pre-existing boundaries of different intraplate blocks to the geodynamics at plate margins. After removing the far-field effect of plate subduction and collision, the intraplate deformation mechanism itself may be closely associated with the heterogeneity of intraplate thermal–mechanical structures.