International audienceCorresponding to the Early Mesozoic continental subduction between the North China Block (NCB) and the South China Block (SCB), the Tongbaishan-Hong’an- Dabieshan-Sulu massifs are famous for their HP-UHP metamorphism. More than 50% of the HP-UHP Orogenic Belt was significantly reworked by Early Cretaceous extensional tectonics. This Early Cretaceous event with a fast cooling period, at 130-120 Ma, superimposed on the Early Mesozoic HP-UHP orogenic belt and intensively changed the architecture of this orogen. Each individual segment documents different Early Cretaceous extensional structures, namely the central Tongbaishan domain is a metamorphic core complex (MCC) represented by an A-type non-cylindrical antiform; the central Dabieshan domain is a typical Cordilleran-type migmatite-cored MCC; the Southern Sulu UHP domain is a “wedge-shaped” structure exhumed by a simple detachment fault. These late stage extensional structures expose the previous HP-UHP orogenic belt as fragments along the NCB-SCB boundary. The geodynamic setting of this Early Cretaceous extensional tectonics along the HP-UHP orogen is a part of a 1000km-scale crustal extension belt that is widespread in eastern Eurasia continent from Trans-Baikal to the central part of SCB. Convective erosion or delamination of the mantle lithosphere might be considered as a possible mechanism for mantle removal

The most striking structural features in the interior of the Shan Plateau, southeast of the eastern Himalayan syntaxis, are a series of NE-trending faults that exhibit sinistral movement and an arcuate geometry. Their origin and tectonic evolution remain poorly understood. Furthermore, a switch in slip sense is recorded along many of these faults, but the timing of kinematic reversal is still unclear, hindering an understanding of the causal geodynamic mechanisms. We conducted an integrative study of apatite and zircon (U-Th)/He thermochronology, ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar geochronology, and structural and geomorphic analysis to decipher the evolution of two major NE-trending faults: the Nantinghe and Dayingjiang faults. At least three deformation stages are identified within the Nantinghe fault zone, including top-to-the-SE/ESE thrusting, dextral ductile strike-slip shearing, and sinistral movement. Zircon and apatite (U-Th)/He data, collected from the northeastern terminus of the Nantinghe fault, reveal rapid cooling in the early Miocene. Combined with the ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar data from sinistrally sheared mylonite, left-lateral movement on the Nantinghe fault is inferred to have initiated as early as ca. 20 Ma. The Dayingjiang fault reactivated as a sinistral brittle fault along the dextral Yingjiang shear zone. A two-stage thermal history is identified along the shear zone, with prominent cooling during dextral ductile shearing in the early- to mid-Miocene followed by a lower-magnitude cooling episode at ca. 11 Ma caused by sinistral transtension along the Dayingjiang fault. The evolution of the Nantinghe and Dayingjiang faults suggests that the NE-trending fault system in the Shan Plateau may have developed along preexisting structures and underwent diachronous slip-sense inversion in the late Cenozoic. The northward advance of the eastern Himalayan syntaxis caused a major change in both the regional stress field and fault geometries in the eastern India-Eurasia oblique convergence zone, contributing to the inversion of fault kinematics.