Nature of the Yanbian suture zone and structure of Northeast Asia

Abstract

Based on recent advances in geological work, this paper discusses the nature of the Yanbian suture zone. The authors think that this suture zone is an accretionary suture zone of the combined Late Jurassic Khanka block and Longgang-Guanmao block, belonging to the Northeast Asian Mesozoic circum-Pacific tectonic belt. As is the case with the whole of Northeast Asia, Mesozoic structure of Northeast China mainly formed in the Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous. It composed of two belts: the inner belt resulted from accretion of fragments of continental crust(including the continental margin), and the outer belt mainly formed by accretion of island arc and oceanic crustal fragments with the characteristics of the Tethys Ocean.