The MohroCoulomb criterion has been widely used to explain formation of fractures. However, it fails to explain large strain deformation that widely occurs in nature. There is presently a new theory, the MEMC, which is mathematically expressed as Meff = （（σ1-σ3） L.sin 2α sin α）/2, where σ1-σ3 represents the yield strength of the related rock, L is a unit length and a is the angle between σ1 and deformation bands. This criterion demonstrates that the maximum value appears at angles of ±54.7° to σ1 and there is a slight difference in the moment in the range of 55°±10°. The range covers the whole observations available from nature and experiments. Its major implications include： （1） it can be used to determine the stress state when the related deformation features formed; （2） it provides a new approach to determine the Wk of the related ductile shear zone if only the ratio of the vorticity and strain rate remains fixed; （3） It can be used to explain （a） the obtuse angle in the contraction direction of conjugate kink-bands and extensional crenulation cleavages, （b） formation of low-angle normal faults and high-angle reverse faults, （c） lozenge ductile shear zones in basement terranes, （d） some crocodile structures in seismic profiles and （e） detachment folds in foreland basins.
The Liaonan metamorphic core complex （mcc） has a three-layer structure and is constituted by five parts, i.e. a detachment fault zone, an allochthonous upper plate and an supradetachment basin above the fault zone, and highly metamorphosed rocks and intrusive rocks in the lower plate. The allochthonous upper plate is mainly of Neoproterozoic and Paleozoic rocks weakly deformed and metamorphosed in pre-Indosinan stage. Above these rocks is a small-scale supradetachment basin of Cretaceous sedimentary and volcanic rocks. The lower plate is dominated by Archean TTG gneisses with minor amount of supracrustal rocks. The Archean rocks are intruded by late Mesozoic synkinematic monzogranitic and granitic plutons. Different types of fault rocks, providing clues to the evolution of the detachment fault zone, are well-preserved in the fault zone, e.g. mylonitic gneiss, mylonites, brecciated mylonites, microbreccias and pseudotachylites. Lineations in lower plate granitic intrusions have consistent orientation that indicate uniform top-to-NW shearing along the main detachment fault zone. This also provides evidence for the synkinematic characteristics of the granitic plutons in the lower plate. Structural analysis of the different parts in the mcc and isotopic dating of plutonic rocks from the lower plate and mylonitic rocks from detachment fault zone suggest that exhumation of the mcc started with regional crustal extension due to crustal block rotation and tangential shearing. The extension triggered magma formation, upwelling and emplacement. This event ended with appearance of pseudotachylite and fault gauges formed at the uppermost crustal level. U-Pb dating of single zircon grains from granitic rocks in the lower plate gives an age of 130±2.5 Ma, and biotite grains from the main detachment fault zone have ^40Ar-^39Ar ages of 108-119 Ma. Several aspects may provide constraints for the exhumation of the Liaonan mcc. These include regional extensional setting, cover/basement contact, temporal and spatial coupling of
The Sino-Mongolian border areas underwent two important tectonic events during Mesozoic time after late Paleozoic orogeny: a late Triassic to earlier Jurassic contractional event that resulted in a large-scale south-vergent thrust during the orogeny and a late Jurassic-earlier Cretaceous extensional event in a north-south direction that formed a metamorphic core complex. The kinematic and dynamic analyses show that the thrust sheet moved southwards with a kinematic vorticity number of ca. -0.10 and sub-horizontal maximum compressive stress axis that belongs to a contraction-thickening shear. The upper plate of the late-orogenic detachment relatively moved in a 165°direction. The average kinematic vorticity in its earlier stage was 0.74 that belongs to simple shear dominated shearing and related to the maximum compressive stress axes dipping at ～66°, while the later average kinematic vorticity was ～0.55°that belongs to pure shear dominated shearing with sub-vertical maximum compressive stress axes. This suggests that the thrusting led to the crust thickened and the lower plate rocks that were originally located in the upper crust depressed through a brittle-ductile transition zone into the lower crust and became warmer. The heated rocks trended to uplift since their increasing volume and decreasing density while the loading of the upper-plate rocks increased due to the structural thickening. Under the combined effect of the loading and the thermal-uplifting, the ductile shear zone in between increased in its component of vertical pure shear. Once its pure-shear component exceeded its simple-shear one the ductile shear zone became an extension-thinned shear zone. This progressive transitional process reflects internal and essential temporal and spatial relationships: the extensional factor nucleated during the crust thickening by thrusting and increase of the extensional factor finally led to late-orogenic collapse.
ZHENG Yadong 1 & WANG Tao2 1. Key Laboratory of Orogenic Belts and Crustal Evolution (Peking University), Ministry of Education, Beijing 100871, China
