Early Cretaceous exhumation of the Sulu orogenic belt as a consequence of the eastern Eurasian tectonic extension: insights from the newly discovered Wulian metamorphic core complex, eastern China

The mechanisms of thinning of the lithosphere and destruction of the North China Craton have been debated in recent decades. Their causal link with regional tectonic extension is well exemplified by the exhumation of the Wulian metamorphic core complex (mcc), along the Sulu orogenic belt to the SE of the North China Craton. The Wulian mcc is a Cordilleran type mcc with a northwestward dipping low-angle master detachment fault zone (the Wulian...