Abstract The western Kunlun Mountains and the adjacent southwestern Tarim Basin define the northwestern boundary of the intensely deformed Cenozoic Tibetan Plateau, and thus should bear important information on the growth processes of the NW Tibetan Plateau. In this study, the integration of a stratigraphic investigation of the Cenozoic Keliyang succession section and a seismostratigraphic analysis on the seismic reflection profile reveal the sedimentary evolution and basin-filling processes of the southwestern Tarim Basin. Our results suggest a significant depositional shift from marine facies during the depositional periods of the Aertashi to Bashibulake Formations to continental facies during the depositional periods of the Keziluoyi to Xiyu Formations. This shift, which corresponds to southward depositional thickening, has been attributed to the uplift of South Kunlun and the onset of foreland basin subsidence along the southwestern Tarim Basin. Strata from the Keziluoyi to Xiyu Formations form an upward-coarsening sequence that is interrupted by a subordinate upward-thinning sequence in the Anjuan Formation. These results, in combination with the northward migration of the depocenter by at least ~56 km since the depositional period of the Artux Formation and previous studies on basinward deformation propagation, demonstrate that the tectonic loading of the western Kunlun has propagated northward to North Kunlun, which suggest expansion of the NW Tibetan Plateau since this period. We posit that the upper-crustal boundary between western Kunlun along the NW Tibetan Plateau and the Tarim Basin is a northward movable feature. This would support the hypothesis that the substantial lower Tarim Plate (>~56 km if calculated from the magnitude of the northward depocenter migration) has underthrusted southward beneath western Kunlun.

中文翻译：

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塔西南盆地新生代充填演化及其对西昆仑隆升的启示——（地震）地层学的启示

摘要 西昆仑山脉和毗邻的塔里木盆地西南部是强烈变形的新生代青藏高原的西北边界，对青藏高原西北部的生长过程具有重要意义。本研究通过新生代克里洋层序剖面地层调查与地震反射剖面的地层学分析相结合，揭示了塔里木盆地西南部的沉积演化和盆地充填过程。我们的研究结果表明，从阿尔塔什组到巴什布拉克组沉积期的海相沉积到克孜洛依组到西峪组沉积期的陆相发生了显着的转变。这种转变，对应于向南的沉积增厚，归因于南昆仑的隆升和塔里木盆地西南部的前陆盆地开始沉降。克孜洛依组至西峪组地层形成向上变粗的层序，被安卷组下层向上变薄层序打断。这些结果，结合自 Artux 组沉积期以来沉积中心向北迁移至少约 56 公里以及先前对盆地变形传播的研究，表明西昆仑的构造载荷已向北传播至北昆仑，这表明自这一时期以来青藏高原西北部的扩张。我们假设沿青藏高原西北部的昆仑西与塔里木盆地之间的上地壳边界是一个向北的可移动特征。