The Early Permian strata of the Hongliuhe Group, NW China, experienced a thin-skinned fold-and-thrust belt style of deformation that recorded the final stages of amalgamation of the Beishan orogenic collage, a part of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt. The Hongliuhe Group was syn-orogenically deposited on an undetermined foreland, with the Mazongshan arc terrane acting as the hinterland. In this study results from detailed mapping combined with a regional analysis elucidate involvement of a northward-dipping subduction system with the collision. Well-preserved fold-and-thrust belt style deformation mapped in the upper stratigraphy of the Hongliuhe Group exhibits dominantly south-southeast verging structure, including shear folding, low-angle thrust ramping, imbrication and duplexing. Restoration of a portion of a mapped outcrop-scale cross-section estimates the accommodation of a minimum of 24% shortening. Lower stratigraphy shows discrete, steeper, north-over-south dip-slip ductile shear zones that bound packages of less deformed Hongliuhe Group strata. Fault displacement is considered to have been prolonged enough to juxtapose basal formations in northerly hangingwalls against upper formations in southerly footwalls. Faulting is closely associated with the creation of large-scale brittle-ductile eye-fold structures that are postulated to be sheath folds. The most examined and mapped structure, 16km wide, is a synclinal structure with axes plunging steeply towards its center. The ellipticity of the exposed bedding traces increases towards the center of the eye-fold, implying a structural relationship with metamorphic shear zones. Except for large-scale folding, the bulk of its strata remain relatively undeformed and have preserved primary soft-sediment deformation structures indicating younging towards the center on both limbs of the synclinal structure. Stratigraphic reconstruction of the Hongliuhe Group that considers the significant faulting shows that the Group's basal conglomerates unconformably overlie a Late-Carboniferous volcanic assemblage. The clast lithotypes of the conglomeratic successions change from polymictic metamorphic rocks at the base to monomictic granitoid clasts mid-section, showing the gradual unroofing sequence of the provenance. The stratigraphic reconstruction shows a general fining upward sequence, transitioning from terrestrial to nearshore marine depositional environments that, and in conjunction with the conglomeratic successions, suggests that the tectonic setting for deposition of the Hongliuhe Group is a foreland basin. Considering the deformation styles reported in this study, the Hongliuhe Group is interpreted to be a foreland fold-and-thrust belt. Stratigraphic reconstruction of the Hongliuhe Group that considers the significant faulting shows that the Group’s basal conglomerates unconformably overlie a Late Carboniferous volcanic assemblage. The clast lithotypes of the conglomeratic successions change from polymictic metamorphic rocks at the base to monomictic granitoid mid-section, showing the gradual unroofing sequence of the provenance. The stratigraphic reconstruction shows a general fining upward sequence through nearshore depositional environments that, and in conjunction with the conglomeratic successions, give interpretation that the tectonic setting for deposition of the Hongliuhe Group is a foreland basin. Considering the deformation styles reported in this study the Hongliuhe Group is interpreted to be a foreland fold-and-thrust belt.

The Early Permian strata of the Hongliuhe Group, NW China, experienced a thin-skinned fold-and-thrust belt style of deformation that recorded the final stages of amalgamation of the Beishan orogenic collage, a part of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt. The Hongliuhe Group was syn-orogenically deposited on an undetermined foreland, with the Mazongshan arc terrane acting as the hinterland. In this study results from detailed mapping combined with a regional analysis elucidate involvement of a northward-dipping subduction system with the collision. Well-preserved fold-and-thrust belt style deformation mapped in the upper stratigraphy of the Hongliuhe Group exhibits dominantly south-southeast verging structure, including shear folding, low-angle thrust ramping, imbrication and duplexing. Restoration of a portion of a mapped outcrop-scale cross-section estimates the accommodation of a minimum of 24% shortening. Lower stratigraphy shows discrete, steeper, north-over-south dip-slip ductile shear zones that bound packages of less deformed Hongliuhe Group strata. Fault displacement is considered to have been prolonged enough to juxtapose basal formations in northerly hangingwalls against upper formations in southerly footwalls. Faulting is closely associated with the creation of large-scale brittle-ductile eye-fold structures that are postulated to be sheath folds. The most examined and mapped structure, 16km wide, is a synclinal structure with axes plunging steeply towards its center. The ellipticity of the exposed bedding traces increases towards the center of the eye-fold, implying a structural relationship with metamorphic shear zones. Except for large-scale folding, the bulk of its strata remain relatively undeformed and have preserved primary soft-sediment deformation structures indicating younging towards the center on both limbs of the synclinal structure. Stratigraphic reconstruction of the Hongliuhe Group that considers the significant faulting shows that the Group's basal conglomerates unconformably overlie a Late-Carboniferous volcanic assemblage. The clast lithotypes of the conglomeratic successions change from polymictic metamorphic rocks at the base to monomictic granitoid clasts mid-section, showing the gradual unroofing sequence of the provenance. The stratigraphic reconstruction shows a general fining upward sequence, transitioning from terrestrial to nearshore marine depositional environments that, and in conjunction with the conglomeratic successions, suggests that the tectonic setting for deposition of the Hongliuhe Group is a foreland basin. Considering the deformation styles reported in this study, the Hongliuhe Group is interpreted to be a foreland fold-and-thrust belt. Stratigraphic reconstruction of the Hongliuhe Group that considers the significant faulting shows that the Group’s basal conglomerates unconformably overlie a Late Carboniferous volcanic assemblage. The clast lithotypes of the conglomeratic successions change from polymictic metamorphic rocks at the base to monomictic granitoid mid-section, showing the gradual unroofing sequence of the provenance. The stratigraphic reconstruction shows a general fining upward sequence through nearshore depositional environments that, and in conjunction with the conglomeratic successions, give interpretation that the tectonic setting for deposition of the Hongliuhe Group is a foreland basin. Considering the deformation styles reported in this study the Hongliuhe Group is interpreted to be a foreland fold-and-thrust belt.