Seismites in the Dasheng Group： New evidence of strong tectonic and earthquake activities of the Tanlu Fault Zone

More than 80 layers of seismites were recognized from the Early Cretaceous Dasheng Group in the Mazhan and Tancheng graben basins in the Tanlu Fault Zone, eastern China. The responsible seismic events took place about 110–100 Ma in the Early Cretaceous. The fault zone was affected at the time by strong tectonics, due to tension-related stretching and scattered squeezing by strike-slip faults. These tectonic activities induced a series of strong earthquakes with Richter magnitudes（M） of 5–8.5. The earthquakes affected saturated or semi-consolidated flood and lake sediments, and produced intra-layer deformations by several processes, including liquefaction, thixotropy, drop, faulting, cracking, filling and folding, which resulted in the formation of various soft-sediment deformation structures, such as dikes and veins of liquefied sand, liquefied breccias, liquefied homogeneous layers, load structures, flame structures, ball-and-pillow structures, boudinage, diapirs, fissure infillings, a giant conglomerate wedge, and syn-sedimentary faults. The seismites are new evidence of tectonic and seismic activities in the Tanlu Fault Zone during the Early Cretaceous; the series of strong seismic events that can be deduced from them must be considered as a response to the destruction of the North China Craton.