Mianlüe tectonic zone and Mianlüe suture zone on southern margin of Qinling-Dabie orogenic belt

The Mianlüe tectonic zone (Mianlüe zone), an ancient suture zone in addition to the Shangdan suture in the Qinling-Dabie orogenic belt, marks an important tectonic division geologically separating north from south and connecting east with west in China continent. To determine present structural geometry and kinematics in the Mianlüe tectonic zone and to reconstruct the formation and evolution history involving plate subduction and collision in the Qinling-Dabie orogenic belt, through a multidisciplinary study, are significant for exploring the mountain-building orogenesis of the central orogenic system and the entire process of the major Chinese continental amalgamation during the Indosinian.