Evolution of the Chuhe fault in Jiangsu and Anhui and tectonic setting

The Chuhe fault has recorded the dynamic features of the lower Yangtze region since the Paleozoic. It was the boundary between the Chuxian Quanjiao deep water basin and the Chaoxian Hanshan shallow water basin from the Sinian to Silurian. From the Late Devonian to Middle Triassic no deposition occurred on its northern side, whereas its southern side was marked by the occurrence of an intracontinental extensional fault depression resulting from northward subduction of the Yangtze plate. In the Late Triassic it became an important overthrust fault in the foreland thrust fold zone on the southern side of the Dabie Jiaonan orogenic belt, and then it was involved into sinistral strike slip shear of the Tancheng Lujiang fault system. During the Late Cretaceous to Paleogene it was manifested as an adjusting boundary of the horst and graben structures, controlling the development of the Chuxian Quanjiao red basin. Since the Cenozoic it becomes an overthrust again.