Cyclostratigraphic Calibration of Yanliao Basin Evolutoin

The Yanliao Basin along the northern margin of the North China craton represents one of the longest-lived, most continuous stratigraphic records spanning the Paleoproterozoic–Mesoproterozoic from ca. 1.7–1.3 Ga in the world. Understanding its basin evolution is therefore critical not only for understanding local records, but for understanding the tectonostratigraphic setting of the enigmatic Mid-Proterozoic characterized by the Boring Billion, or Balanced Billion. First, we consider the advances, as well as limitations, that decades of detailed radiometric geochronologic constraints on the Yanliao Basin reveal and present as challenges, respectively. Second, we consider how the past decade of a proliferation of newly available cyclostratigraphic constraints from Milankovitch cycles provide a largely independent test of the geochronology as well as providing potentially new additional insights. One further key consideration explored here is along-strike variations across the intercontinental basin that may yield further insights into the tectonostratigraphy of this exceptionally long-lived and continuous Mid-Proterozoic stratigraphic record.