Preface to the special issue on "Circum-Tibetan Plateau Basin and Orogen System: Tectonics, geodynamics and resources"

How continent-continent collisions influence intracontinental deformation is a key issue in continental geodynamics. The early Cenozoic collision between the Indian and Eurasian plates and their continued convergence have established the Tibetan Plateau, reactivated intracontinental orogenic belts far from the collisional boundary, and reshaped the tectonic architecture of the Eurasian continent. Since the late Cenozoic, fossil orogenic belts around the Tibetan Plateau have been rejuvenated and uplifted, whereas adjacent basins have significantly subsided, forming a series of intracontinental orogenic belts and basins with interspersed frontal fold-and-thrust belts. Jia (2005) termed the deformation domain resulting from the India-Eurasia collision, the largest dispersive intracontinental deformation domain worldwide, the "Circum-Tibetan Plateau Basin and Orogen System (CTPBOS)". The CTPBOS includes a broad region, including the rejuvenated Tian Shan, Altai Shan, Kunlun Shan, Qilian Shan, and Longmen Shan orogens and adjacent Tarim, Junggar, Tuha, Ordos, Hexi Corridor, and Sichuan basins. This is in contrast to the Basin and Range province in North America, which developed in an intracontinental extensional setting and features low-angle normal faults and outcrops of metamorphic core complexes.