摘要
A variety of deformation bands and faults exist in the Cretaceous Yuanan Basin in the west of Hubei Province, China. Based upon conjugate deformation bands and fault-slip data measured in the field, palaeostress analysis was performed. The results indicate the existence of tension in the earlier stage, and of compression in the later stage. The earlier extension, directed from NWW to SEE, was consistent with the regional extensional regime in the Cretaceous. The later compression directed from N to S has nothing to do with the Late-Paleogene inversion of the Jianghan Basin, of which the Yuanan Basin was once a part on the northwest, by the compression perpendicular to it. It might have been resulted from the tectonogeny having a roughly similar direction at the end of the Paleogene.