SPECIAL ISSUE ARTICLE Early Paleogene strike‐slip transition of the Tan–Lu Fault Zone across the southeast Bohai Bay Basin: Constraints from fault characteristics in its adjacent basins Guangzeng Wang 1,2 | Sanzhong Li 1,2 | Zhiping Wu 3 | Yanhui Suo 1,2 | Lingli Guo 1,2 | Pengcheng Wang 1,2 1 Key Lab of Submarine Geosciences and Prospecting Techniques, Ministry of Education, and College of Marine Geosciences, Ocean University of China, Shandong, Qingdao, China 2 Laboratory for Marine Geology, Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Shandong, Qingdao, China 3 School of Geosciences, China University of Petroleum (East China), Shandong, Qingdao, China Correspondence Sanzhong Li, Department of Marine Geology, College of Marine Geosciences, Ocean University of China, No. 238, Songling Road, Qingdao 266100, China. Email: sanzhong@ouc.edu.cn Funding information National Key Research and Development Program of China, Grant/Award Number: 2017YFC0601401; China Postdoctoral Sci- ence Foundation, Grant/Award Number: 2017M622274; Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology, Grant/ Award Number: 2017ASKJ02; National Natu- ral Science Foundation of China, Grant/Award Number: U1606401; National Programme on Global Change and Air‐Sea Interaction, SOA, Grant/Award Number: GASI‐GEOGE‐01; Aoshan Talents Program, Grant/Award Num- ber: 2015ASTP‐0S10; Scientific and Techno- logical Innovation Project of Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technol- ogy, Grant/Award Number: 2016ASKJ13; Taishan Scholar Program to Prof. San-Zhong Li; Basic survey project of China Geological Survey, Grant/Award Number: DD20160137 Handling Editor: Y. Liu The Tan–Lu Fault Zone (TLFZ) is the largest continental‐scale strike‐slip fault zone in East China. It experienced a complex Meso‐Cenozoic deformation and controlled the development and evolution of the Bohai Bay Basin (BBB). Though its Mesozoic sinis- tral and Cenozoic dextral motions have been well documented, its strike‐slip transi- tion history and mechanism from sinistral to dextral motions in the Early Paleogene remain poorly understood. To investigate these issues, we made a thorough analysis on the fault geometry and kinematics as well as the response of depocentre in the Early Paleogene of the sags adjacent to the TLFZ across the southeast BBB. The results show that the WNW‐/NW‐,E‐W‐, and ENE‐/NE‐trending extensional faults developed in the Early Paleogene of those sags share almost the same geometrical and kinematic features. Such features indicate that the TLFZ is sinistral in Ek 3 ‐Ek 2 depositional stage, extension dominated in Ek 1 depositional stage, and dextral in Es 4 L depositional stage. Such strike‐slip transition of the TLFZ is a comprehensive effect of the plate events around the Eurasian Plate. The NNW‐directed subduction of the Pacific to the Eurasian plates triggers the sinistral motion of the TLFZ during 65–55 Ma, but this sinistral motion is terminated by the far‐field effect of the NNE‐ directed India–Eurasia collision initiating at 55 Ma. Then, the kinematic adjustment of the Pacific Plate from NNW to WNW breaks the stress balance exerted on the TLFZ by the subduction of the Pacific to Eurasian plates and the India–Eurasia colli- sion and makes it turn into dextral motion gradually during 48–42 Ma. KEYWORDS Bohai Bay Basin, Early Paleogene, fault characteristics, strike‐slip transition, Tan–Lu Fault Zone 1 | INTRODUCTION The strike slipping of a large‐scale fault will produce a characteristic stress field and a series of characteristic structures (e.g., Allen & Allen, 2013; Biddle & Nicholas, 1985; Kim, Peacock, & Sanderson, 2004; Martel, 1990; Peacock, Dimmen, Rotevatn, & Sanderson, 2017; Sylvester, 1988; Woodcock & Fischer, 1986). The strike‐slip transition of a strike‐ slip fault between levorotation and dextrorotation certainly will change its original stress field and influence the development and distribution of strike slipping‐related earthquakes, fault patterns, depositional facies, depocentres, structural landforms, and hydrocarbon system (e.g., Guo, 2010; Jia, Yang, Yu, & Wang, 2007; Sun, Li, Xu, & Guo, 2016; Wu, Zhang, Received: 23 June 2018 Revised: 22 August 2018 Accepted: 30 August 2018 DOI: 10.1002/gj.3344 Geological Journal. 2018;1–15. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/gj 1