Significant Structural Variations in the Central and Western North China Craton and Its Implications for the Craton Destruction

• 责任者：Chen Ling (State Key Laboratory of Lithospheric Evolution ; Institute of Geology and Geophysics ; Chinese Academy of Sciences ; Beijing 100029 ; China) ; Wei Zigen
• 刊名：Earth Science Frontiers
• 出版年：2010
• 卷期：17（1)
• 关键词：克拉通 ; craton ; 华北地区 ; North China
• 页码：p.212-228
• 图表：7 illus., 111 refs.
• 分类号：0400
• issnNo：ISSN1005-2321
• isbnNo：CN11-3370/P

A better understanding of the Phanerozoic tectonic reactivation and destruction of the North China Craton (NCC) demands a detailed knowledge of the deep structural features of the region. The authors have migrated teleseismic P- and S-receiver functions from dense seismic array data to construct the structure images of the lithosphere and the upper mantle along three profiles that traverse the three constituent parts of the NCC.  It also corresponds to sharp changes in crustal structure, mantle transition zone thickness and structure of the 660 km discontinuity.  The presence of thinned lithosphere in the Central and Western NCC together with petrological and geochemical data suggest that litho-spheric remobilization and thinning may have affected the NCC much further to the west than previously thought.  The rift areas in the region, which are underlain by significantly thinned lithosphere, appear to be related to ancient mechanically weak zones. These pre-existing lithospheric structures may have been repeatedly reactivated by successive tectonic events during the long-term evolution of the NCC, and particularly have been weakened and thinned by the Cenozoic India-Eurasia collision which eventually caused rifting in these areas.