Lithosphere types in North China: Evidence from geology and geophysics

On the basis of the characteristics of geology and geophysics in North China, three types of lithosphere, namely, the cratonic, the orogenic and the rift lithospheres can be classified In terms of petrological method (based on the information from Precambrian rock assemblages, igneous activities, deep-seated enclaves, etc.) and the relationship between seismic velocity and rock compositions, the crust-mantle petrological and chemical structure models can be set up. Researching results indicate that the geology and geophysics of North China platform bears the similar characteristics in comparison with those of the global typical cratons. The Eerduosi(Ordos) block located in the west of the North China Platform is a remnant of cratonic lithosphere after the North China platform had undergone “activation” in Mesozoic and “reconstruction” in Cenozoic times. The continental crust consists mainly of TTG rock assemblage while the subcontinental lithosphere mantle mainly consists of strongly depleted harzburgite. The craton was finally formed in late Archaean and early Proterozoic, and has been kept in stability up to present; its crustal-mantle petrological structures of lithosphere can be set up as a reference for the study of North China craton and even Sino-Korean craton. In the Mesozoic period, the middle and east areas of North China platform were activated in the Yanshanian orogenic process, the continental crust was reformed by material and heat-transfer of convective mantle and the original crustal TTG component was reconstructed to be granitic crust, and the subcontinental lithosphere mantle was replaced by the Yanshanian harzburgite-lherzolite. The Yanshan-Taihang Mountains were the remnants of orogenic lithosphere after the rifting in eastern North China in Cenozoic. The present thickness of continental crust and lithosphere in the Yanshan-Taihang Mountains is not equal to their thickness during the Yanshanian orogenic movement because they had undergone the crustal extensional thinning in Cenozoic, however, the material and structure of lithosphere mantle-crust were formed during the Yanshanian orogenic movement. In the Cenozoic Period, the rift-type lithosphere, as represented by the North China plain, was formed by the continental rifting occurring in the eastern part of North China. The continental granitic crust, which had been “acidified” at the Yanshanian period, was basified again by the eruption of basalt magma along the continental rifting, and the subcontinental lithosphere mantle formed in Yanshanian was destroyed and replaced by the Himalayan mantle which consists mainly of lherzolite. Both the crust and the lithospheric mantle in the rift have undergone extensional thinning and thermal erosion at lithospheric-scale, the material and structure of the present mantle-crust lithosphere, attained from geophysical exploration, was formed in Cenozoic. The formation and evolution of lithosphere in North China indicate that the material and heat transferred by convective mantle into the continental crust was the key for different types of lithosphere forming, and the crust-mantle petrologic structure was the records of lithosphere evolution, and it was the integrated results of the deep processes of the China continental dynamic system and the Pacific Plate subduction located in the eastern margin of the North China platform in Mesozoic-Cenozoic time