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Three-dimensional thermo-rheological structure of the lithosphere in the North China Craton determined by integrating multiple observations: Implications for the formation of rifts

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Abstract

The lithosphere of the North China Craton (NCC) has experienced significant destruction and deformation since the Mesozoic, a notable feature of which is the widespread extensional structure and lithospheric thinning in the eastern NCC. Since the thermo-rheological structure of the lithosphere is one of the main factors controlling these dynamic processes, a three-dimensional thermo-rheological model of the present lithosphere in the NCC was developed based on a geophysical-petrological method using a variety of data, and its relationship with the extensional structures and the formation of rifts was further analyzed. Our results show that the western NCC is characterized by thick lithosphere, low Moho temperature (TMoho<600°C), as well as high lithospheric strength and mantle-crust strength ratio (Sm/Sc>1). The deformation of the western narrow rift is consistent with the localized deformation dominated by the strength of lithospheric mantle. On the other hand, the lithosphere in the eastern NCC is characterized by extensive thinning (with lithospheric thickness of about 80–110 km). However, the decrease of lithospheric strength is not uniform, with high strength (10×1012 Pa m) observed in some areas (such as the Bohai Bay Basin and Hehuai Basin). Most of the eastern lithosphere is characterized by high TMoho (600–750°C) and low Sm/Sc (<1), which is inconsistent with the widespread extensional structure in the eastern NCC. Incorporating results from palaeo-geothermal and petrological studies, we developed a thermo-rheological structure model of the lithosphere at different evolutionary stages of the NCC, and suggested that the eastern NCC had a significantly thinned and weakened lithosphere in the early stages of the formation of the rift, leading to a regional distributed extension deformation dominated by crustal strength, which eventually evolved into a series of wide rifts. However, the cooling and accretion of the lithosphere in the subsequent stages significantly increased the strength of the lithospheric mantle, resulting in the inconsistency between the present thermo-rheological structure of the lithosphere and the extensional structure formed in the past.

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Acknowledgements

Thanks to two reviewers and editorial board for their comments and suggestions. Thanks to Professor Bin SHAN and Professor Faqi DIAO of China University of Geosciences (Wuhan) and all team members for their many discussions and valuable comments for this paper. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 41731072, 41574095) and the National Key R & D Program of China (Grant No. 2017YFC1500305). Most figures were prepared with the Generic Mapping Tools (Wessel and Smith, 1998).

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  1. State Key Laboratory of Geodesy and Earth’s Dynamics, Institute of Geodesy and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430074, China

    Kai Wang

  2. Institute of Geophysics and Geomatics, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, 430074, China

    Kai Wang, Xiong Xiong & Yashan Feng

  3. Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Saint Louis University, St. Louis, MO, 63108, USA

    Yuming Zhou

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Wang, K., Xiong, X., Zhou, Y. et al. Three-dimensional thermo-rheological structure of the lithosphere in the North China Craton determined by integrating multiple observations: Implications for the formation of rifts. Sci. China Earth Sci. 63, 969–984 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-019-9566-1

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