@article{d9d25df2ce494bdaacb9f2fdc7a65e45,
title = "Development of a Dense Cratonic Keel Prior to the Destruction of the North China Craton: Constraints From Sedimentary Records and Numerical Simulation",
abstract = "It remains unclear why some cratonic lithospheres like the North China Craton (NCC) have undergone significant thinning and catastrophic destruction. Here we provide evidence for a dense Phanerozoic cratonic keel beneath the NCC that provides a reason for the craton destruction during the late Mesozoic. We observed two long-lasting (>100 Myr) episodes of surface subsidence that formed the saucer-shaped basin topography on the NCC from the Paleozoic to early Mesozoic, which was not associated with lithosphere stretching or a high sea level. Based on a detailed geological and geochemical analysis and 2-D numerical experiments, we show that this subsidence most likely reflects the secular cooling and eclogitization of iron-rich materials infiltrated into the cratonic mantle since the early Phanerozoic, a process that is the most prominent over the eastern NCC. This result implies that the lithosphere beneath the eastern NCC became gravitationally unstable prior to its Mesozoic destruction as its keel became progressively denser during the Paleozoic. An early Mesozoic partial removal of this dense keel possibly led to widespread surface uplift of the NCC, as indicated by regional basin inversion. We conclude that the long-term subsidence of a cratonic basin reflects a gradual increase of the lithospheric density and that this type of subsidence should not be considered a characteristic of stable cratons as previously assumed.",
keywords = "Phanerozoic cratonic basin, craton destruction, dense cratonic keel, long-term subsidence, mantle refertilization",
author = "Liang Liu and Lijun Liu and Xu, {Yi Gang} and Bing Xia and Qiang Ma and Martin Menzies",
note = "This research is financially supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (41688103), the National Program on Global Change and Air-Sea Interaction (GASI-GEOGE-02), and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDB18000000). L. Liu's stay at UIUC is jointly supported by UIUC and the Guangdong Provincial Postdoc Program. L. J. Liu acknowledges National Science Foundation Grants EAR1554554 and EAR1565640 and the GeoThrust Foundation at UIUC. We thank Stephen S. Gao and Derek Wyman for the constructive suggestions on modifying the manuscript. There are no data sharing issues since all the numerical information is provided in the figures and movies that are produced by the equations in the appendixes with initial/boundary conditions and model parameters given in the paper. The datasets for Figures and and the results of one typical model can be downloaded from Zenodo (DOI 10.5281/zenodo.3378983). This is contribution No. IS-2776 from GIG-CAS. and and the results of one typical model can be downloaded from Zenodo (DOI 10.5281/zenodo.3378983). This is contribution No. IS‐2776 from GIG‐CAS. This research is financially supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (41688103), the National Program on Global Change and Air‐Sea Interaction (GASI‐GEOGE‐02), and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDB18000000). L. Liu's stay at UIUC is jointly supported by UIUC and the Guangdong Provincial Postdoc Program. L. J. Liu acknowledges National Science Foundation Grants EAR1554554 and EAR1565640 and the GeoThrust Foundation at UIUC. We thank Stephen S. Gao and Derek Wyman for the constructive suggestions on modifying the manuscript. There are no data sharing issues since all the numerical information is provided in the figures and movies that are produced by the equations in the appendixes with initial/boundary conditions and model parameters given in the paper. The datasets for Figures ",
year = "2019",
month = dec,
day = "1",
doi = "10.1029/2019JB018595",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "124",
pages = "13192--13206",
journal = "Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth",
issn = "2169-9313",
publisher = "American Geophysical Union",
number = "12",
}