Precambrian metamorphic basement and sedimentary cover of the North China Craton: A review

Abstract

The North China Craton is the largest and oldest of the three cratons in China (i.e. North China, South China and Tarim Cratons). It consists of an Archean and Paleoproterozoic metamorphic basement and overlying Mesoproterozoic unmetamorphosed sedimentary cover. A recently proposed model for the evolution of the North China Craton envisages discrete Eastern and Western Blocks that developed independently during the Archean and collided along the Trans-North China Orogen during a Paleoproterozoic collisional event, conventionally named the Lüliangian Orogeny. The Lüliangian Orogeny is one of the most important events in the Precambrian evolution of the North China Craton and is considered to be part of the global-scale 2.0–1.8 Ga collisional events that led to the assembly of a Paleo-Mesoproterozoic Columbia supercontinent. Voluminous and thick-layered clastic rocks and carbonates were deposited in the interior or on the margins of the North China Craton following its final amalgamation at ∼1.85 Ga. In addition, a series of rifting events took place in the North China Craton between 1.8 and 1.6 Ga, which may have been related to the dispersal of the supercontinent Columbia. Platformal carbonates with abundant stromatolites are predominant in the Mesoproterozoic to Cambrian strata of the craton, but no glacial deposits similar to the Nantuo Tillite of the Yangtze Craton were developed in the North China Craton in the Neoproterozoic. The North China Craton also did not undergo extensive Neoproterozoic thermo-tectonic events as those in the Tarim and Yangtze Cratons, suggesting that the North China Craton was not involved in the same tectonic processes during the assembly and break-up of the Rodinia supercontinent.