Proto-Basin Types of North China Craton (NCC) in Late Triassic and Its Implication for Regional Tectonics of Initial Craton Destruction

Abstract

As a long-term geological process with widespread influence, destruction of the North China Craton (NCC) displays many important geological phenomena and attracts interest of many domestic and overseas researchers engaged in geology, geochemistry and geophysics, etc. The NCC has its own attributes of occurrence and development. Its destruction may have connections with the activities of YYOB and QDOB respectively, distributed in the north and the south, as well as with the subduction between Indian plate and Pacific plate. Even though the inhomogeneity of the destruction process becomes prominent in terms of time, space and destruction intensity, significant disputes still exist on several specific problems. The peak period of NCC destruction was in late Jurassic-early Cretaceous. However, there are various opinions concerning the determination of beginning stage, e. g. 1) late Triassic (Menzies et al., 1998; Gao et al., 2002; Lu Fengxiang et al., 2000; Yang Jinhui et al., 2009); 2) late Mesozoic (Deng Jinfu et al.,1994; Wu Fuyuan et al., 1999; Zhai Mingguo et al., 2003; Lu Fengxiang et al.,2006); 3) Cenozoic (Menzies et al., 1993; Griffin et al., 1998; Xu, 2001) and Meso-Cenozoic (Xu Wenliang et al., 2000); or even in 4) late Paleozoic (Xu Yigang et al., 2009; Li Hongyan et al., 2009). The range of NCC destruction is in the east of the gravity gradient zone of (from Daxing’anling Mountains to) Taihangshan Mountains (Xu Yigang et al., 2006) , according to other opinions, or already had moved westward to nearby of Luliangshan Mountain (Ren Zhanli et al., 2005; Xiao Yuanyuan et al., 2007) around the Shanxi province as transitional or conversional area (Xing Zuoyun et al., 2006). The destruction intensity is getting gradually stronger from west to east, extremely severe in the east (Wei Wenbo et al., 2008), stable in the western Ordos area which remains as typical craton without disturbance in its deep layer by NCC destruction (Qiu Ruizhao et al., 2004; Jia Shixu et al., 2005). NCC destruction, as a geological process, was a kind of gradually