The Thinnest Crust in South China Associated With the Cretaceous Lithospheric Extension: Evidence From SINOPROBE Seismic Reflection Profiling

Abstract

AbstractLong‐standing debates exist over the mechanism of continental lithospheric extension and, more specifically, over the strain distribution across the lithosphere in intraplate settings. The Cretaceous extensional system in South China extends up to ∼800 km inboard of the Paleo‐Pacific convergent margin and enables investigation of the mechanism(s) of intraplate lithospheric extension. Here we use high‐resolution seismic reflection data to image the crustal and upper‐mantle architecture of the central segment of the extensional system. We identify a compositionally stratified upper lithosphere that has undergone depth‐dependent extension, expressed by heterogeneous normal faulting in the upper crust, widely distributed ductile stretching in the lower crust, mantle influx into the crust, a broadly smooth Moho with localized uplift, and mantle shear‐zone generation. We detect, beneath the center of the Ganzhou Rift, the thinnest crust (28–30 km thick) in South China. It spatially correlates with the locus of strong lithospheric thinning and asthenospheric upwelling. We suggest that the generation of the thinnest crust was assisted by lower‐crustal ductile stretching, mantle shearing, and exhumation during depth‐dependent extension. Our study provides insights into the partitioning of depth‐dependent extensional strain into an intraplate stratified lithosphere and the feedback between crustal and mantle processes that shaped the thinnest crust at a position ∼300 km inboard of the convergent margin during continental extension.