Geochemical snapshots of the North China Craton destruction: from mantle to crust

The eastern part of the North China Craton (NCC) underwent massive destruction during the Mesozoic, likely driven by the subduction of the paleo-Pacific plate. We employed recently calibrated geochemical proxies to quantify the thickness evolution of the lithospheric mantle and crust in the eastern NCC during the Mesozoic. We find that the thinning of the eastern NCC lithosphere took place between 130 and 120 Ma. This process likely occurred on an extremely short timescale of less than 10 million years and was most plausibly driven by lithospheric delamination. Concurrently, detrital zircon analyses reveal that the eastern NCC crust first underwent Jurassic crustal thickening, probably due to the low-angle subduction of the paleo-Pacific plate. Intense crustal thickening likely formed a widespread high plateau in the eastern NCC--the ENC plateau. This plateau later collapsed during the Early Cretaceous, coinciding with the rapid lithospheric thinning. We suggest that the NCC lithosphere delamination and the ENC plateau collapse are both linked to the rollback of the paleo-Pacific plate. These findings highlight the interplay of lithospheric mantle and crustal dynamics during the NCC destruction.