supported by the Innovative Project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. KZCX2-YW-Q05-05-03);the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants Nos. 90714007,40872142)
Unlike most Precambrian cratons that have thick sub-continental lithospheric roots,the Archean lithosphere beneath the North China Craton is thin (reduced from 200 km to about 80 km),and has been replaced by a geochem...