The principal characteristics of the lithosphere of China

The lithospheric structure of China and its adjacent area is very complex and is marked by several prominent characteristics. Firstly, China’s continental crust is thick in the west but thins to the east, and thick in the south but thins to the north. Secondly, the continental crust of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau has an average thickness of 60–65 km with a maximum thickness of 80 km, whereas in eastern China the average thickness is 30–35 km, with a minimum thickness of only 5 km in the center of the South China Sea. The average thickness of continental crust in China is 47.6 km, which greatly exceeds the global average thickness of 39.2 km. Thirdly, as with the crust, the lithosphere of China and its adjacent areas shows a general pattern of thicker in the west and south, and thinner in the east and north. The lithosphere of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau and northwestern China has an average thickness of 165 km, with a maximum thickness of 180–200 km in the central and eastern parts of the Tarim Basin, Pamir, and Changdu areas. In contrast, the vast areas to the east of the Da Hinggan Ling–Taihang–Wuling Mountains, including the marginal seas, are characterized by lithospheric thicknesses of only 50–85 km. Fourthly, in western China the lithosphere and asthenosphere behave as a “layered structure”, reflecting their dynamic background of plate collision and convergence. The lithosphere and asthenosphere in eastern China display a “block mosaic structure”, where the lithosphere is thin and the asthenosphere is very thick, a pattern reflecting the consequences of crustal extension and an upsurge of asthenospheric materials. The latter is responsible for a huge low velocity anomaly at a depth of 85–250 km beneath East Asia and the western Pacific Ocean. Finally, in China there is an age structure of “older in the upper layers and younger in the lower layers” between both the upper and lower crusts and between the crust and the lithospheric mantle.