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Abstract

The present day’s thermal lithospheric thickness is usually calculated by one or two-dimensional steady-state heat conduction equation. Using the latest measured heat flow data of the North China Craton(NCC) and the one-dimensional steady-state heat conduction equation, the calculated thermal lithospheric thickness of the NCC is between 34.8-190 km. There are some regions, whose lithosphere is very thin, and the lithosphere adjacent to them is very thick, so the bottom boundary of the lithosphere fluctuates greatly. The last thinning of the NCC stopped at~24 Ma and then entered the thermal subsidence period. To study whether the fluctuates of the bottom boundary of the lithosphere can be maintained during the long-term thermal subsidence process, a thermal subsidence model was established. The modeling results show that after the thermal subsidence of 24 Ma, the fluctuates of the bottom boundary of the lithosphere are difficult to maintain, and the present day’s thermal lithospheric thickness of the NCC should not exceed 73 km, and the maximum surface heat flow value of the NCC is 75.6 mW·m^-2 due to the deep thermal state. The high heat flows anomaly in the NCC is more caused by shallow activities and cannot reflect the deep thermal state. After correction, the current thermal lithospheric thickness of the North China craton is ~73-190 km, and the bottom boundary of the lithosphere changes gently.