Review on lithospheric thickness research of the Chinese continent

Lithospheric thicknesses determined from different physical properties have different geodynamic significances.The effective elastic thickness of continent can correspond to only a part of the lithosphere,not to the total lithosphere.Seismic information of the lithosphere provides high resolution,but a short-time elastic effect.Thermal information of the lithosphere shows long-time effects, and therefore the thermal definition of the base of the lithosphere is better than the definition using other information.A seismic-thermal definition of the base of the lithosphere uses temperature from inverted seismic velocities,and thus has advantages of thermal and seismic definitions,and provides a more reasonable estimate of lithosphere thickness.The distribution of the seismic-thermal lithosphere thickness within the Chinese continent is very complex and shows the following properties:(1) eastern China,including the northeast China,the Sino-Korean craton,the east Yangtze craton and the south China orogen,has thin lithosphere with a thickness of ~100 km;(2) the lithospheric bases of the Qinghai-Tibet plateau and south to the Tarim craton are at a depth range of about 160～220 km and show strong lateral variation;(3) the lithospheric thicknesses of three large China cratons are different,e.g.,~170 km for the core of the Yangtze,~140 km for the Tarim,and ~100 km for the Sino-Korean;(4) the variations in lithospheric thickness do not show obvious correlation with crustal geologic age,but do show dependence on tectonic settings.