craton. There were thick sediments deposited from Neoproterozoic (1000 to 539 million years ago). The flat-lying Palaeozoic sedimentary rocks recorded extinction and evolution. The center of the craton remained stable until mid-Ordovician (467-458 million years ago), due to the discovery of xenoliths in the older lithosphere in kimberlite dykes. Since then, the North China Craton entered period of craton destruction, meaning that the craton was no longer stable. Most scientists defined destruction of a craton as thinning of lithosphere, thus losing rigidity and stability. A large-scale lithosphere thinning event took place especially in the Eastern Block of the craton, resulting in large-scale deformations and earthquakes in the region. Gravity gradient showed that the Eastern Block remains thin up till present day. The mechanism and timing of craton destruction is still under debate. Scientists proposed four important deformation events that could possibly lead to or contributed to craton destruction, namely subduction and closure of Paleo-Asian Ocean in Carboniferous to Jurassic (324-236 million years ago), late Triassic collision of the Yangtze Craton and North China Craton (240-210 million years ago), Jurassic subduction of the Paleo-Pacific Plate (200-100 million years ago) and Cretaceous collapse of orogens (130-120 million years ago). As for the destabilisation mechanism, 4 models could be generalised. They are the subduction model, the extension model the magma underplating mode, and the lithospheric folding model. Timeline of craton destruction There were several major tectonic events occurring in the Phanerozoic, especially in the margins of the Eastern Block. Some of them were hypothesized to have caused the destruction of the craton. Carboniferous to Middle Jurassic (324-236 million years ago) --- Subduction and closure of Paleo-Asian Ocean. Subduction zones were located in the northern margin where continents grew through accretion. Solonker suture was resulted and Palaeoasian ocean was therefore closed. There were 2 phases of magma up-welling, one occurred 324-270 million years ago, while another occurred 262-236 million years ago. Rocks such as syncollisional granites, metamorphic core complexes, granitoids were produced with magma from partial melts of the Precambrian rocks. Since marine sediments were found in most part of the craton, except for the northern part, it can be concluded that the craton was still relatively stable after this deformation event. Late Triassic (240-210 million years ago) --- Assembly of the North China Craton and the Yang Tze Craton. Suture between the North China Craton and the Yang Tze Craton was caused by