“…Situated on the junction of three major Phanerozoic tectonic domains, namely the Paleo-Asian Ocean Tectonic Domain, the Western Pacific Tectonic Domain, and the Tethys Tectonic Domain in the north, east, and south, respectively, the eastern North China Block (NCB) experienced a great tectonic regime transition (Zhao et al, 1994(Zhao et al, , 2004aRen et al, 1997;Zhai et al, 2004aZhai et al, , 2004bLi et al, 2007bLi et al, , 2012 and evident lithospheric thinning or destruction (Windley et al, 2010;Zhu et al, 2011;Zhu et al, 2012aZhu et al, , 2012b, and references therein) during the Mesozoic Era under a complex tectonic setting. The NCB has thus been a hotspot for geodynamic studies.…”