Recent paleomagnetic investigations in North China have demonstrated that carbonate rocks from the lower parts of the Nanfen, Xinxing, and Liulaobei formations in the Liaodong-Xuhuai regions, as well as the upper part of the Jingeryu Formation in the Yanliao region, were deposited in high-latitude environments (> 70°) (Zhao et al., 2020, 2025). These results reveal that the Nanfen Formation and its stratigraphic equivalents (ca. 1100 Ma) constituted a vast high-latitude carbonate platform, extending across the eastern margin and interior of the North China craton. The existence of such a carbonate platform at high latitudes implies an unusual climatic regime during the mid-Proterozoic. Integrating with evidence of warm-water carbonate deposition at high latitudes in the Purana basins (ca. 1200 Ma) of southern India (de Kock et al., 2024), this high-latitude carbonate platform in North China supports the hypothesis of a greenhouse climate during the terminal Mesoproterozoic. These climatic conditions may have created a conducive environment for the rise of crown-group eukaryotes (e.g. Tang et al., 2020), offering new insights into the interactions between Earth’s lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere during the mid-Proterozoic.

This study was supported by the National Key Research and Development Project of China (2022YFF0800103), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC grants 42104066 and 41830215), the Fendamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2-9-2022-064 and 2652023001) and the Chinese “111” project B20011.

paleomagnetism,North China,Nanfen Formation,terminal Mesoproterozoic,high-latitude carbonate platform