The Earth’s interior and surficial systems underwent dramatic changes during the Paleoproterozoic, but the interaction between them remains poorly understood. Rocks deposited in orogenic foreland basins retain a record of the near surface to deep crustal processes that operate during subduction to collision and provide information on the interaction between plate tectonics and surface responses through time. Here, we document the depositional-to-deformational life cycle of a Paleoproterozoic foreland succession from the North China Craton. The succession was deposited in a foreland basin following ca. 2.50–2.47 Ga Altaid-style arc–microcontinent collision, and then converted to a fold-and-thrust belt at ca. 2.0–1.8 Ga due to Himalayan-style continent–continent collision. These two periods correspond to the assembly of supercratons in the late Archean and of the Paleoproterozoic supercontinent Columbia, respectively, which suggests that similar basins may have been common at the periphery of other cratons. The multiple stages of orogenesis and accompanying tectonic denudation and silicate weathering, as recorded by orogenic foreland basins, likely contributed to substantial changes in the hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere known to have occurred during the Paleoproterozoic.

地球的内部和表面系统在古元古代经历了巨大的变化，但它们之间的相互作用仍然知之甚少。沉积在造山前陆盆地的岩石保留了近地表到深部地壳过程的记录，这些过程在俯冲到碰撞过程中进行，并提供了板块构造和地表响应随时间的相互作用的信息。在这里，我们记录了华北克拉通古元古代前陆序列的沉积到变形的生命周期。该层系在大约 10 年后沉积在前陆盆地中。 2.50–2.47 Ga阿尔泰式弧-微大陆碰撞，然后在约1500年转变为褶皱逆冲带。 2.0–1.8 Ga，归因于喜马拉雅式大陆与大陆碰撞。这两个时期分别对应于太古代晚期和古元古代超大陆哥伦比亚的超级克拉通的聚集，这表明类似的盆地可能在其他克拉通的外围很常见。造山运动的多个阶段以及伴随的构造剥蚀和硅酸盐风化，如造山前陆盆地所记录的，可能导致了古元古代发生的水圈、大气和生物圈的重大变化。