Cratons are the stable units in the earth surface characterized by low heat flow pattern. From a geothermal point of view,areas of cratonic lithosphere are stable when surface heat flow is in equilibrium with the heat supply at the base of the lithosphere plus the heat generated by radioactive decay within the lithosphere. Many aspects could cause instability of the cratonic lithosphere, such as the radiogenic heat production within the lithosphere,mantle plumes, and subduction. The North China Craton (NCC) is a classic example of the destruction of an ancient craton,and the deep subduction of the Pacific Plate underneath East Asia is thought to have played a key role in its destruction. The ancient Pacific Plate subducted rapidly in the Mesozoic, and stagnated in the mantle transition zone. Hydrous Mg-Si minerals within the slab can continue to release fluids through dehydration reactions at the depth of the mantle transition zone,thereby forming a low-viscosity big mantle wedge (BMW) that can extend for up to 1 000 km from the Japan trench to East Asia. The combined thermal erosion via vigorous mantle convection and peridotite-melt interaction within the BMW may have resulted in significant thinning of the NCC lithosphere during the Mesozoic. The lithosphere after the Mesozoic erosion was becoming hotter and weaker relative to the cool and rigid ancient craton, meaning the entire NCC was becoming easier to deform. Slab rollback was initiated during the Late Cretaceous and was accompanied by extension of the thin and weak lithosphere,as well as the increasing of surface heat flow. Thus, the NCC destruction is a long-lasting process, when the heat flow was low at pre-Mesozoic, high in the Cenozoic,and medium (close to global continental average) at present.