Abstract
The Bohai Basin is a Cenozoic petroliferous extensional basin in China and has apparent geometrical and kinematic similarities with the other Meso-Cenozoic extensional basins located along the eastern margin of Eurasian Plate. However, the deformation mechanisms of the basin are still in dispute. Physcial modelling referring to the Huanghua Depression, located in the central part of the Bohai Basin was conducted employing four sets of planar sandbox experimental models with different extension directions. Only experimental results of the model with N-S extension show good structural similarity with the depression. The results also indicate that complex variations of fault strike in a rift basin are not necessarily the results of complex kinematic mechanisms or polyphase deformation. Based on comparison of experimental results with the actual structures and the good structural simi-larity between Huanghua Depression and the whole Bohai Basin, it is concluded that the Bohai Basin was formed by the N-S extension. The strike slip deformation along the NNE-trending border faults of the basin resulted from the N-S extension and played the role of lateral transformation for the N-S extension. In addition, according to the apparent geometrical and kinematic similarities among the Bohai Basin and other Meso-Cenozoic extensional basins located along the eastern margin of the Eurasian Plate, it is proposed that: (1) this “N-S extension” model provides a better kinematic inter-pretation for the formation of Bohai Basin and the other adjacent basins located along the eastern margin of the Eurasian Plate; and (2) the N-S extension was probably the effect of the “slab window” formed by the subduction of the nearly E-W trending oceanic ridge between the Kula and Pacific Plates. The “slab window” effect can also provide reasonable explanations for the phenomena that initial rifting ages of basins become progressively younger westwards along the eastern margin of the Eurasian Plate and that these basins changed gradually from rifting to thermal subduction.
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