Seismic sequence and depositional evolution of slope basins in mid-northern margin of the South China Sea

Abstract

As one of the biggest marginal seas in the western Pacific margin, the South China Sea (SCS) experienced continental rifting and seafloor spreading during the Cenozoic. The northern continental margin of the SCS is classified as a passive continental margin. However, its depositional and structural evolution remains controversial, especially in the deep slope area. The lack of data hindered the correlation between continental shelf and oceanic basin, and prevented the establishment of sequence stratigraphic frame of the whole margin. The slope basins in the mid-northern margin of SCS developed in the Cenozoic; the sediments and basin infill recorded the geological history of the continental margin and the SCS spreading. Using multi-channel seismic dataset acquired in three survey cruises during 1987 to 2004, combined with the data of ODP Leg 184 core and industrial wells, we carried out the sequence stratigraphic division and correlation of the Cenozoic in the middle-northern margin of SCS with seismic profiles and sedimentary facies. We interpreted the seismic reflection properties including continuity, amplitude, frequency, reflection terminals, and 15 sequence boundaries of the Cenozoic in the study area, and correlated the well data in geological age. The depositional environment changed from river and lake, shallow bay to open-deep sea, in correspondence to tectonic events of syn-rifting, early drifting, and late drifting stages of basin evolution.