Cretaceous–Palaeogene sedimentary evolution of the South China Sea region: A preliminary synthesis

Zhang, Gongcheng; Shao, Lei; Qiao, Peijun; Cao, Licheng; Pang, Xiong; Zhao, Zhidan; Xiang, Xuhong; Cui, Yuchi

doi:10.1002/gj.3533

Cited by 23 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 161 publications

(495 reference statements)

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“…Schematic model of the South China Sea preferred in this study. (Hall & Breitfeld, 2017; Shao et al, 2017; Zhang et al, 2019; Zhang, Wang, Wu, Liu, & Xie, 2015) [Colour figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]…”

Section: Materials and Brief Of Tectonic Evolutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The response of Cenozoic sedimentary evolution coupled with the formation of the South China Sea

et al. 2020

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We systematically expound the processes of Cenozoic sedimentary evolution in the South China Sea (SCS) regions by synthesizing relevant previous research and our own long-term sedimentological work. The process of changes in Cenozoic sedimentary environments and palaeogeography can be divided into three stages corresponding to the tectonic evolution of the SCS. Stage I, the formation and development of the Proto-South China Sea (Proto-SCS) from the Late Mesozoic to Early Cenozoic; the SCS was a vast erosion zone, and terrestrial lacustrine deposits were only distributed sporadically. Stage II, the subduction of the Proto-SCS and the opening of the SCS since the Late Eocene. The northern basins of the SCS gradually changed from terrestrial to marine environments. Southern basins were affected by the disappearance of the Proto-SCS in the early stage. The distribution of marine environments shrank in the Late Eocene-Early Oligocene, but as the SCS expanded, these marine environments gradually recovered. Stage III, the stagnation and atrophy of SCS expansion from the Late Miocene to the present. The sedimentary environment of the SCS is basically stable in this stage. The most prominent feature of sedimentary evolution is the development and destruction of carbonate platforms.

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Section: Materials and Brief Of Tectonic Evolutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The response of Cenozoic sedimentary evolution coupled with the formation of the South China Sea

et al. 2020

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“…The river system began to deliver abundant sediments after the Late Eocene and stretched eastward for thousands of kilometers. With subsequent transgressions in the Oligocene-Miocene, the 'Kontum-Ying-Qiong' River was submerged below the sea surface, and finally gave way to the newly-born Central Canyon, which continued to transport sediments eastward since the late Miocene (Pang et al, 2018;Zhang et al, 2019). As shown in Figure 4, sample W-1 from the Qiongdongnan Basin and IODP U1500B samples from the COT zone share very similar U-Pb age combination features.…”

Section: Provenances Of Hengchun Accretionary Prism Turbidite Sandstonesmentioning

confidence: 90%

Formation of Hengchun Accretionary Prism Turbidites and Implications for Deep‐water Transport Processes in the Northern South China Sea

Cui

Shao

et al. 2021

Acta Geologica Sinica (Eng)

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Located at the end of the northern Manila Trench, the Hengchun Peninsula is the latest exposed part of Taiwan Island, and preserves a complete sequence of accretionary deep-sea turbidite sandstones. Combined with extensive field observations, a 'source-to-sink' approach was employed to systematically analyze the formation and evolutionary process of the accretionary prism turbidites on the Hengchun Peninsula. Lying at the base of the Hengchun turbidites are abundant mafic normal oceanic crust gravels with a certain degree of roundness. The gravels with U-Pb ages ranging from 25.4 to 23.6 Ma are underlain by hundreds-of-meters thickness of younger deep-sea sandstone turbidites with interbedded gravels. This indicates that large amounts of terrigenous materials from both the 'Kontum-Ying-Qiong' River of Indochina and the Pearl River of South China were transported into the deep-water areas of the northern South China Sea during the late Miocene and further eastward in the form of turbidity currents. The turbidity flow drastically eroded and snatched mafic materials from the normal South China Sea oceanic crust along the way, and subsequently unloaded large bodies of basic gravel-bearing sandstones to form turbidites near the northern Manila Trench. With the Philippine Sea Plate drifting clockwise to the northwest, these turbidite successions eventually migrated and, since the Middle Pleistocene, were exposed as an accretionary prism on the Hengchun Peninsula.

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“…At 60~50 Ma, large-scale igneous activities and surface uplift occurred in the northern SCS due to the subduction of the expansive ridge (Seton et al, 2015). Microcontinental blocks, such as the Nansha-Palawan, accumulated on the southeastern margin of Eurasia in the early Cenozoic, and most of the northern SCS presented an uplift denudation environment (Shao et al, 2019a;Zhang et al, 2019b). In the Eocene, due to speed and direction of the deflection of the relative movement between the Pacific Plate and the Eurasian Plate, the regional geodynamic environment changed from compression to extension, which represented the dynamic source of SCS plate-edge rifting.…”

Section: Brief Description Of the Scs Plate-edge Rifting Processmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Transgression and regression have obvious control effects on the development of sedimentary facies and the generation and accumulation of oil and gas (Zhang et al 2019b). The sea-level changes in the northern SCS generally showed a gradually rising trend in the Cenozoic.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cenozoic Sea‐land Transition and its Petroleum Geological Significance in the Northern South China Sea

Zhao¹,

Zhang

Cui

et al. 2021

Acta Geologica Sinica (Eng)

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The process of Cenozoic sea-land changes in the northern South China Sea (SCS) controlled the sedimentary filling pattern and played an important role in the petroleum geological characteristics of the northern marginal sedimentary basins. Under the control of the opening process of the SCS, the northern SCS Cenozoic transgression generally showed the characteristics of early in the east and late in the west, and early in the south and late in the north. The initial transgression occurred in the Eocene in the Taixinan Basin (TXNB) of the eastern SCS, while the transgression occurred until the Pliocene in the Yinggehai Basin (YGHB) of the western SCS. International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) expeditions (Expeditions 367/368) revealed that the initial transgression of the SCS basin occurred at approximately 34 Ma, which was the initial opening time of the SCS. The period of drastic changes in the sedimentary environment caused by large-scale transgression corresponded to the opening time of the southwestern subbasin (approximately 23 Ma), which also represented the peak of the spreading of the SCS. The sea-land transition process controls the distribution of alternating continent-marine facies, marine facies source rocks and reservoirs in the basins. The marine facies source rocks of the basins in the northern SCS have a trend of gradually becoming younger from east to west, which is consistent with the regional process of gradual transgression from east to west. Regional sea-level changes were comprehensively influenced by SCS opening and global sea-level changes. These processes led to the early development in the east and south and late development in the west and north for the carbonate platform in the SCS. Carbonate platforms form another type of "selfgenerating and self-accumulating" oil-gas reservoir in the northern SCS. The sea-land transition controlled the depositional filling patterns of different basins and laid the foundation of marine deposits for oil and gas resources. The source-reservoircap assemblage in the northern SCS was controlled horizontally by provenance supply and sedimentary environmental changes caused by sea-land transition and vertically by the tectonic evolution of the SCS and regional sea-level changes.

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Cretaceous–Palaeogene sedimentary evolution of the South China Sea region: A preliminary synthesis

Cited by 23 publications

References 161 publications

The response of Cenozoic sedimentary evolution coupled with the formation of the South China Sea

The response of Cenozoic sedimentary evolution coupled with the formation of the South China Sea

Formation of Hengchun Accretionary Prism Turbidites and Implications for Deep‐water Transport Processes in the Northern South China Sea

Cenozoic Sea‐land Transition and its Petroleum Geological Significance in the Northern South China Sea

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