“…The North Yellow Sea Basin is an important new area of oil and gas exploration in China and there have emerged different views on the nature and prototype of the basin (Cai, 1998;Li et al, 2003;Dai, 2003;Tian et al, 2004;Ma et al, 2005;Chen et al, 2006;Cao et al, 2007;Gong et al, 2009;Wang et al, 2010;Yuan et al, 2010). Based on our research (Li et al, 2006a(Li et al, ,b, 2009bLi, 2007), structural geometry and evolution, kinematics, and sedimentology, the prototype and existing type of the North Yellow Sea Mesozoic and Cenozoic Basin is discussed in this paper.…”