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Multistage geomorphic evolution of the Central Canyon in the Qiongdongnan Basin, NW South China Sea

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Abstract

Seismic reflection data were used to investigate the multiple stages of headward erosion, incision, and sedimentation on the initiation and evolution of the Central Canyon, a Late Miocene-Pliocene continental slope-parallel canyon on the northwestern margin of the South China Sea. Secondary channels of the early stage generally display deep, V-shaped cross-sectional morphologies, indicating that vertical erosion was dominant in the early stage of canyon formation, while later-phase secondary channels have shallow, U-shaped cross sections, indicating that sedimentation dominated in the late stage. Influenced by gradual sea-level rise, headward erosion shifted the Central Canyon head from the Qiongdongnan Basin to the southeastern margin of the Yinggehai Basin. The length of headward erosion is up to 140 km, equivalent to one-fourth of the total length of the Central Canyon (525 km). The thalweg depth, height, and width of the Central Canyon increases down canyon from 2723 m, 164 m, and 2 km to 5318 m, 1023 m, and 16 km, respectively. This increase is gradual on gently-sloping palaeoseafloor, and more abrupt on steep-gradient palaeoseafloor. Canyon segments on gently-sloping palaeoseafloor are also characterised by a good correlation between canyon height and width. The sediments fill in the Central Canyon differ across the canyon’s segments. Turbidites and debrites infill the upstream segment of the Central Canyon. Turbidites and Mass-transport deposits are widespread in the middle reaches of the Central Canyon. The typical feature of the Central Canyon’s downstream segment is under-compensation, and canyon wall collapse are common in the upper fill of the downstream segment. We reconstruct the multistage evolution of the Central Canyon as comprising primary erosion, burial, renewed erosion, infilling, and abandonment stages. This multistage evolution was mainly controlled by relative sea-level fluctuations of the Qiongdongnan Basin.

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source due to headward erosion, and was widened due to lateral erosion. D The deeply incised canyon acted as a conduit for the throughput of gravity flows. These filled the incised canyon thus completing the main Central Canyon infilling. Subsequently, recurrent gravity flows eroded and reworked the early infills, resulting in multiphase secondary channels and inner-levee deposits. E In the late stage of the canyon’s evolution, the upper part of the middle reaches of the Central Canyon was filled by hemipelagic mudstone and mass-transport deposits

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Data availability

Research data in this article can be found online at https://doi.org/10.17632/4kmdbvhspr.1. These data include the depth of the canyon thalweg and canyon wall, the height and width of the Central Canyon, the Central Canyon’s aspect ratio (width/height), and gradient described in this article.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the Research Institute of the CNOOC for providing the seismic reflection and well-log data and permission to use and publish this proprietary data.

Funding

This study was financially supported by the National Science and Technology Major Project of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (Grant Number: 2016ZX05026-007-05).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    Chao Li, Guojun Chen, Qianshan Zhou, Chengze Li & Chengfu Lyu

  2. Key Laboratory of Petroleum Resources, Gansu Province, Lanzhou, 730000, China

    Chao Li, Guojun Chen, Qianshan Zhou & Chengfu Lyu

  3. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Chengze Li

  4. Research Institute of China National Offshore Oil Corporation, Beijing, 100028, China

    Rui Sun & Shuai Guo

Authors
  1. Chao Li
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  2. Guojun Chen
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  3. Qianshan Zhou
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  4. Chengze Li
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Contributions

CL conceived the original idea, conducted all data analyses, including seismic interpretations and prepared the manuscript. GJC acquisited funding and administered the project. QSZ assisted in the writing of the manuscript. CZL assisted in the revising of the manuscript. RS provided seismic dataset. CFL assisted in proof-reading. SG helped in the interpretation of seismic data. All authors contributed to the writing, design and content of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Qianshan Zhou.

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Li, C., Chen, G., Zhou, Q. et al. Multistage geomorphic evolution of the Central Canyon in the Qiongdongnan Basin, NW South China Sea. Mar Geophys Res 42, 27 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11001-021-09448-8

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