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Structural differences between the western and eastern Qiongdongnan Basin: evidence of Indochina block extrusion and South China Sea seafloor spreading

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Abstract

Located at the intersection between a NW-trending slip system and NE-trending rift system in the northern South China Sea, the Qiongdongnan Basin provides key clues for us to understand the proposed extrusion of the Indochina Block along with Red River Fault Zone and extensional margins. In this paper we for the first time systematically reveal the striking structural differences between the western and eastern sector of the Qiongdongnan Basin. Influenced by the NW-trending slip faults, the western Qiongdongnan Basin developed E–W-trending faults, and was subsequently inverted at 30–21 Ma. The eastern sector was dominated by faults with NE orientation before 30 Ma, and thereafter with various orientations from NE, to EW and NW during the period 30–21 Ma; rifting display composite symmetric graben instead of the composite half graben or asymmetric graben in the west. The deep and thermal structures in turn are invoked to account for such deformation differences. The lithosphere of the eastern Qiongdongnan Basin is very hot and thinned because of mantle upwelling and heating, composite symmetric grabens formed and the faults varied with the basal plate boundary. However, the Southern and Northern Uplift area and middle of the central depression is located on normal lithosphere and formed half grabens or simple grabens. The lithosphere in the western sector is transitional from very hot to normal. Eventually, the Paleogene tectonic development of the Qiongdongnan Basin may be summarized into three stages with dominating influences, the retreat of the West Pacific subduction zone (44–36 Ma), slow Indochina block extrusion together with slab-pull of the Proto-South China Sea (36–30 Ma), rapid Indochina block extrusion together with the South China Sea seafloor spreading (30–21 Ma).

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Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge the Institute of Petroleum Exploration and Development, Nanhai West Oil Corporation of China National Offshore Oil Company for providing the geological data. Dr. Ming Su provided many constructive suggestions in his review of the paper, which were much appreciated. We are grateful to two anonymous reviewers for their thorough comments on the manuscript. This study was jointly supported financially by the National Science and Technology Major Project (2011ZX05025-002-01), Young Scientists Fund of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41106055), Young Talents Frontier Program of South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. SQ201010), and the open Foundation of Key laboratory of Submarine Geosciences, State Oceanic Administration (KLSG1101).

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  1. Key Laboratory of Marginal Sea Geology, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, China Academy of Sciences, 164 W. Xingang Road, Guangzhou, 510301, China

    Cuimei Zhang, Zhen Sun, Jianbao Liu & Zhangwen Wang

  2. China National Offshore Oil Corporation Ltd., Corporation, Zhanjiang, 524057, China

    Zhenfeng Wang & Zhipeng Sun

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  1. Cuimei Zhang
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  2. Zhenfeng Wang
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Correspondence to Cuimei Zhang.

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Zhang, C., Wang, Z., Sun, Z. et al. Structural differences between the western and eastern Qiongdongnan Basin: evidence of Indochina block extrusion and South China Sea seafloor spreading. Mar Geophys Res 34, 309–323 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11001-013-9187-3

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