The three-dimensional geomorphologic map of China Seas and adjacent regions:design and practice

The 《Geomorphologic Map of China Seas and Adjacent Regions》 is a present topographic map expressed by painting skills. It was compiled following the principle of "one map of three expression options". The shadow method is adopted for land area, and the pictographic method adopted for continental shelves, while the 3D compositional drawing method is used for the vast areas of deep sea. The original scale is 1:2 million, whereas the vertical scale is 20 times exaggerated. The map is made of in two steps: Drew pencil sketches first and then decorated with colors. All were drawn by hand. Shown on the map are the geomorphologic features of the southeastern Eurasian plate, the continental plate edge, and the Philippine Sea plate. The formation of the landscape of the area is driven by two plate boundaries, i.e. the Himalayan collision zone and West Pacific Subduction Zone. In the eastern part of China, it was dominated by the old E-W structure, superimposed by Cenozoic structures in NNE direction, and thus formed a grid-like tectonic landforms. Owing to the subduction of the Pacific Plate under the Eurasia, the Japanese basins and the Okinawa Trough were pulled apart and formed the 2 sets of trench-arc-basin systems. The South China Sea Basin was formed by the opening of the continent margin, when the Philippine arc moved north under rotation to make the South China Sea a marginal sea. The northern part of the Philippines arc collided with the island of Taiwan and resulted in the rise of the Central Mountain Range, The ocean crust thrusted onto the land and formed the Coastal Mountains. The Longitudinal Valley of Taiwan is in fact a plate suture, and the Philippine Sea plate a part of the Pacific plate. Driven by repeated subduction of oceanic crusts following fractures, formed trench-arc-basin topography along the oceanic margin.