Progress and prospects of research on the Quaternary sedimentary environment in the eastern shelf of China

The eastern shelf of China is located in the transitional zone between the Asian continent and the western Pacific Ocean. It is an important link connecting the largest sedimentary source-sink system in the world, and bears many important information on tectonic deformation in East Asia, the formation and evolution of the Asian monsoon system, sea level changes and major water system changes in East Asia. Based on the review of previous studies and the new data obtained from marine projects in China during the last two decades, this paper reviews the Quaternary sedimentary environmental changes in the eastern shelf of China, mainly focusing on changes in marine transgression and regression cycles, and discusses the connection between the Quaternary sedimentary environment in eastern shelf of China and regional tectonic, sea level and East Asian monsoon climate changes. Based on the previous sedimentary source-sink studies in the Yangtze and Yellow River basins and the shelf area, we discuss the timing of penetrating into the sea of the Yangtze and Yellow rivers and controlling factors. We propose that the coupling mechanism of the geological environment evolution in the eastern shelf of China with Asian tectonic deformation, monsoon system evolution, sea-level change, major water system adjustment and carbon burial since the Cenozoic is a key scientific goal for future scientific drilling in the eastern shelf of China.