STRUCTURAL FEATURES AND EVOLUTIONARY STAGES OF THE WESTERN DEPRESSION OF THE NORTH YELLOW SEA BASIN

The North Yellow Sea Basin is located in the southeastern part of the North China Platform. It is bounded by the Liaodong uplift to the north, and the northern Korean block to the east. The Basin is subdivided into six distinguished sub-grade tectonic units. The western depression, lying in the west part of the basin, is a sub-unit with complicated structural features. There are five main faults and some subordinate faults, including extensional, transpressional and reverse faults, dominated by the normal, as the results of the multiple stages of tectonic evolution of the North Yellow Sea Basin from Mesozoic to Cenozoic, which consists of the stages of Mesozoic rift-depression, Paleocene superimposed rifting and Neocene depression.