GEOLOGICAL OUTLINE AND TECTONIC EVOLUTION OF CHINA SEAS AND ADJACENT AREAS

The stratigraphy, fault, magmatism and tectonic evolution of China seas and adjacent areas are discussed in this paper based on the gravity, magnetic and seismic data collected for the past ten years. The results indicate that the part of the Eurasian Plate in the China seas and adjacent areas can be further divided into the East Asian continent domain and the East Asian continental margin domain with complex geological structures. Basins, faults and magmatic rocks are well developed. The Indosinian movement, which founded the China seas and adjacent areas, marks the transition of the papeo-global tectonic stage to the neo-global tectonic stage. The evolution of the paleo-global tectonic stage started from the north and gradually expanded to the south in a pattern of older in north and younger in south. The neo-global tectonic stage, however, was developed from south to north and from west to east, in a pattern of older in south and west and younger in north and east. From the paleo-global tectonic stage to the neo-global tectonic stage, different blocks and regions show certain time difference even the evolutionary pattern is similar.