Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 88 (2014) 28–40

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Journal of Asian Earth Sciences

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Cenozoic tectonic jumping and implications for hydrocarbonaccumulation in basins in the East Asia Continental Margin

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jseaes.2014.02.0191367-9120/� 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

⇑ Corresponding author at: College of Marine Geosciences, Ocean University ofChina, No. 238, Songling Road, Qingdao 266100, Shandong Province, China. Tel.: +86532 66781971 (O).

E-mail address: sanzhong@ouc.edu.cn (S. Li).

Yanhui Suo a,b, Sanzhong Li a,b,⇑, Shan Yu a,b, Ian D. Somerville c, Xin Liu a,b, Shujuan Zhao a,b, Liming Dai a,b

a College of Marine Geosciences, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266100, Chinab Key Lab of Submarine Geosciences and Exploration Techniques, Ministry of Education, Qingdao 266100, Chinac UCD School of Geological Sciences, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland

a r t i c l e i n f o

Article history:Received 13 November 2013Received in revised form 14 February 2014Accepted 16 February 2014Available online 5 March 2014

Keywords:East AsiaTectonic migrationPlate marginIntraplateInterplateDeep-seated tectonic processesHydrocarbon accumulation

a b s t r a c t

Tectonic migration is a common geological process of basin formation and evolution. However, little isknown about tectonic migration in the western Pacific margins. This paper focuses on the representativeCenozoic basins of East China and its surrounding seas in the western Pacific domain to discuss the phe-nomenon of tectonic jumping in Cenozoic basins, based on structural data from the Bohai Bay Basin, theSouth Yellow Sea Basin, the East China Sea Shelf Basin, and the South China Sea Continental Shelf Basin.The western Pacific active continental margin is the eastern margin of a global convergent system involv-ing the Eurasian Plate, the Pacific Plate, and the Indian Plate. Under the combined effects of the India-Eur-asia collision and retrogressive or roll-back subduction of the Pacific Plate, the western Pacific activecontinental margin had a wide basin-arc-trench system which migrated or ‘jumped’ eastward and furtheroceanward. This migration and jumping is characterized by progressive eastward younging of faulting,sedimentation, and subsidence within the basins. Owing to the tectonic migration, the geological condi-tions associated with hydrocarbon and gashydrate accumulation in the Cenozoic basins of East China andits adjacent seas also become progressively younger from west to east, showing eastward younging in thegeneration time of reservoirs, seals, traps, accumulations and preservation of hydrocarbon and gashy-drate. Such a spatio-temporal distribution of Cenozoic hydrocarbon and gashydrate is significant forthe oil, gas and gashydrate exploration in the East Asian Continental Margin. Finally, this study discussesthe mechanism of Cenozoic intrabasinal and interbasinal tectonic migration in terms of interplate, intra-plate and underplating processes. The migration or jumping regimes of three separate or interrelatedevents: (1) tectonism-magmatism, (2) basin formation, and (3) hydrocarbon-gashydrate accumulationare the combined effects of the Late Mesozoic extrusion tectonics, the Cenozoic NW-directed crustalextension, and the regional far-field eastward flow of the western asthenosphere due to the India-Eurasiaplate collision, accompanied by eastward jumping and roll-back of subduction zones of the Pacific Plate.

� 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

The continental margin has attracted an increasing amount ofattention by geologists internationally. Some international pro-grams such as the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP), theInternational Ocean Discovery Program (IODP), the Mid-oceanRidge Program (Inter-Ridge) and the International ContinentalMargin Program (Inter-Margins), have made the continental mar-ginal evolution and mechanism an important research topic whichhas led to some remarkable achievements (Cawood, 2005; Li, 2008;

Li et al., 2009a,b). In addition, due to the abundance in natural re-sources of the basins in or near the continental margins, these ba-sins have attracted many researchers and companies focusing onthe economic exploration. In the latter case, many drilling wellsand seismic profiles have been recently carried out, further reveal-ing the tectonic evolution of basins on continental margins.

The marginal seas are also an important tectonic unit of activecontinental margins, particularly those in the western Pacific ac-tive continental margin. Notably, tectonic eastward jumping ofthe marginal basins has been recognized as affecting rocks ofMesozoic and younger age (Maruyama et al., 2009). As an impor-tant marginal basin, the East China Sea Basin has provided us withan important opportunity, combined with other related non-mar-ginal basins in its adjacent area such as the Bohai Bay Basin, YellowSea basins and South China Sea Basin, for discussing the detailed

Y. Suo et al. / Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 88 (2014) 28–40 29

interaction of plates around the western Pacific, their evolutionand the geodynamic mechanism of continental marginal seas, uti-lizing a wealth of new structural data (Li, 2008).

Tectonic migration or tectonic jumping is a widespread geolog-ical phenomenon during basin formation and evolution, includingmigrations of the geodynamic environment. It involves basin fault-ing, volcanism, sedimentation, depocenters, and accumulation ofoil and gas, all of which have the same migration direction as thatof the tectonic evolution of the basins (Wang, 1988; Jiang, 2009).Therefore, tectonic migration is a comprehensive phenomenon ofvarious temporal and spatial migrations of geological elements. Itcan be divided into deformation migration, magmatism migration,depositional migration, metamorphism migration, and mineraliza-tion migration, based on the younging in time and jumping inspace of the same geological processes, and each of them includessome secondary phenomenon of migration. For example, deforma-tion migration includes faulting migration, folding migration, rif-ting migration, and subsidence migration in space and time. Jiangand Zhu (1992) defined the tectonic migration theory based on ac-tual geological data from the orogens in China and its adjacentareas. Some basic concepts such as ‘tectonic migration zone’, ‘tec-tonic migration period’, and ‘tectonic migration direction’ are pro-posed in this tectonic migration theory, which also provided adetailed quantitative methods for tectonic migration, geodynam-ics, and thermodynamic research (Jiang and Zhu, 1992), and it iswidely used in various aspects of geology (Oleg et al., 1994;

Fig. 1. Present tectonic framework of East China and its adjacent areas. In main map: SLNorth Yellow Sea Basin, SYSB – South Yellow Sea Basin, JHB – Jianghan Basin, ECSSB – EasShelf Basin; YB –Yinggehai Basin; ELbg – Erlian basin group, SECbg – Southeast China basiIn inset map: EP – Eurasian Plate; IAP – Indian-Australian Plate; PP – Pacific Plate; PSP

Giacomo et al., 2010). Jiang and Zhu (1992) further suggested thatChina and its adjacent areas can be divided into four tectonicmigration zones: (i) Central Asia-Mongolia, (ii) Tarim, (iii) Qing-hai-Tibet Plateau, and (iv) the western Pacific coastal zone. How-ever, little is known about the detailed tectonic migration in thewestern Pacific coastal zone, except for the lateral coastward tec-tonic migration from west to east.

Because Jiang and Zhu (1992) had few geological data on thewestern Pacific coastal zone, we have made intensive and system-atic work on the Bohai Bay Basin (BBB), the North Yellow Sea Basin(NYSB), the South Yellow Sea Basin (SYSB), the East China Sea ShelfBasin (ECSSB), and the South China Sea Continental Shelf Basin(SCSCSB) in the past decade. Combined with previous results(Wang, 1986, 1990), and based on our long-term study of these ba-sins, this paper focuses on the western Pacific Continental Marginto decipher temporal and spatial characteristics of some represen-tative structural and hydrocarbon-accumulated migration in thebasins of East China and its neighboring areas.

2. Tectonic setting and regional geology

East China and its adjacent areas are located in the eastern mar-gin of the Eurasian Plate surrounded by the Indian-Australian Plateto the south, and the Pacific and the Philippine Sea plates to the east.In this region there developed a series of large-scale, active, andNE-trending trench-arc-basin systems since the Late Cretaceous.

B-Songliao Basin, BBB – Bohai Bay Basin, SNCB – South North China Basin, NYSB –t China Sea Shelf Basin, OT – Okinawa Trough, SCSCSB – South China Sea Continentaln group. DTWGL – Daxinganling – Taihangshan – Wulingshan Gravity Anomaly Line.– Philippine Sea plates.

30 Y. Suo et al. / Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 88 (2014) 28–40

From north to south, they include the Kuril, Japan, Okinawa, Man-ila, Luzon, and Mariana trenches; the Japan, Okinawa, Philippines,and Izu-Bonin island arcs; and the Okhotsk, Japan, Okinawa, SouthChina Sea, and Shikoku-Parece Vela marginal sea basins (Liu et al.,2001; Sun, 2004) (Fig. 1). In this trench-arc-basin system the con-tinental lithosphere transferred into the oceanic lithosphere fromwest to east, resulting in a series of structural units with differentpre-Cenozoic basement rocks (Liu et al., 2002). In East China fromnorth to south, the pre-Cenozoic basement of the BBB and theNYSB of the North China Block is composed of Archean and Paleo-proterozoic metamorphic rocks, the Mesoproterozoic to incom-plete Paleozoic (absence of Upper Ordovician to LowerCarboniferous), and the Mesozoic strata, separated by several dis-conformities. However, that of the SYSB of the Yangtze Block iscomposed of a nearly complete sequence of Paleozoic and Meso-zoic carbonate and clastic rocks. The basement rocks of the ECSSBand the SCSCSB are composed of the South China Caledonian FoldSystem of the South China Block. The pre-Cenozoic basement of theYinggehai Basin (YB in Fig. 1) in the western SCSCSB is composed ofPrecambrian strata and rocks of the Indochina Block.

Four groups of basins can be distinguished, based on the geolog-ical settings in the East China Sea and South China Sea regions.They are named respectively, (1) the rift-related intracontinentalbasins, including the BBB, the NYSB, the SYSB, and the Beibu GulfBasin of the SCSCSB; (2) The back-arc spreading-related basins,including the ECSSB and the South China Sea Basin (SCSB); (3)The continental marginal rift-related basins, including the PearlRiver Mouth, Qiongdongnan, Taixi, and Taixinan basins of theSCSCSB; and (4) The transtensional basins, including the YinggehaiBasin in the western SCSCSB. All these basins are located east of theDaxinganling- Taihangshan- Wulingshan Gravity Line (DTWGL,Fig. 1) and west of the Pacific Plate. They developed since the lateJurassic and constitute an intraplate to plate margin basin group orbasin assemblage (Li et al., 2000). The Cenozoic stratal classifica-tion and correlation of basins in East China are listed in Table 1.

3. Tectonic jumping in the East Asian Continental Margin

The trench-arc-basin system of East Asia and its continentalmargins have the same tectonic jumping direction despite varia-tions in formation time, basement property, stress field, sedimen-tary system, and tectonic features. Continental rifting, spreadingof extension of the basins and strike-slip faulting are possibly the

Table 1The Cenozoic strata classification and correlation of basins in East China. Black and whiteperiod.

main activities of the basins in East China. Each extensional periodin these basins corresponds to a geotectonic cycle controlling a ba-sin group or a subsidence zone. Furthermore, the formation of thebasin varies in time, showing a younging in time and an eastwardmigration in space of the NNE-trending subsidence zone (Maruyamaet al., 2009). Meanwhile, the rifting and extension of these basinscorresponds to the upwelling of the lithosphere and the crustalthinning because the down-going basin is a symmetric mirror tothe upwelling lithosphere (Wu and Wang, 1997). However, manyseismic profiles (Wu and Wang, 1997) have revealed that there isusually an offset in space between areas of intense subsidenceand crustal thinning, under a complex extensional process ofsimple shearing in the upper lithosphere and pure shearing inthe lower lithosphere when these basins develop. The crustalthicknesses in East China become thinner from west to east (from37–30 km to 25–15 km) (Wu and Wang, 1997), highlighting theeastward rifting and tectonic migration of the basins in East China.Here, we have selected the BBB, the YSB, the ECSSB, and the SCSCSBin the northern part of the SCSB to mainly elaborate their faultingand depositional migration or jumping characters, which are clo-sely associated with the hydrocarbon-accumulated migration.

3.1. The Bohai Bay Basin

The Bohai Bay Basin (BBB) is a Mesozoic-Cenozoic intraplatepull-apart rift, which can be divided into the Jizhong, the Huang-hua, the Jiyang, the Bozhong, and the Xialiaohe depressions fromwest to east (Cai, 1998; Fig. 2). Of these, the Jizhong, the Huanghua,and the Jiyang depressions are the onshore part of the BBB, and theBozhong and the Xialiaohe depressions are the offshore part of theBBB. Characteristic differences exist between the offshore and on-shore sectors in sedimentation, structural features, and petroleumgeology. The extension ratio is a good parameter reflecting faultactivities and its increases are accompanied by strengthening ofthe fault activities. During the Eocene, the rifting in the onshoresector is more intense than the rifting in the offshore sector, basedon the extension ratios along the major faults. Then, the basindeveloped into a graben-like pull-apart structure in the Early Oli-gocene, and switched into a half-graben-like structure in the LateOligocene. The subsidence centers are controlled by large-scalerift-related faults in the Jiyang Depression of the onshore sectorduring the Eocene Kongdian (E1k) and Shasi (the fourth memberof the Shahejie Formation, E2s4) formations (Table 1), which

vertical stripes: strata hiatus; Green: rifting period; Yellow: post-rifting subsidence

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progressively migrated toward the northeast (Ren et al., 2008;Fig. 2). The extensional ratios of the offshore sector are larger thanthose of the onshore sector during the sedimentation periods of theOligocene Dongying Formation (E3d), and the depocenter and sub-sidence center of the BBB is in the offshore sector during the depo-sition periods of the Dongying Fm. This indicates that faultactivities and deposition within the BBB migrated eastward sincethe Oligocene (Tian and Han, 1990; Qi et al., 1994; Su et al.,2000; Xiao et al., 2002; Guo et al., 2007). Following the Oligocene,especially during the Neogene, the dextral strike-slip movement ofthe Tan-Lu Fault was relatively intense in the offshore part of theBBB. As a result, the depocenters and subsidence centers of theBBB coevally migrated from the western onshore sector to the east-ern offshore sector, and from south to north, and finally concen-trated in the offshore part (Li, 1980; Qi et al., 1995a; An and Ma,2001; Qiao et al., 2002; Li et al., 2004; Xu et al., 2004; Guo et al.,2007; Ding et al., 2008) (Fig. 2). After these migrations, the basinfinally underwent Miocene and Pliocene thermal subsidence (Liet al., 2010), and stopped essentially differential elevation and sub-sidence (Qi et al., 1995a; Yang and Qian, 1996; Xu et al., 2001; Liet al., 2012b).

3.2. The Yellow Sea Basin

Both the NYSB and the SYSB underwent a similar long-term tec-tonic evolution of uplift and denudation (Gong, 1997; Liang et al.,2001; Li et al., 2006; Wang et al., 2008). They can be divided, fromwest to east, into the West Depression Group (WDG), the CentralDepression Group (CDG), and the East Depression Group (EDG),respectively. The extensional ratios of major faults in the WDGand the CDG of the SYSB are largest during the Late Cretaceousand Early Paleocene. However, the maximum extension migratedinto the CDG during the Paleocene, and into the EDG during the Eo-cene, respectively (Chen et al., 2006; Liu, 2010). Therefore, the rif-ting of the SYSB migrated from west to east. For the Cenozoicdeposition in the SYSB, the depocenters migrated to the northeast

Fig. 2. Different stages of migration of Cenozoic depocenters (above) in the Bohai Bay Basthe basin. Tectonic units: 1-Jizhong Depression, 2-Neihuang Uplift, 3-Cangxian Uplift, 4-HBozhong Depression, 9-Xialiaohe Depression. Faults: F1 – Eastern Taihang Mountain FauFault.

in the northern part of the basin, and moved southeastward in thesouthern part, whilst also showing an eastward migration (Li andMo, 2002). For some subsidence centers in the NYSB, they jumpedeastward since the Oligocene (Li et al., 2006). However, some depo-centers of the NYSB jumped eastward since the Miocene, showingmuch thicker strata in the east than those coeval strata in the west(Tian, 2005; Chen et al., 2006).

3.3. The East China Sea Basin

The East China Sea Basin is a Meso-Cenozoic composite super-posed basin, which can be traditionally divided, from west to east,into the Min-Zhe Uplift (MU), the East China Sea Shelf Basin(ECSSB), the Diaoyudao Magmatic Belt (DMB), and the OkinawaTrough (OT)(Fig. 3). Taking the ECSSB as an example, the coastwardmigration feature of the East China Sea Basin is very clear (Suoet al., 2014). The ECSSB can be divided from west to east into theWest Depression Group (WDG), the Central Uplift Group (CUG),and the East Depression Group (EDG) (Fig. 3). The tectonic migra-tion can be summarized as follows:

(1) Faulting of deformation migration: the major faults of theWDG developed during the Paleocene, and those of theEDG developed during the Eocene–Oligocene (Fig. 3). Theactivities of the major faults in the WDG are earlier thanthose of the major faults in the EDG, and the fault activitiescoevally propagated from north to south (Yang and Li, 2003;Zhang et al., 2009).

(2) Strata of sedimentary migration: the sedimentation bodies(sags and depressions) developed in the Paleocene in theWDG and in the Eocene–Oligocene in the EDG, based onthe residual strata (Fig. 3), respectively, indicate an eastwardpropagation of the margins of the sedimentary basins (Songand Zhou, 1995; Wang et al., 2005; Zhang and Xia, 2005).This migration is also supported by unconformities withinthe ECSSB.

in in plan views with seismic profiles A, B and C (below) showing the architectures ofuanghua Depression, 5-Chengning Uplift, 6-Jiyang Depression, 7-Shaleitian Uplift, 8-lt, F2 – Cangdong Fault, F3 – Tan-Lu Fault, F4 – Beitang-Leting Fault, F5 – Huanghe

Fig. 3. Strata distribution (A) in the East China Sea Basin with the spatial and temporal relationship among hydrocarbon-related elements (B) of the ECSSB (revised after Suoet al., 2014). Areas in blue show the Paleogene depositional area, pale blue represents thinner and dark blue represents thicker sedimentary cover thicknesses. Areas in yellowshow the Neogene sedimentary cover rockss, pale yellow represents thinner and dark yellow represents thicker sedimentary cover thicknesses. MU – Min-Zhe Uplift, WDG –West Depression Group, CUG – Central Uplift Group, EDG – East Depression Group, ECSSB – East China Sea Shelf Basin, DMB – Diaoyudao Magmatic Belt, OT – OkinawaTrough. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

32 Y. Suo et al. / Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 88 (2014) 28–40

(3) Depocenters and subsidence centers of sedimentary migration:depocenters and subsidence centers migrated from west toeast and from north to south based on the distribution ofunconformities, sedimentary facies and sedimentarycharacteristics within the ECSSB (Yang and Li, 2003; Chen,2003).

3.4. The South China Sea Continental Shelf Basin

The South China Sea basins (SCSB) include the South China SeaContinental Shelf Basin (SCSCSB), the Central Oceanic Basin, theNorthwest Oceanic Basin, and the Southwest Oceanic Basin(Fig. 4). In all these basins the tectonic movements, sedimentation,magmatism, and mineralization migrated coastward (eastward)through time (Yang et al., 1984; Wang, 1988; Zhang et al., 2001).Taking the SCSCSB in the northern part of the SCSB as an example,the rifting propagated eastward (Xia et al., 2007).

(1) Tectonic movements of deformation migration: active faultsare earlier in the western basins in the SCSCSB, based onfault activities shown in the seismic profiles (Cheng et al.,2012). This resulted in the rifting and tectonic eventsmigrating from west to east (Fig. 4, Table 1).

(2) Depocenters of sedimentary migration: sequence stratigraphywith the same properties reveals older strata in the westernpart than those in the eastern part of the SCSCSB (Du, 1994;Zhu et al., 2004; Yan et al., 2005). The rapid subsidence per-iod is also earlier in the western part than that in the easternpart of the SCSCSB, according to a comprehensive analysis ofresidual thicknesses (Xia et al., 2007; Fig. 5).

In summary, there are many similarities among the Cenozoicbasins of East China, such as the NE-trending basin-controllingfaults, the half-graben or graben patterns, and the structuralframework featured by east- to west-directed zonation and north-to south-directed fault blocks, which migrate from west to east.

4. Hydrocarbon accumulations during the tectonic jumping

4.1. Two-stage sedimentation jumping of the basins in East China

The oil- and gas-bearing basins in East China have mainly expe-rienced two tectonic evolutionary stages: extensional rifting andpost-rifting thermal subsidence. Cenozoic tectonism controls theuplift, tilting and subsidence of different tectonic units or blocks

Fig. 4. Cenozoic migration of subsidence centers and -depocenters (above) in the SCSCSB with the Cenozoic strata classification and correlation, hydrocarbon migration andaccumulation, and source- reservoir-cap relations of the SCSCSB (below). COB – Central Oceanic Basin; NWOB – Northwest Oceanic Basin; SWOB – Southwest Oceanic Basin;ZB – Zhongsha Block.

Fig. 5. The subsidence rates of Tertiary sediments in basins in East China with depositional breaks and unconformities/disconformities highlighted (revised after Qian, 2001).The red arrow represents the fastest subsidence rate in each basin. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web versionof this article.)

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within or between basins. The migration of the sedimentationdepocenter has the same direction as the migration direction oftectonism when the stair-stepping, basement-involved and faultedblocks subside in a petroliferous basin. Furthermore, the associatedsource- reservoir-cap rocks, traps, migration, and preservation ofthe hydrocarbon accumulation also display a spatially regular

migration and jump following a preferred propagation of the ba-sins in a certain geodynamic stage (Wang, 1988; Qi et al., 1995b).

The extensional rifting stage occurred in the Paleogene, accom-panying the westward subduction of the Pacific Plate and thenortheastward subduction of the Indian Plate under the EurasianPlate. A series of NNE- and NE-aligned grabens formed in such a

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synthetic extensional stress field in East Asia. The grabens are filledwith strata of the Paleogene lacustrine and swamp facies. Littoraland neritic facies and transitional facies developed in some areasof the ECSSB and the SCSCSB due to the local transgressive events.In some basins in East China, good source-reservoir conditionsdeveloped during the Paleogene. The disconformities after the re-gional tectonic elevation and denudation events marked the termi-nations of the extensional rifting stages in different basins. Thedisconformities in the basins in East China varied through time.For example, the disconformity within the WDG of the ECSSBand the SYSB occurred in the Late Paleocene. However, the discon-formity within the EDG of the ECSSB occurred in the Late Eocene,and most of the other basins occurred in the Late Oligocene (Ta-ble 1). The whole trend of sedimentation in different basins isyounging to the east during this rifting stage.

The post-rifting thermal subsidence stage happened during theNeogene accompanying the prolonged subduction of the Pacificand the Indian plates under the Eurasian Plate. A series of geolog-ical events happened during the Late Oligocene-Late Miocene, suchas the opening of the South China Sea, seafloor spreading and thefollowing sinistral transpression, and the formation of trenches, is-land arcs, and marginal seas. The basins in East China transferredinto the thermal subsidence state and began to subside rapidly.The BBB, the NYSB, and the SYSB are mostly filled with terrestrialsediments, but the other basins in southern East China are filledwith marine facies. The Miocene-Quaternary neotectonics trig-gered the rifting of the Okinawa Trough with a high geothermalheat flow anomaly in its spreading center and volcanic activityclose to the trench, filling with marine facies. The marine trans-gression continued to the north until to the present-day BBB coast-al line, the whole range of the present-day seas in East Chinaformed coevally. Therefore, the whole trend of sedimentationamong the different basins during this thermal subsidence stageis younging towards the southeast.

4.2. Hydrocarbon accumulation migration associated with tectonicjumping

4.2.1. Vertical and horizontal migration of source rocks and their agesAbove the basement rocks in the East China basins accumulated

some 5–15 km of Cenozoic sedimentary cover rocks, associatedwith the lower Paleogene rifting-stage strata and overlaid by theupper Neogene subsidence-stage strata (Fig. 4; Table 1). The subsi-dence-deposition centers are characterized by centripetal or coast-ward migration. Source rocks within the basins are closelyassociated with the rifting period of the basins, and it is commonlyrevealed that the main source rocks develop in the rifting periodand the subordinate source rocks develop in the post-rifting subsi-dence period. It also means that the source rocks in an early-stagebasin are older than those in a younger or late-stage basin (Table 1).The subsidence range is larger in a long-lasting rift-related basinthan that in a short-lived rift-related basin. For example, the sourcerocks become younger, the development scale gets smaller, and theburial depth becomes shallower from southwest to northeast, asfor example, in the SCSCSB (Xia et al., 2007; Fig. 4). For the SCSCSB,the burial depths of the source rocks in the Yinggehai Basin in thewestern SCSCSB are about 13 km, while the depths of source rocksbecome shallower from approximate 13 km in the QiongdongnanBasin in the middle SCSCSB, to a minimum of 5.5 km in the PearlRiver Mouth Basin in the eastern SCSCSB (Fig. 4).

For the BBB, the offshore and onshore sectors have obvious dif-ferences in sedimentation, structural features, and petroleum geol-ogy. The subsidence centers occur in the onshore sector during theEocene (Figs. 2 and 5), and the mudstone source rocks also occur inthe onshore sector. During the deposition of the Dongying Fm.(E3d), the offshore sector became the depocenter and subsidence

center of the basin (Qi and Yang, 2010) (Fig. 2), leading to the depo-sition of the lower Dongying Formation mudstone source rocks.However, these mudstones are immature in the onshore part ofthe basin. The petroleum system of the Early Eocene Kongdian For-mation (E1k) is mainly distributed in the west, while those of theShayi Member (the youngest member of the Shahejie Formation,E2s1) and the Dongying (E3d) Formation are mainly distributed inthe northeast (Jia et al., 2003). Similarly, three series of sourcerocks developed in the ECSSB; the Paleocene source rocks are inthe WDG, but the Eocene and the Oligocene source rocks are inthe EDG (Fig. 3).

The NYSB and the SYSB are similar to the BBB in tectonic setting,and they are distributed symmetrically on both sides of the mainTan-Lu Fault (Fig. 1). The basin evolution, hydrocarbon formation,resource abundance, and oil and gas fields of these basins are dif-ferent under the same tectonic setting. The lower organic matterwas mature and the damage of fault activities was strong for frag-mentation of the small hydrocarbon accumulations at the hiatusaround 18 myr (i.e. from 46 to 28 Ma, Fig. 5) from the Late Eoceneto the Oligocene, the oil and gas-bearing formations displayed aspecial characteristics of ‘‘small, fragmental, poorly-enriched, scat-tered’’ oil and gas accumulation in the NYSB and the SYSB.

4.2.2. Temporal and spatial migration of reservoir rocksComprehensive research and oil exploration demonstrates that

slope break belts within the basins are important exploration fieldsin slope structural zones, which can be classified into structural, sed-imentary and erosional slope break belts, based on their origins andmechanisms (Zhou et al., 2012). The style of the slope break belts con-trols the type, scale, and distribution of sandstone bodies. For exam-ple, the structural slope break zone, located at the abrupt zone ofthe depositional slope, is initiated by the long-term activities of syn-depositional structures. Syndepositional structural slope break zones,such as the half-graben-like slope, are basic characteristics of rifts andsubsidence basins, and are favorable for good reservoir formation. Thereservoirs of these slopes in the Cenozoic basins in East China becomeprogressively younger in the east than in the west, because of theyounging of the half-grabens in the east, as mentioned above.

In the offshore of the BBB, most major oil and gas discoveries ofthe Upper Tertiary reservoirs have been made in the drape anti-clines on the rises; while the Lower Tertiary reservoirs within thehalf-grabens only served as secondary reservoirs. For the ECSSB,the double-layer architecture of half-graben overlying the grabenof the WDG is controlled by the Paleocene faults. The same dou-ble-layer architecture of half-graben overlying the graben of theEDG is controlled by the Eocene–Oligocene faults (Suo et al.,2014). This results in the Paleocene sandstones and older meta-morphic rocks as the reservoirs in the WDG, and the Eocene–Oligo-cene sandstones as the reservoirs in the EDG (Jiang, 2003; Wanget al., 2013) (Fig. 3).

However, the differences of reservoir formation conditions anddistribution among the SYSB, the NYSB and the BBB demonstratethat the NYSB and the SYSB have only a short duration of theseconditions which is not favorable for the development of large-scale oil and gas fields (Qian, 2001). The exploration targets shouldbe predominately moderate-scale to small-scale reservoirs, basedon the exploration experiences in the last 25 years. The hydrocar-bons from deep source rocks though are of a suitable conditionto form larger-scale gas fields (Qian, 2001). Further study is re-quired on the tectonic and hydrocarbon accumulation migrationsfor the NYSB and the SYSB.

4.2.3. Spatial distribution of regional cap rocks following tectonicjumping

The regional cap rocks usually developed during a quiescentperiod between two tectonic movements. The eastward younging

Y. Suo et al. / Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 88 (2014) 28–40 35

tectonic movements between the rifting and the post-rift stages re-sults in the eastward younging of the cap rocks in the SCSCSB(Fig. 4).

For the BBB, as the Neogene depocenters of the basins, the off-shore part accumulated some fine-grained shallow lacustrine clas-tics of the lower Neogene, serving as important regional seals forthe Neogene reservoirs. A set of shallow faults and a centralfault-related anticlinal belt in the shallow upper Tertiary se-quences were formed during the Neogene in the offshore sector,under the influence of the right-lateral strike-slip faulting of theTan-Lu Fault System (Fig. 2C). These shallow faults are linked withextensional faults at depth, serving as hydrocarbon transport chan-nels. The central fault-related anticline belt along the Tan-Lu FaultSystem also provides significant traps (Yang and Xu, 2004).

4.2.4. Evolution and types of regional traps in the basins of East ChinaCommon and important structural traps in petroliferous basins

are classified as anticlinal traps, faulted nose-like traps, faultedblock traps and buried hill traps, which are characterized by a zo-nal distribution in an east to west direction and migrate coastwardas an eastward younging trend in petroliferous basins, from theBBB to the ECSSB of East China.

4.2.5. Spatial zonation of oil and gas accumulationThere are abundant faults and unconformities in East China be-

cause of the multiple tectonic movements, and these faults andunconformities provide the channels for the vertical and lateraltransport of oil and gas. For example, in the WDG of the ECSSB,the topography of the structural transfer zones controlled by faultsplays an important role in hydrocarbon migration and accumula-tion (Suo et al., 2014). The buried architectures of the structuraltransfer zones are also in a favorable directional zone of hydrocar-bon migration. The Miocene is the main stage of hydrocarbonmigration in the WDG (Wang, 1999; Zhang et al., 2007; Yanget al., 2010), whereas in the EDG, the early-stage normal faultsare the vertical transport channels, and the later-stage reversefaults are the migration channels during the inversion of the basin(Dai et al., 2014; Suo et al., 2014). The hydrocarbons in the EDGmainly migrated since the middle Miocene (Chen and Xiang,2009), later than that in the WDG (Fig. 3).

4.2.6. Spatial variation of preservation conditionsThe reservoir preservation conditions, including cap rock condi-

tions, faulting, magmatism, tectonism, and overpressure flow arecritical for hydrocarbon occurrence, accumulation and enrichment(Ye and Gu, 2004). The oil and gas escapes easily from cap rockswhen faults cut through the cap layers because the sealing prop-erty is destroyed by active faulting. Among all the structural traps,the reservoir preservation conditions of fault-related traps are theworst, because of possible vertical and lateral escape of oil and gas,whereas the anticlinal trap is the best, depending on its cap rocks(Xiong et al., 2008). The structural traps within the WDG of theECSSB developed in the Late Eocene, earlier than the hydrocarbonexpulsion period, favoring the migration of oil and gas and theirpreservation into traps (Zhang and Xia, 2005). While reversal anti-cline with development of faulting is a good reservoir preservationcondition (Fig. 3), widespread in the EDG (Dai et al., 2014).

Fig. 6. Rates of India-Eurasia collision and Pacific-Eurasia subduction (revised afterGuo et al., 2001).

5. Mechanism and tectonic settings of tectonic jumping

The current marginal seas and trench-arc-basin system of thewestern Pacific continental margin are reworked by interactionof the Pacific, Australian, and Eurasian plates during the Cenozoic.Alternatively, a complex trench-arc-basin system developed inEast China. From the Philippine Sea Basin of 55–34 Ma in the west

(Hall, 1996, 2002; Zang and Ning, 2002; Honza and Fujioka, 2004),via the Shikoku-Pareace Vela Basin of 30–18 Ma in the middle, tothe Mariana Trough of 8–3 Ma in the east, this trench-arc-basinsystem shows an eastward younging trend (Hoza and Tamaki,1985; Taylor, 1990; Yamazaki et al., 1993; Okino et al., 1994,1998; Okino, 2000; Zang and Ning, 2002; Maruyama et al., 2009).The eastward tectonic migration of these basins or back-arc basinseast of East China and its neighboring seas is remarkably related tothe eastward retreat of subduction of the Pacific Plate in such a tec-tonic setting (Suo et al., 2014).

The formation mechanism of the western Pacific marginal seabasins have long been a focus for geoscientists to study the evolu-tion of the western Pacific active continental margin, which canalso be applied to understanding the mechanism of the eastwardtectonic migration of basins in/near East China. There have beenmany tectonic models for the formation of the western Pacific mar-ginal sea basins, such as the ‘‘back-arc spreading’’ model of Karig(1971), the ‘‘Atlantic-type spreading’’ model (Taylor and Hayes,1983), the ‘‘upwelling magma injection’’ model (Miyashiro,1986), and the ‘‘captured’’ model of Ben-Avraham and Uyeda(1973). In recent years, the effects of the geological processes,especially the effects of the Earth’s deep mantle flow to the evolu-tion of the lithosphere, have obtained some new achievements inthe deep geodynamics of the marginal sea basins (Zhao et al.,2002, 2007; Liu et al., 2004; Maruyama et al., 2007).

5.1. Boundary conditions derived from the plate margins

The rates of the Indian-Eurasian collision and those of the Paci-fic-Eurasian convergence have decreased from the Paleocene to themiddle Eocene (65–42 Ma) (Fig. 6). The former has been faster thanthe latter (Tamaki, 1995; Flower et al., 1998), resulting in geologi-cal tectonic migration in East China dominated by the Indian Plateduring this period. Following this stage, the rates of the Indian-Eur-asian collision have decreased, while those of the Pacific-Eurasianconvergence have increased. At that time, East China was con-trolled by the dextral transtensional stress field. The eastern blockswere extruded eastward and the microblocks escaped southeast-ward, resulting in the eastern continental margin rifting and east-ward tectonic jumping. The dextral transtensional stress fieldturned into the sinistral transpressional stress field, due to theabrupt increase of the Pacific-Eurasian convergence rate at themiddle Miocene (10 Ma) (Northrup et al., 1995) (Fig. 6). This canbe used to explain the westward tectonic migration and inversiontectonics within the basins, the erosion of the Miocene or even old-er strata during the structural inversion (Zhou et al., 2002; Zhuet al., 2002), i.e. the denudation of the Miocene and the Paleogene

36 Y. Suo et al. / Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 88 (2014) 28–40

in the SYSB, and the large-scale inversion in the ECSSB (Dai et al.,2014).

5.2. Shallow intraplate mechanism

The shallow Cenozoic tectonic deformation is commonly con-trolled by some pre-existing faults, especially by the Mesozoicdeformation in East Asia (Li et al., 2012a,b). In the early part ofthe Early Jurassic, the Yinshan-Yanshan Orogenic Belt in the NorthChina Block was intensively contracted and began to shorten. Fur-thermore, to the south, the South China Plate had continuously col-lided with the North China Plate in the north. Meanwhile, EastChina developed further intracontinental subduction-relateddeformation, and the western Alxa Block escaped southeastwardunder the N–S trending compression of the closed Tethys TectonicDomain. The triangular blocks of the North China and Yangtzeblocks had escaped northeastward and southeastward (Fig. 7),respectively, until the Late Cretaceous, under such a structuralframework (Li et al., 2005). During the Late Jurassic and the EarlyCretaceous, a large-scale NE-trending strike-slip fault systemdeveloped due to the subduction of the Pacific Plate under the Eur-asian Plate. Then some extrusion-related or escape-related strike-slip basins appeared, controlled by those strike-slip fault systems.These Mesozoic basins are composed of strike-slip basins, rift ba-sins and flexural or peri-foreland basins (Lu and Dai, 1994; Shang

Fig. 7. Cenozoic tectonic framework of East China (revised after Li et al., 2010). Inset mapZangbo Suture.

et al., 1997, 1999; Hao et al., 2002, 2003; Sun et al., 2005; Liet al., 2010, 2012a; Fig. 7). During the Late Cretaceous and thePaleocene, the Pacific Plate subducted under the Eurasian Plate atan average rate of 120–140 mm/a, and the subduction angle chan-ged gradually from 10� to 80� (Li and Zhou, 1995). This high-speedand high-angle subduction resulted in the vertical upwelling of themantle convection in the mantle wedge, and the eastern crust ofthe Eurasian continent began to extend, thinning, and collapse.Meanwhile, the Indian Plate collided with the Eurasian Plate atan average rate of 100–110 mm/a, and the Yarlung-Zangpo mainOceanic Basin, represented by the Yarlung-Zangbo Suture (Fig. 7),subducted northward and closed subsequently. All those regionaltectonic movements caused East China to be under a SE-NW-direc-ted sinistral transpressional stress field (Tian and Du, 1987; Renet al., 2002). East China began to rift extensively and rift centersdeveloped in the northeast of North China and the coastal area ofSouth China based on the magmatism (Deng et al., 1993; Zhouet al., 1998), chronology and geochemistry data (Yan et al., 2005).The rifts are an intracontinental response and adjustment to thedestruction of the North China Craton and the western rifting ofthe ECSSB. The high-angle subduction results in the eastward tec-tonic migration (Li et al., 2012b,c, 2013). The switch of sinistralstrike-slip to dextral strike-slip movements of the Tan-Lu Faultmade the deposition-subsidence center migrate from south tonorth (Sun et al., 2005). The regional extension of the North China

shows the configuration of plates, subduction zones and major faults. YZS-Yarlung-

Y. Suo et al. / Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 88 (2014) 28–40 37

Block, which the NYSB belongs to, turned into the regional NNW-SSE-directed compression and the NYSB began to experience tec-tonic inversion (Li et al., 2006). The Yangtze Block, which the SYSBbelongs to, is still under extension and ongoing rifting (Li and Mo,2002; Hou et al., 2008).

Based on the characteristics of tectonic jumping in the BBB, thesubduction of the Pacific Plate under the Eurasia Plate possibly re-sulted in the convective upwelling of the mantle wedge under theBohai area and triggered the development of NNE- and NE-strikingextensional faults during the Late Paleocene, causing the rifting ofthe BBB (Li et al., 2012b, 2013). The eastward tectonic migrationwithin the BBB is closely associated with the retreat of the westernPacific subduction system, while the northward migration is clo-sely related to a dextral strike-slip movement of the Tan-Lu Faultand a tilting and rotation of some small-scale faulted blocks (Gaoet al., 2000; Li et al., 2004, 2005). Furthermore, He et al. (1998) con-firmed the obvious northeastward and coastward migrations oftectonic, deposition, subsidence, oil and gas reservoirs in eachdepression within the BBB during the Cenozoic.

In the Late Eocene, the Eurasian continental lithosphere escapedeastward and intraplate blocks escaped because of the Indian-Eur-asian plate collision (Tapponnier et al., 1982, 1986), and subduc-tion of the western Pacific Plate began to retreat eastward. Thedextral transtensional stress field dominated and the intensive rif-ting area of the continental crust migrated eastward (Zhou et al.,1995). In the Middle Eocene (42 Ma), the subduction direction ofthe Pacific Plate changed from NNW to WNW and the subduction

Fig. 8. Present-day shallow stress and deep tomography of East China and its adjacentvertical cross-sections of P-wave tomography along the profiles shown on the inset map.low and high velocities, respectively. The velocity perturbation scale is shown at the toprofile. The two dashed lines denote the 410- and 670-km discontinuities. Red arrows in(For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred

rate increased (Northrup et al., 1995; Maruyama et al., 2007). Thecoastal area of South China was uplifted, and rifting centers movedsouthward and rotated clockwise (Yan et al., 2005). The rifting ofthe north continental margin of the South China Sea was moreintensive, and rift centers migrated eastward and the tectonics mi-grated eastward. During the middle Eocene and the Late Eocene(42–35 Ma), the continental crust of South China thinned gradu-ally. The Nansha Block and the Zhongsha Block split from SouthChina, opening the NW Oceanic Basin (Xiong et al., 2012; Chenget al., 2012).

In the Early Oligocene, the Kalimantan microplate moved fastnorthwestward because of the rapid spreading of the E–W IndianOcean Ridge (Fig. 6). The movement restricted the opening of theNW Subbasin of the South China Sea, then regional subsidence oc-curred (Yan et al., 2005). In the Late Oligocene, the dextral stressfield resulted in the extrusion of the Indochina Block and thenorthward intensive indentation of the Indian Plate into the Eur-asian Plate (Chen and Li, 1996; Wang et al., 2000; Fig. 7 inset), aswell as the clockwise rotation of the opening direction of the SouthChina Sea and the formation of the Central Oceanic Basin (Figs. 1and 4).

After the middle Miocene, the rates of the Indian-Eurasian col-lision decreased with an indentation and ductile deformation ofthe Indian Plate and thickening of the Tibetan Plateau lithosphere.The Philippine Arc migrated northward until the Pliocene, formingthe eastern boundary of the South China Sea. The East Asia Conti-nental Margin was under a sinistral transpression stress field due

areas (revised after Zhao, 2009). A–E profiles in the maps on the left are east–westThe latitude of each cross-section is shown on the right. Red and blue colors denotep center. The white dots show earthquakes that occurred with 100 km from eachthe maps on the right represent the horizontal motion vector by GPS observation.

to the web version of this article.)

38 Y. Suo et al. / Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 88 (2014) 28–40

to the northward indentation of the Australia Plate. A series of geo-logical phenomena, such as the closing of the Japan Sea and theSouth China Sea, the tectonic migration of the BBB and the ECSSB,appeared. Especially during the Neogene, this migration in the BBBis possibly related to the indentation of the Indian Plate to the Eur-asia Plate.

5.3. Deep tectonic processes under the basins

P-wave seismic tomography is used to study the mantle-scalestructures under the Eurasian Plate and the interaction or deep-seated linkage between the Eurasian and the Pacific plates. Thelow-velocity asthenosphere extended or extruded from the TibetanPlateau to East China (Flower et al., 2001), and massive lithospheresubstances steadily emitted along the collision belt between theAustralian Plate and the Eurasian Plate. The lateral ductile flowwhich was maintained until 50 Ma to drive the rigid plates east-ward and southward (which is also shown in the GPS observationdata), possibly resulting in the lithosphere upwelling, lithosphererupture, extensive volcanic activity, and the eastward and south-ward tectonic migration in East China (Li and Zhou, 1995; Floweret al., 2001; Zhang et al., 2002; Zhao, 2009; Fig. 8). Moreover, theIndian and the Pacific plates subducted under the Eurasian Platesimultaneously, and the dehydration of the deep subducted oce-anic crust resulted in mantle hydration or water enrichment andmore melting. Small mantle plumes and even marginal sea basinsdeveloped under such a regional thermal anomaly (Maruyamaet al., 2007; Windley et al., 2010).

Although we have more knowledge on the tectonic settings oftectonic jumping in East Asia, there are still intensive debates onthe mechanism and the tectonic migration of East Asia and its adja-cent areas. The plate margin, intraplate and deep processes arecommonly accepted to be very important constraints. Especially,tectonic mechanism east of the DTWGL is closely related to aninteraction between the Pacific and Eurasian plates at an earlystage of the Cenozoic, while the Indian-Eurasian collision wasdominated by an effect since the Late Cenozoic (Fig. 6).

6. Conclusions

(1) As an important part of the western Pacific active continen-tal margin, the oil- and gas-bearing basins in East Asia andits continental margins display an eastward tectonic migra-tion, including the eastward jumping of fault activities,depocenters, sedimentation, shortening of basin duration,and termination time of rifting. In particular, the 40 Maand the 25 Ma periods mark two important times of tectonicjumping in East China, as a response of the Indian-Eurasiancollision and the subduction of the Pacific Plate.

(2) The associated source- reservoir- cap rocks, trap, transporta-tion, and preservation of oil and gas also present an east-ward migration, following an eastward propagation andjumping of the basins in East China.

(3) The Cenozoic mechanism of tectonic jumping within/amongthe basins in East China resulted from the combined effect ofplate boundary forces, intraplate pre-existing structures, anddeep-seated geological processes. These are closely andrespectively associated with the Late Mesozoic extrusiontectonics and the Cenozoic NW-directed crustal extension,the regional far-field eastward mantle flow of the westernasthenosphere due to the India-Eurasia plate collisionaccompanied by eastward jumping, and roll-back of subduc-tion zones of the Pacific Plate.

Acknowledgments

We would like to our colleagues for their constructive sugges-tion and comments. This research is supported by projects of theNational Science Foundation of China, China for DistinguishedYoung Scientists (Grant No. 41325009), the National Natural Sci-ence Foundation of China, China (Grant Nos. 41190072 and41190070) and the Marine 863 Project, MOST, China (Grant No.2009AA093401).

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