TECTONIC DEFORMATION MECHANISM AND GEODYNAMIC PROCESS OF NORTH YELLOW SEA BASIN

Abstract

Based on the structural geometry and kinematics of North Yellow Sea basin, the tectonic deformation style and geodynamic process of North Yellow Sea basin are studied. The result shows that there are four kinds of tectonic deformation for North Yellow Sea basin, including extensional structural deformation, compressed structural deformation, shear structural deformation and inverse structural deformation, etc, and the regional geodynamic setting for North Yellow Sea basin were mainly the regional extension superimposed by horizontal compressing and correlative shearing, which resulted in extensional faulted basin for North Yellow Sea basin with a series of graben and half-graben mode depressions. The extension, compression, elevation and subsidence of North Yellow Sea basin were controlled by regional extensional and compressional stress field caused by interaction of plates and weak uplifting of asthenosphere underneath, and its geodynamic evolution process included five stages such as extensional fault depression in Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous, thermo-upwelling in late Cretaceous-Paleocene, rifting in Eocene-Oligocene, structural inversion in late Oligocene-early Neogene and thermo-subsiding in Neogene.