Stratigraphic division and depositional processes for the Mesozoic basin in Northern South China Sea

This paper divided the age of Mesozoic strata in the Northern South China Sea into epochs by the stratigraphic correlation between land and sea areas. A Mesozoic stratigraphic profile from South China to the northern continental slope of the South China Sea was constructed by ground and seismic surveys. The depositional process was illustrated by the chronostratigraphic framework of the Mesozoic basin, and the oil and gas exploration prospect was discussed. Results indicate that the depositional process from the initial transgression in the Late Triassic to the Mesozoic maximum flooding event that occurred in the Early Jurassic period formed a continuous transgression when the depositional environment varied from littoral to semi-closed gulf and shelf. After this maximum flooding event, a continuous marine regressive process developed, including seawater withdrawal from the South China epicontinental region at the end of the Early Jurassic period, seawater withdrawal to the outer shelf of the Northern South China Sea at the end of the Early Cretaceous period, and seawater withdrawal to the slope trough at the end of the Cretaceous period. Research achievement not only connects major Mesozoic geological events but also specifies the time nodes of such events. Thus, an investigation of this event is significant to the Mesozoic tectonic evolution study of the South China Sea and Paleo-Pacific Ocean.