Combined analyses of deep tow magnetic anomalies and International Ocean Discovery Program Expedition 349 cores show that initial seafloor spreading started around 33 Ma in the northeastern South China Sea (SCS), but varied slightly by 1-2 Myr along the northern continent-ocean boundary (COB). A southward ridge jump of 20 km occurred around 23.6 Ma in the East Subbasin; this timing also slightly varied along the ridge and was coeval to the onset of seafloor spreading in the Southwest Subbasin, which propagated for about 400 km southwestward from 23.6 to 21.5 Ma. The terminal age of seafloor spreading is 15 Ma in the East Subbasin and 16 Ma in the Southwest Subbasin. The full spreading rate in the East Subbasin varied largely from 20 to 80 km/Myr, but mostly decreased with time except for the period between 26.0 Ma and the ridge jump (23.6 Ma), within which the rate was the fastest at 70 km/ Myr on average. The spreading rates are not correlated, in most cases, to magnetic anomaly amplitudes that reflect basement magnetization contrasts. Shipboard magnetic measurements reveal at least one magnetic reversal in the top 100 m of basaltic layers, in addition to large vertical intensity variations. These complexities are caused by late-stage lava flows that are magnetized in a different polarity from the primary basaltic layer emplaced during the main phase of crustal accretion. Deep tow magnetic modeling also reveals this smearing in basement magnetizations by incorporating a contamination coefficient of 0.5, which partly alleviates the problem of assuming a magnetic blocking model of constant thickness and

Coring/logging data and physical property measurements from International Ocean Discovery Program Expedition 349 are integrated with, and correlated to, reflection seismic data to map seismic sequence boundaries and facies of the central basin and neighboring regions of the South China Sea. First-order sequence boundaries are interpreted, which are Oligocene/Miocene, middle Miocene/late Miocene, Miocene/Pliocene, and Pliocene/Pleistocene boundaries. A characteristic early Pleistocene strong reflector is also identified, which marks the top of extensive carbonate-rich deposition in the southern East and Southwest Subbasins. The fossil spreading ridge and the boundary between the East and Southwest Subbasins acted as major sedimentary barriers, across which seismic facies changes sharply and cannot be easily correlated. The sharp seismic facies change along the Miocene-Pliocene boundary indicates that a dramatic regional tectonostratigraphic event occurred at about 5 Ma, coeval with the onsets of uplift of Taiwan and accelerated subsidence and transgression in the northern margin. The depocenter or the area of the highest sedimentation rate switched from the northern East Subbasin during the Miocene to the Southwest Subbasin and the area close to the fossil ridge in the southern East Subbasin in the Pleistocene. The most active faulting and vertical uplifting now occur in the southern East Subbasin, caused most likely by the active and fastest subduction/obduction in the southern segment of the Manila Trench and the collision between the northeast Palawan and the Luzon arc. Timing of magmatic intrusions and seamounts constrained by seismic stratigraphy in the central basin varies and does not show temporal pulsing in their activities.LI ET AL.

[1] Carbon isotope sequences at Ocean Drilling Program Site 1143, South China Sea, reveal a long-term cyclicity of $500 kyr that is superimposed on the glacial cycles and is present in long Cmax-III, which in turn were associated with expansion of the ice sheets. From a carbon perspective, therefore, the Quaternary period has passed through three major stages, and each appears to represent a further step in ice cap development.

The beginning of the mid-Brunhes event ca. 430 ka coincided with the largest-amplitude change in ␦ 18 O in the global ocean over the past 6 m.y. This large ␦ 18 O change recorded a major ice-sheet expansion that cannot be explained by small changes in orbital forcing. Our recent studies at Ocean Drilling Program Site 1143 from the South China Sea show that this large ␦ 18 O change was preceded by a significant negative ␦ 13 C shift. A global survey of long deep-sea records has revealed periodic ␦ 13 C max episodes (i.e., maximum positive values of ␦ 13 C), and both major ice-sheet expansion events in the Pleistocene (the mid-Brunhes event and the middle Pleistocene revolution) were preceded by ␦ 13 C max episodes followed by negative ␦ 13 C shifts. This new finding suggests that disturbance in carbon reservoirs leads to major growth of ice-sheet size and challenges the prevalent concept of Arctic control of glacial cycles. Because Earth is now passing again through a ␦ 13 C max episode, it is crucial to understand the causal relationship between the successive ␦ 13 C changes and ice-sheet growth events.

Abstract. Coccolithophore contributions to the global marine carbon cycle are regulated by the calcite content of their scales (coccoliths) and the relative cellular levels of photosynthesis and calcification rates. All three of these factors vary between coccolithophore species and with response to the growth environment. Here, water samples were collected in the northern basin of the South China Sea (SCS) during summer 2014 in order to examine how environmental variability influenced species composition and cellular levels of calcite content. Average coccolithophore abundance and their calcite concentration in the water column were 11.82 cells mL−1 and 1508.3 pg C mL−1, respectively, during the cruise. Water samples can be divided into three floral groups according to their distinct coccolithophore communities. The vertical structure of the coccolithophore community in the water column was controlled by the trophic conditions, which were regulated by mesoscale eddies across the SCS basin. The evaluation of coccolithophore-based calcite in the surface ocean also showed that three key species in the SCS (Emiliania huxleyi, Gephyrocapsa oceanica, Florisphaera profunda) and other larger, numerically rare species made almost equal contributions to total coccolith-based calcite in the water column. For Emiliania huxleyi biometry measurements, coccolith size positively correlated with nutrients (nitrate, phosphate), and it is suggested that coccolith length is influenced by light and nutrients through the regulation of growth rates. Larger-sized coccoliths were also linked statistically to low pH and calcite saturation states; however, it is not a simple cause and effect relationship, as carbonate chemistry was strongly co-correlated with the other key environmental factors (nutrients, light).