“…The South China Sea (SCS) locates in the tropical latitudes (N0 o -25 o ) with sea water temperature between 17 o and 28 o , which makes the SCS be a perfect place for the forming and developing of carbonate platforms during the Tertiary. In the last decades great efforts have been concentrated on the development of the Oligocene -Miocene shallow water carbonate systems in the continental margins of SCS for their importance in hydrocarbon exploration, including (1) the regional distribution, development and controlling factors (Xu et al, 2002;Wilson et al, 2000;Xie et al, 2011;Madden et al, 2012;Jin et al, 2012), and (2) local detailed seismic characteristics, architecture, and evolutional model (Dalmasso et al, 2009;Zampetti et al, 2004;Sattler et al, 2009;Wu et al, 2008;Ma et al, 2012), with geological and geophysical data acquired in the past. These studies on the stratigraphy, sedimentology and biosratigraphy of carbonate platform successions provides clues to constraining basic controls on carbonate platform evolution, including the effects of variations in tectonic subsidence, eustatic sea-level changes, environmental factors, and terrigenous sediment input.…”