Geological evolution of the West Luzon Basin (South China Sea, Philippines)

Arfai, Jashar; Franke, Dieter; Gaedicke, Christoph; Lutz, Rüdiger; Schnabel, M.; Ladage, S.; Berglar, Kai; Aurelio, Mario; Montano, J.; Pellejera, N. E. B.

doi:10.1007/s11001-010-9113-x

Cited by 26 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…The terminal ages of seafloor spreading of the Southwest Subbasin is around the Middle Miocene (16 Ma) (Briais et al 1993;). This event of cessation of seafloor spreading also coincides with the onset of subduction of the South China Sea oceanic plate along the Manila Trench (Arfai et al 2011), the initiation of the Palawan/Mindoro-Central Philipphines collision (Yumul et al 2003), and the collision between Dangerous Grounds and Borneo (Cullen 2010; Hutchison and Vijayan 2010). So these collision events may be responsible for the cessation of seafloor spreading of the Southwest Subbasin and ultimately the formation of the MMU.…”

Section: The Middle Miocene Unconformity (Mmu)mentioning

confidence: 83%

Rifting to drifting transition of the Southwest Subbasin of the South China Sea

Song

2015

Mar Geophys Res

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Continental rupturing process and related dynamics on the onset of seafloor spreading remain poorly understood in the opening of the South China Sea. To constrain the timing and cause of major tectonic events, we focus on the rifting-to-drifting transition of the Southwest Subbasin, which has very wide extended continental margins. By carefully interpreting rifting structures and carbonate platforms and reefs, we distinguished two major unconformities, i.e., the breakup unconformity (BRU) and the mid-Miocene unconformity, in the two conjugate margins of the Southwest Subbasin. The age of the BRU in our study area is near the Oligocene/Miocene boundary (*23 Ma). Pre-stack depth migration of a recently acquired multichannel reflection seismic profile reveals complex structures and strong lateral velocity variations associated with a 3.5 km thick syn-rifting sequence developed right at the continent-ocean boundary (COB) of the Southwest Subbasin. This syn-rifting sequence is bounded landwards by a large seaward dipping fault, and tapers out seawards. An erosional truncation, which represents the mid-Miocene unconformity landwards but the older breakup unconformity on the seaward side, occurred at the top of this sequence. The overall transitional deformation style from the rifting to drifting suggests a successive episode of rifting, faulting, compression, tilting, and erosion at the COB during the crustal thinning and mantle upwelling. Localized thick syn-rifting deposition and early deposition beneath the BRU in the oceanic domain exist only at the seaward concave part of the COB, indicating discrete rifting and seafloor spreading prior to the buildup of a unified spreading center for the entire subbasin.

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Section: The Middle Miocene Unconformity (Mmu)mentioning

confidence: 83%

Rifting to drifting transition of the Southwest Subbasin of the South China Sea

Song

2015

Mar Geophys Res

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“…The South China Sea is bordered on the north by the rifted South China continental margin, on the south by highly attenuated continental crust of the Dangerous Grounds, on the west by the attenuated continental crust offshore Vietnam deformed by transform faulting (Fyhn et al ., ; Savva et al ., ), and on the east by the Manila Trench, where oceanic crust is subducting under Luzon Arc (Ben‐Avraham & Uyeda, ; Cardwell et al ., ; Taylor & Hayes, , ; Briais et al ., ; Arfai et al ., ) (Fig. a).…”

Section: The South China Sea Geodynamic Settingmentioning

confidence: 95%

The continent‐ocean transition on the northwestern South China Sea

Cameselle,

Ranero,

Franke

et al. 2015

Basin Research

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Rifted margins are created as a result of stretching and breakup of continental lithosphere that eventually leads to oceanic spreading and formation of a new oceanic basin. A cornerstone for understanding what processes control the final transition to seafloor spreading is the nature of the continent-ocean transition (COT). We reprocessed multichannel seismic profiles and use available gravity data to study the structure and variability of the COT along the Northwest subbasin (NWSB) of the South China Sea. We have interpreted the seismic images to discern continental from oceanic domains. The continental-crust domain is characterized by tilted fault blocks generally overlain by thick syn-rift sedimentary units, and underlain by fairly continuous Moho reflections typically at 8-10 s twtt. The thickness of the continental crust changes greatly across the basin, from 20 to 25 km under the shelf and uppermost slope, to~9-6 km under the lower slope. The oceaniccrust domain is characterized by a highly reflective top of basement, little faulting, no syntectonic strata and fairly constant thickness (over tens to hundreds of km) of typically 6 km, but ranging from 4 to 8 km. The COT is imaged as a~5-10 km wide zone where oceanic-type features directly abut or lap on continental-type structures. The South China margin continental crust is cut by abundant normal faults. Seismic profiles show an along-strike variation in the tectonic structure of the continental margin. The NE-most lines display~20-40 km wide segments of intense faulting under the slope and associated continental-crust thinning, giving way to a narrow COT and oceanic crust. Towards the SW, faulting and thinning of the continental crust occurs across ã 100-110 km wide segment with a narrow COT and abutting oceanic crust. We interpret this 3D structural variability and the narrow COT as a consequence of the abrupt termination of continental rifting tectonics by the NE to SW propagation of a spreading centre. We suggest that breakup occurred abruptly by spreading centre propagation rather than by thinning during continental rifting. We propose a kinematic evolution for the oceanic domain of the NWSB consisting of a southward spreading centre propagation followed by a first narrow ridge jump to the north, and then a younger larger jump to the SE, to abandon the NWSB and create the East subbasin of the South China Sea.

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“…Manila Trench and on the northeast by the Taiwan orogeny ( Figure 1). It is believed that the seafloor spreading of the SCS terminated for the eastward subduction of the East Sub-basin at the Manila Trench and the collision of southern passive margin with the Borneo in the southern Philippines Arfai et al, 2011;Lester et al, 2014].…”

Section: 1002/2016gc006247mentioning

confidence: 99%

Crustal structure and extension mode in the northwestern margin of the South China Sea

Gao

McIntosh

et al. 2016

Geochem Geophys Geosyst

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Combining multi‐channel seismic reflection and gravity modeling, this study has investigated the crustal structure of the northwestern South China Sea margin. These data constrain a hyper‐extended crustal area bounded by basin‐bounding faults corresponding to an aborted rift below the Xisha Trough with a subparallel fossil ridge in the adjacent Northwest Sub‐basin. The thinnest crust is located in the Xisha Trough, where it is remnant lower crust with a thickness of less than 3 km. Gravity modeling also revealed a hyper‐extended crust across the Xisha Trough. The postrift magmatism is well developed and more active in the Xisha Trough and farther southeast than on the northwestern continental margin of the South China Sea; and the magmatic intrusion/extrusion was relatively active during the rifting of Xisha Trough and the Northwest Sub‐basin. A narrow continent‐ocean transition zone with a width of ∼65 km bounded seaward by a volcanic buried seamount is characterized by crustal thinning, rift depression, low gravity anomaly and the termination of the break‐up unconformity seismic reflection. The aborted rift near the continental margin means that there may be no obvious detachment fault like that in the Iberia‐Newfoundland type margin. The symmetric rift, extreme hyper‐extended continental crust and hotter mantle materials indicate that continental crust underwent stretching phase (pure‐shear deformation), thinning phase and breakup followed by onset of seafloor spreading and the mantle‐lithosphere may break up before crustal‐necking in the northwestern South China Sea margin.

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Geological evolution of the West Luzon Basin (South China Sea, Philippines)

Cited by 26 publications

References 30 publications

Rifting to drifting transition of the Southwest Subbasin of the South China Sea

Rifting to drifting transition of the Southwest Subbasin of the South China Sea

The continent‐ocean transition on the northwestern South China Sea

Crustal structure and extension mode in the northwestern margin of the South China Sea

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