Characteristics of faults on the northeastern continental slope of the South China Sea and their controls on basin evolution

Abstract：Faults are well developed on the northeast slope of the South China Sea. There are mainly the NE, NW, nearly N-S and nearly E-W sets of faults. According to the fault natures, they can be divided into tensional faults, compressional faults and strike-slip faults. The main basement faults are F1, F2, F3, F4, F5, F6, F7, F8, F9 and F10. Those faults are large in scale and controlled the development and evolution of the Baiyun subbasin of the Zhujiankou basin, Jianfengbei basin, Bijia basin and Taixinan basin. Controlled by main faults, the Jianfengbei basin underwent three stages of evolution: downfaulting, downwarping and subsidence, and two structure layers occurred; the Bijia basin also underwent three stages of evolution：Oligocene downfaulting, late Oligocene to middle Miocene downwarping and late Miocene to Holocene tectonic inversion, which gave rise to two structure layers.