The Recognition and Formation Mechanism of Break-up Sequence --an
example from the Baiyun Sag in Northern Margin of South China Sea
Abstract
The South China Sea (SCS) is one of the largest marginal sea in
southeast Asia. The northern continental margin of the SCS has been
considered an intermediate between the magma-poor and magma-rich end
members. Baiyun sag is located in the deep water area where the northern
continental crust had been hyper-thinned to < 12km. The
syn-rifting deposition in the Baiyun sag shows distinct features to a
classic rift basin at the shallow water area. Based on the
high-resolution 3D seismic data interpretation and drilling logging
analysis, we interpret a structural sequence corresponding to the
hyper-thinning process before the final breakup of the continent. This
sequence is bounded by a classic breakup unconformity and a regional
transgression surface in the syn-rift strata of the Baiyun Sag; within
the sequence, a set of foreset reflectors suggesting a prograding
shelf-margin delta. Analog to the Iberia margin of North Atlantic, we
use the definitions of Lithospheric Breakup Surface (LBS) and Breakup
sequence (BS) and determine the distributions of the LBS and BS in the
Baiyun sag. Based on the logging results, we apply subsidence back
stripping to recover the palaeogeomorphology background with the
development of BS. Finally, based on isostasy, we restore the basin
structure using the balanced section technique and analyze the
controlling factor of coarse-grained deposition distribution. Our
results refine the deposition process related to the hyper-extension and
the final breakup of the continental margin.