Recently, new progress on structural analyses and dynamics of the Bohai Bay basin was achieved by the petroliferous basin structural analysis group of our school. The relevant research titled “New insight into East Asian tectonism since the late Mesozoic inferred from erratic inversions of NW-trending faulting within the Bohai Bay Basin” has been published on the journalGondwana Research (IF: 6.478). This work was made by Ph.D candidate Yiming Liu and Prof. Zhiping Wu from Dept. of Geology of our school, collaborated with Prof. Lijun Liu from Dept. of Geology, Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
The coupling relationship between the (paleo) Pacific Plate and the response characteristics of basins has always been the hot topic in structural geology and geodynamics. The East Asian margin displays a diverse and complex pattern of ancient and ongoing deformation, which is recorded in its geological and tectonic history. However, some Late Cretaceous geological manifestations are difficult to reconcile with this extensional environment subject to continued subduction. The late Mesozoic stress filed is still controversial and the dynamic origin is obscure. The researchers investigated the tectonic fluctuation of the BBB using structural and stratigraphic analyses to further understand the deformation history of the continental plates, by means of analyzing the erratic inversions of the NW-trending faults beneath the Bohai Sea basin. Influenced by the transformation of the regional stress field, the basin experienced alternating phases of shortening, stretching and shearing deformation. And a new model for the Bohai Bay basin tectonic evolution in the context of the oceanic subduction on the east was proposed.This model highlights that the basin initially developed during the Early Cretaceous, and the Late Cretaceous marks a stage of regional shortening without magmatism, which was proposed to reflect a previously unrecognized period of flat-slab subduction of the Izanagi Plate. The Cenozoic basins inherited from the Early Cretaceous and reworked deeply by the strike-slip deformation.
The petroliferous basin structural analysis group led by Prof. Zhiping Wu mainly focus on the research of structural analysis and basin dynamics of petroliferous basins offshore China, especially the Bohai Bay basin, the East China Sea basin and the northern margin of the South China Sea basins. This group has the advantaged over the prototype basin restoration, structural deformation characteristics and formation mechanisms of extensional/shearing superimposed basins, and reservoir forming mechanism of tectonic features. Based on the cooperation with the enterprises and international collaboration, a series of achievements have been obtained in recent years. The relevant works have been published on the journals of Gondwana Research, Tectonophysics, Marine and Petroleum Research, journal of Geology, Acta Geologica Sinica, etc. Two papers were named the “Top articles from outstanding S&T journals of China” in the year of 2015 and 2019 respectively.
For more information, please refer to https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gr.2020.01.022
By Yiming Liu
