Abstract:
The Mesozoic-Cenozoic tectonic activity in eastern China was mainly controlled by the interaction of the Pacific plate and the Philippine plate with the Eurasian plate. In recent years, the concept of multisphere tectonics of earth system has provided a new perspective for understanding the interaction between various layers of the East Asian convergence system. Based on the 1:1 million marine regional geological survey, this paper comprehensively summarizes the geological structure of China's sea areas and their adjacent areas, initially forming the "multisphere interactions in East Asia ocean-continent convergence zone" with the core of "one margin, two-stage subduction, three-stage extension, and hierarchical control". In addition, a new first-order tectonic unit division scheme was first proposed in the region between the oceanic plate and the continental margin, referred to as "East Asia continental margin convergence zone". According to the differences of tectonic evolution, this tectonic unit could be roughly divided into the northern Japan-Ryukyu section and the southern Philippine section based on Taiwan Island. "East Asia continental margin convergence zone" has provided a powerful explanation for the geodynamic process of multiple geotectonic events in East Asia under the West Pacific subduction and Philippine Sea plate subduction system since the Meso-Cenozoic. It formed geomorphic features in China's sea areas which show zonal variation in East China's sea areas and cyclic variation in South China's sea areas. The geomorphic framework further caused the sedimentary differentiation model of "Great River-Great Delta-Terrigenous-Banded" and "Short source river-High angle slope-Multisource-Annular" in East and South China's sea areas, respectively.