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![Figure 3. Cartoon after Clark et al. [2004] (modified by permission of...](profile/Yi-Yan-19/publication/251429939/figure/fig1/AS:341727664721921@1458485632080/Cartoon-after-Clark-et-al-2004-modified-by-permission-of-American-Geophysical-Union_Q320.jpg)
The Cenozoic Song Hong-Yinggehai Basin in the South China Sea contains a large volume of sediment that has been used in previous studies, together with regional geomorphology, to argue for the existence of a large palaeodrainage system that connected eastern Tibet with the South China Sea. To test this and to understand the significance of sediment...
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... northern and eastern parts of the island are covered by Late Cenozoic volcanic rocks hence erosion in this area has since been low. A NE-SW oriented sample transect from the coast to the centrally located Wuzhishan Mountain (marked A-B in Figure 4) thus captures regional trends in exhumation rele- vant to sediment delivery to the marine basins located to the west and south of the island. ...
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... E-W ori- ented faults (Wangwu-Wenjiao, Jianfeng-Diaoluo and Jiusuo-Lingshui faults) are significantly deeper and appear to cut through the Moho [ Lei et al., 2009]. The Wangwu-Wenjiao fault (Figure 4) is the most notable as it serves as a boundary between the volcanic areas to the northeast and the topo- graphically higher granitic terrain in the central and southern parts of the island. North of the fault the depth to Moho is much shallower, crust is thinner (between 31 and 33 km), and heat flow higher, up to 87 mW/m 2 [Lei et al., 2009]. ...
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... The Yinggehai Basin is located in the northwestern part of the South China Sea, which is one of the main areas for offshore natural gas exploration in China (Sun et al., 2003;Yan et al., 2011;Fan et al., 2021). The Yinggehai Basin is one of the largest strike-slip basins in the world (Zhu et al., 2009;Liu et al., 2021aLiu et al., , 2021b. ...
The circulation of magma is typically accompanied by the transfer of materials and thermal energy that can significantly alter the compositions and properties of sedimentary rocks, thereby influencing hydrocarbon generation and accumulation in sedimentary basins. In this study, the effects of magmatic activity on hydrocarbon accumulation are summarized and clarified for nine sedimentary basins in China from different perspectives. Magmatism has a multi–role relationship with hydrocarbon accumulation processes in sedimentary basins, affecting hydrocarbon generation, migration, accumulation, preservation and destruction. Volcanic ash provides nutrients that promote biological growth and enhance primary productivity. The extremely anoxic environment caused by magmatism can decelerate the oxidation and decomposition of organic matter, which favors the deposition and preservation of organic material. The upwelling of magma can transfer heat upward, enhancing the maturation of organic matter and promoting hydrocarbon generation. Mantle–derived hydrogen–rich fluids can effectively replenish the hydrogen that is consumed by thermal cracking of hydrocarbons. In addition, abundant mantle–derived inorganic CO2 can cause the dissolution of carbonate minerals and cements in reservoirs, generating secondary pores. Furthermore, magmatic intrusions often form effective hydrocarbon traps, and the strata–penetrating magmatic walls and unconformable surfaces can act as predominant hydrocarbon migration pathways. It is noteworthy that the effects of magmatism differ markedly in different tectonic settings. Chinese basins in back arc rift settings (such as the Bohai Bay basin) are undergoing plate subduction. This geological scenario allows for the upward migration of magma from the mantle, along with the transport of thermal energy, mantle–related inorganic CO2, H-enriched materials, and occasionally volcanic ash. In contrast, basins in post-collisional rift settings (such as the Permian Junggar basin) have undergone lower crust delamination. These basins typically feature volcanic ash derived from the crust, as well as materials originated from the mantle. Lastly, basins in compressional settings (such as the Ordos basin) have experienced crustal block collision. The inner parts of these basins often contain significant amounts of volcanic ash and small-scale magmatic intrusions derived from the crust.
Although magmatism can have significant positive impacts on hydrocarbon accumulation, there are also some negative aspects, such as porosity degradation in the oil and gas reservoirs, thermal cracking and degradation of oil, and breaching seals. Whether the movements of deep fluid are advantageous or disadvantageous for hydrocarbon accumulation mainly depends on relationship of hydrocarbon migration and charging, the formation of traps, and the composition, properties, and duration of deep fluid movements. The characteristics and movement of magma are important factors that need to be considered in hydrocarbon exploration and the evaluation of hydrocarbon reservoirs in sedimentary basins.
... In contrast, the detritus in submarine channel of Yinggehai Formation is typical of distant source transportation, the Red River is the main source of detritus contributed to the submarine channel of Yinggehai Formation, while the Wanglou River and Ningyuan River originating from Hainan Island are the subordinate sources of detritus (Fig. 11b). Red River has been regarded as the main source of sediments in Yinggehai Basin during Cenozoic Fyhn et al., 2019;Wang et al., 2019a), and has provided about 80% of the total sediments in this basin (Yan et al., 2011). The change of source areas of the submarine channels in Ledong area is closely related to the increase in contribution of Red River. ...
... The SE Asian topography and drainage systems are influenced by the spreading of the SE Asian and the Tibetan Plateau margin (Clark et al., 2005;Kirby et al., 2002;Lan et al., 2014;Zhang et al., 2017;Zheng et al., 2013). Its climatic and tectonic changes provide the possible links between erosion and sediment accumulation through geological time (Yan et al., 2011;Clift and Sun, 2006). However, the Earth's surface processes were neglected in most geodynamic models (Burov, 2007;Bishop, 2007;Gerya, 2010;Vogt et al., 2012;Li, 2011;Liu et al., 2021;Gurnis et al., 2004;Liu and Gurnis, 2008) due to their contrasting timescale. ...
... It has been extensively studied for its tectonic activities and the sediment process. It comprises the eastern Taixinan Basin (TXNB) and the Peral River Mouth Basin (PRMB) (Ding et al., 2013;Sun et al., 2017), the northern Beibu Gulf Basin (BBGB), the southern Qiongdongnan Basin (QDNB) (Gong et al., 2011;Hu et al., 2013), and the western Yinggehai Basin (YGHB) (Lei et al., 2015;Yan et al., 2011). Their distribution of sediments along the offshore can be used as a paleogeographic constraint for the upstream erosion in the source regions (Tinker et al., 2008;Helland-Hansen, 2009;Hampson et al., 2014) and tectonics therein (Pechlivanidou et al., 2018;Calvès et al., 2018). ...
... For this reason, we must consider the systematic reconstruction of paleogeography and paleobathymeteries to test various predicted surface and deep processes. Therefore, the advent of numerical simulation tool (Badlands) has performed multiple spatio-temporal scales of synthetic landscape evolution (Salles and Hardiman, 2016;Salles et al., 2017) and drainage systems for sedimentation in a basin (Yan et al., 2011;Zhao et al., 2015). This research aims to link the SE Tibet tectonics to identify the significant controlling factors over the sediment's budgets contributing a critical role in paleobathymetries and paleo-topography in the NSCSM basins. ...
Tectonic processes of the SE Tibet Plateau (SETP) and the northern South China Sea margin (NSCSM) strongly affected the surface drainage system for sediment transportation to deposition. It remains challenging to investigate the dominant mechanisms such as tectonics, deep dynamics, and surface processes. This paper aims to examine the influence of the SETP paleogeography on the NSCSM. Twenty-eight seismic profiles were quantified by flexurally interpolated backstripping and significantly correlated with the published paleogeography. A numerical simulation tool (Badlands) is assigned to study the integrated response of surface processes and deep dynamics. This paper inferred that drastic sedimentation changes in our models were linearly correlated mainly with erosion during the SETP uplifts, dynamic topography, and flexural isostasy. Deep dynamics and tectonic processes control basin architectures for sediment depositions, whereas the surface processes contribute isostatically in response to uplifts in the source region. We inferred that Eocene was the stage of extension, thinning of lithosphere (Te = 10 km) that is linked with the low topography (<2000 m) and erodibility (Є) of 5e-7 in the SETP. However, the increase in cumulative thickness is associated with strengthening the lithosphere (Te = 15 km) and tributary rotation with its rise in SETP topography (≥4000 m) during the Oligocene to Early Miocene. The Middle Miocene doesn't have the source-sink linkage for its high SETP topography with low deposition. But a strong connection with paleogeographic evolution in the later stage due to the rise in SETP topography and Taiwan orogeny.
... In general, traditional proxies of whole-rock geochemistry and mineralogy provide the richest sources of information regarding the compositional nature and tectonic setting of dominant source terranes, and they have proven to be useful in discriminating different sources of modern sediments within individual river basins (e.g., Clift et al., 2008;Shao et al., 2016a;Vezzoli et al., 2016). The current sample coverage of whole-rock geochemistry and mineralogy in the Cenozoic strata of the East and South China Seas is limited to certain boreholes (e.g., Cao et al., 2017;Li et al., 2016a;Sun et al., 2014;Yan et al., 2011). These provenance proxies are generally sensitive to the effects of hydrodynamic sorting during deposition and chemical dissolution by diagenesis and weathering (Vermeesch and Garzanti, 2015), rendering a poor correlation between modern river sources and ancient basin sediments. ...
... were first identified to have been fed by proximal sourcesWang et al., 2016a;Yan et al., 2011) because most of them are similar to the modern sediments of Hainan rivers in their very limited range of zircon ages (Figs. S5 and S6C). ...
Large rivers are the arteries of continents. Those originating from the Tibetan Plateau and traversing East Asia have a relatively young history due to continuous Cenozoic perturbations. However, it has been a long journey to reconstruct their genesis and dynamic evolution, in which many puzzles and challenges remain. The river history is documented by provenance information in the ultimate sediment sinks in the East and South China Seas, but a regional-scale correlation of provenance data is still developing. Here, we explore the promise of this provenance perspective by reconstructing the evolution of three large rivers in China (the Yangtze, Pearl, and Red Rivers) by compiling and reevaluating a large volume of published provenance data (zircon U-Pb geochronology, K-feldspar Pb isotopes, and whole-rock Nd isotopes) from both Cenozoic strata and modern sediments from the East and South China Seas and the large river basins. Unlike traditional approaches that average provenance signatures, intersample variability was carefully evaluated. The general inheritance of zircon age spectral patterns and small fluctuations of Nd isotopes in the Neogene strata suggest provenance stabilization in the East and South China Seas and the establishment of near-modern drainage configurations. The paleodrainage basins before the Miocene are interpreted to have been smaller than their modern sizes, and drainage expansion likely occurred over the Oligocene. Our analysis suggests that the widely accepted models that link drainage between the ancient Yangtze and Red Rivers may be unlikely. The compiled provenance signatures and prior paleocurrent measurements of Paleogene strata distributed in the southeastern Tibetan Plateau margin show sediment supplied from local terranes instead of through-flowing river systems.
... Other studies have indicated that the Yinggehai and Qiongdongnan basins were not exclusively sourced from the Red River but instead of Central Vietnam and Hainan Island since the Late Miocene Cui et al., 2018Cui et al., , 2019Li et al., 2019). Yan et al. (2011) analysed the detrital zircons U-Pb ages peaking at 110-90 Ma during Oligocene and Miocene and suggested that Hainan Island was an important source of the two basins because of rapid erosion in Hainan Island since the Oligocene, particularly for the northern Qiongdongnan Basin (Shi et al., 2011). However, the U-Pb age spectra of the sediments in the Early Oligocene in the Central Depression of the Qiongdongnan Basin can not distinguish the provenances from Hainan Island and local basement uplifts (Shao et al., 2016). ...
... The Qiongdongnan Basin lies on the northwestern continental margin of the South China Sea and is surrounded by Hainan Island to the north, the Shenhu Uplift to the east and the Xisha Islands (or Paracel Islands) to the south (Fig. 1a). To the west lies the Yinggehai Basin into which the Red River and coastal rivers from Central Vietnam and Hainan Island are interpreted to deliver the detritus (Fig. 1a) (van Hoang et al., 2010;Yan et al., 2011;Jiang et al., 2015). The Qiongdongnan Basin is divided into central Qiongdongnan Basin (also called the central depression) and associated northern Qiongdongnan Basin (also called the northern depression) and southern Qiongdongnan Basin (also called the southern uplift) based on the distribution of structural lows Song et al., 2014;Li et al., 2018 and references there in) (Fig. 1b). ...
... Surface uplift may have propagated to the southeast since the middle Cenozoic along the paleo-Red River with important middle and late Neogene uplift pulses, but also earlier on during the Oligocene to early Miocene (Clift et al., 2006a;Fyhn et al., 2018 and references therein). So river capture and a reshaped Red River hinterland have been proposed (Clark et al., 2004;Clift et al., 2006a), and there are multiple interpretations for the timing of drainage capture from the paleo-Red River system, as follows: Eocene (Richardson et al., 2010); before the Late Oligocene (Clift et al., 2006a;Yan et al., 2011); and prior to or coeval with the Late Miocene (Clark et al., 2004;van Hoang et al., 2009;Wang et al., 2014;Lyu et al., 2021). However, there are still Lyu et al., 2021) with strata, seismic reflectors, evolution stages, depositional environments, sea level changes and tectonic events (Leloup et al., 1995;Liu et al., 2006;Lei et al., 2021). ...
Provenance changes and tectonic activity during the Early Oligocene in the Qiongdongnan Basin are responses to the evolution of the northwestern South China Sea. However, the provenance of the Lower Oligocene (Yacheng Formation) in the Qiongdongnan Basin is poorly understood owing to a lack of available borehole samples and poorly constrained stratigraphy. Here, combined with published data from wells of different part of the basin, we apply U–Pb dating of detrital zircons on samples nearby the western boundary fault of the basin to analyse the provenance of the Yacheng Formation and its regional tectonic implications. The zircon U–Pb age spectra of the sediments in three different members of Yacheng Formation show different features. A single U–Pb age peak at ca. 235 Ma occurs in the Third Member of the Yacheng Formation, whereas the U–Pb age spectra in the stratigraphically younger Second Yacheng Formation show different zircon U–Pb age spectra features: an age pattern has two major peaks at ca. 248 Ma and 441 Ma and lacks zircons younger than 200 Ma, and another pattern has two major peaks at ca. 95 Ma and 252 Ma. The Early Oligocene provenance evolution of the western Qiongdongnan Basin is reconstructed by comparing the zircon U–Pb age spectra of the sediments in the different samples to potential sources nearby. Abrupt changes in the U–Pb ages throughout the Lower Oligocene in the western Qiongdongnan Basin suggest that sediment supply in the Second Member of Yacheng Formation was dominated by rivers from western Hainan Island and Central Vietnam. By contrast, Hainan Island and local structural highs within the Qiongdongnan Basin were the main sources in the Third and First Members of the Yacheng Formation, respectively. The difference in the U–Pb age spectra between sediments in the Qiongdongnan Basin and the Red River implies that the time at which the Red River system entered the Qiongdongnan Basin was later than the Early Oligocene. Paleorivers sourced from Central Vietnam entered into the western Qiongdongnan Basin and did not reach the central or eastern part of the basin until ca. 31.5–29.9 Ma. An examination of the activity of the Red River Fault showed that the transition of provenance in the study area during the Early Oligocene could be a response to sinistral strike-slip motion along the Red River Fault.
... Previous works argued a major Paleogene river (paleo-Yangtze River) drained the upper and middle modern Yangtze basin before the uplift of Eastern Tibetan Plateau, which then flowed southward to the Red River and finally drained into the Beibu Gulf (Clark et al., 2004;Clift et al., 2020;Zheng et al., 2020). Most of the sediments from the paleo-Yangtze/Red River could have been deposited in the Beibu Gulf, Yinggehai and Qiongdongnan Basins if such a model works (Yan et al., 2011). On the other hand, if the contribution from a paleo-Yangtze River before 32 Ma was dominant, we will expect to see obvious isotopic signals similar to the Upper Yangtze River (i.e., Jinsha River) source. ...
The Pearl River drains the South China Block and delivers large amounts of sediments to the northern South China Sea, and its development can be closely linked to the regional paleoenvironmental changes. However, the evolutionary history of the Pearl River has been poorly understood, mainly because of the lack of continuous and high-resolution sedimentary records over a long geological time. In this study, we present multiple new analytical results, including clay mineral assemblages and Sr-Nd isotopic compositions of the <2μm siliciclastic sediments, from the latest deep sea drilling core in the northern South China Sea from International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Site U1501. We aim to reconstruct the evolutionary history of the Pearl River by tracing changes in clay mineral assemblages and Sr-Nd isotopic compositions. Provenance analysis indicates that the sediment source experienced a significant change between 32 and 30 Ma. Specifically, sediments prior to 32 Ma were derived from the southeastern Cathaysia coast, whereas sediments post to 30 Ma were mainly supplied by a proto-Pearl River. This provenance transition indicates that the modern-scale Pearl River has fully developed at least ∼30 Ma and began to contribute sediments to the northern South China Sea. We additionally compared the timings of major climatic and tectonic events in this region, and suggest that the topographic uplift of the SE Tibetan Plateau most likely drove the large-scale westward expansion of rivers drainage from the coast located in the Cathaysia Block to the interior of Yangtze Block. As a result of this fluvial drainage evolution followed by the development of Pearl River, geochemical and clay mineralogical characteristics of the deposits in the northern South China Sea correspondingly changed.
... Previous studies have mainly focused on the provenance (Wang et al., , 2019Cao et al., 2015;Jiang et al., 2015), source rocks, reservoirs, cap rocks, migration and accumulation mechanisms and other factors related to the YGHB since the Cenozoic (Hao et al., 1995(Hao et al., , 1996(Hao et al., , 1998(Hao et al., , 2000(Hao et al., , 2002(Hao et al., , 2004Zhang and Hao, 1997;Chen et al., 1998;Xie et al., 2001;Huang et al., 2002Huang et al., , 2003Huang et al., , 2009Luo et al., 2003;Wang and Huang, 2008;Yan et al., 2011;Zhang et al., 2013;Sun et al., 2014;Liu et al., 2015b). Current research shows that (1) the detrital age spectrum of the second member of the YGHF in the DF tectonic area is complex, T20 T30 T40 T41 T50 T52 T80 T70 T62 T61 T60 T100 0 5 10 15 25 30 35 20 T27 T71 and it is a mixed area dominated by the Red River provenance; ...
The Dongfang1-1 gas field (DF1-1) in the Yinggehai Basin is currently the largest offshore self-developed gas field in China and is rich in oil and gas resources. The second member of the Pliocene Yinggehai Formation (YGHF) is the main gas-producing formation and is composed of various sedimentary types; however, a clear understanding of the sedimentary types and development patterns is lacking. Here, typical lithofacies, logging facies and seismic facies types and characteristics of the YGHF are identified based on high-precision 3D seismic data combined with drilling, logging, analysis and testing data. Based on 3D seismic interpretation and attribute analysis, the origin of high-amplitude reflections is clarified, and the main types and evolution characteristics of sedimentary facies are identified. Taking gas formation upper II (IIU) as an example, the plane distribution of the delta front and bottom current channel is determined; finally, a comprehensive sedimentary model of the YGHF second member is established. This second member is a shallowly buried “bright spot” gas reservoir with weak compaction. The velocity of sandstone is slightly lower than that of mudstone, and the reflection has medium amplitude when there is no gas. The velocity of sandstone decreases considerably after gas accumulation, resulting in an increase in the wave impedance difference and high-amplitude (bright spot) reflection between sandstone and mudstone; the range of high amplitudes is consistent with that of gas-bearing traps. The distribution of gas reservoirs is obviously controlled by dome-shaped diapir structural traps, and diapir faults are channels through which natural gas from underlying Miocene source rocks can enter traps. The study area is a delta front deposit developed on a shallow sea shelf. The lithologies of the reservoir are mainly composed of very fine sand and coarse silt, and a variety of sedimentary structural types reflect a shallow sea delta environment; upward thickening funnel type, strong toothed bell type and toothed funnel type logging facies are developed. In total, 4 stages of delta front sand bodies (corresponding to progradational reflection seismic facies) derived from the Red River and Blue River in Vietnam have developed in the second member of the YGHF; these sand bodies are dated to 1.5 Ma and correspond to four gas formations. During sedimentation, many bottom current channels (corresponding to channel fill seismic facies) formed, which interacted with the superposed progradational reflections. When the provenance supply was strong in the northwest, the area was dominated by a large set of delta front deposits. In the period of relative sea level rise, surface bottom currents parallel to the coastline were dominant, and undercutting erosion was obvious, forming multistage superimposed erosion troughs. Three large bottom current channels that developed in the late sedimentary period of gas formation IIU are the most typical.
... Therefore, a detailed comparison of the sediment provenance signals among the major large rivers and offshore basins holds the key to testing the paleo-Red River model (Clark et al., 2004;Clift et al., 2006a). A variety of provenance methods, including bulk Nd isotopes (Clift et al., 2006a;Yan et al., 2007), rare earth elements (REE) , heavy mineral analysis Jiang et al., 2015;Wang et al., 2015a), detrital zircon U-Pb geochronology Hoang et al., 2009;Jiang et al., 2015;Lei et al., 2019;Wang et al., 2018a;Wang et al., 2016a;Wang et al., 2014b;Wang et al., 2015a;Yan et al., 2011) and K-feldspar Pb isotopes (Clift et al., 2008b;Wang et al., 2019a;Zhang et al., 2021e), have been applied to constrain the drainage evolution of the Red River. Clift et al. (2006a) carried out Nd isotope analyses of mudstones in the Hanoi Basin and showed that there was a sharp increase of εNd values from ~ − 17 to − 10 during the late Oligocene (Fig. 14). ...
The origin and development of the major rivers in the eastern Tibetan Plateau have been a special focus of research because of the close links recognized between river formation, tectonic uplift, and climate change. In this article, we review a number of sedimentary provenance investigations aiming to constrain the drainage evolution of the main rivers draining eastern Tibet, including the Mekong, Red, Pearl, Yangtze, and Yellow rivers. The Mekong River was formed no later than ~17 Ma, likely triggered by a period of enhanced East Asian summer monsoon precipitation during the middle Miocene. A single large paleo-Red River draining the southeastern Tibetan Plateau into the Song Hong - Yinggehai Basin had been proposed to explain the unusual drainage pattern. However, this is not compatible with the distinctive provenance signals in the southeastern Tibetan river sands compared with the Song Hong - Yinggehai Basin, indicating that there has been no large-scale paleo-Red River since the late Eocene. The Pearl River has formed during the late Oligocene, as there was a sharp provenance change in the Pearl River Mouth Basin. Moreover, rivers draining southeast coastal China (e.g., Min River) migrated westward at the same time. These clues highlight that paleo-rivers in southeastern China started to migrate inland during the Late Oligocene. In contrast, the formation timing of the Yangtze River is still under intensively debated, ranging from late Cretaceous to Holocene, mainly due to the complex evolution history of this trans-continental river. The formation of the First Bend of the Yangtze River likely happened during the late Eocene, resulting from changes in the regional topographic gradient triggered by local magmatic activity and/or movement of the Ailao Shan-Red River Fault. Onshore and offshore provenance evidence indicate that incision of the Three Gorges happened no later than the late Miocene. Formation of the Square Bend of the Yellow River occurred prior to the late Pliocene, while incision of the Sanmen Gorge, a key capture point connecting the upper-middle and lower Yellow River likely occurred in the early Pleistocene (~1.2 Ma). Multi-provenance proxies on well-dated and continuous sedimentary records can provide objective information in terms of the origin and evolution of the major rivers flowing from eastern Tibet. Although the evolution of these rivers remains debatable, a comparison among the river evolution, climatic and tectonic events suggests that Eocene local and isolated drainage patterns is likely related to the dry climate condition in the East Asia. Oligocene and late Miocene inlandward expansion and integration of rivers coincides with both the formation of the East Asian Monsoon and the timing of major tectonic events, such as the growth of the Tibetan Plateau and the rifting and opening of the eastern Asian marginal basins, highlighting the importance of climate and tectonics in controlling the evolution of major rivers.
... Paleo-river systems are displayed according to Voris (2000) and Sathiamurthy and Voris (2006). monsoon evolution, and tectonic activities (e.g., Liu et al., 2003;Liu et al., 2007b;Liu et al., 2010;Schimanski and Stattegger, 2005;Clift et al., 2006;Colin et al., 2010;Tjallingii et al., 2010;Tjallingii et al., 2014;Yan et al., 2011;Sang and Liu, 2021). The East Asian monsoon controls seasonal changes in wind patterns, temperature, and rainfall over Southeast Asia, which strongly impact the weathering process on the land, forcing significantly terrigenous sediment variations in the South China Sea (Webster, 1994;Chu and Wang, 2003;Liu et al., 2004;Liu et al., 2005;Chen et al., 2017;Sang et al., 2019). ...
Clay mineralogy, major-element geochemistry, and Sr-Nd isotopic compositions from Core MD05-2896 collected in the southern South China Sea have been utilized to investigate the discrimination of sediment provenance and to reconstruct a history of chemical weathering in the Mekong River basin over the last 45 ka. The results display that the clay mineral assemblage of the core is characterized by abundant smectite (27%–56%) and illite (18%–32%), with moderate kaolinite (13%–23%) and chlorite (11%–18%), and the ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratio and εNd value narrowly vary in the ranges of 0.7232–0.7272 and from –10.9 to –9.6, respectively. According to clay mineralogy and Sr-Nd isotopic compositions, the Mekong River is the main terrigenous sedimentary source to the southern South China Sea, with no detectable change over the time span of the study, despite having strong sea-level fluctuations. Clay mineralogy and elemental geochemistry analyses reveal that higher smectite/(illite + chlorite), smectite/kaolinite, TiO2/K2O, and SiO2/K2O ratios during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 3 and 1 suggest enhanced chemical weathering, whereas lower values of these ratios during MIS 2 indicate weakened chemical weathering. These proxies reveal a close relationship with the available climate records of the East Asian monsoon evolution, implying that the chemical weathering in the Mekong River basin has been strongly controlled by the East Asian monsoon rainfall.
... The Yinggehai Basin had sufficient material sources from the numerous nearby river systems (Figure 1a). The provenance mainly consists of the Red River source from the Yangtze Plate in the northern part of the Yinggehai Basin, the Truong Son Belt source along the coast of Vietnam in the west and the Hainan source from Hainan Island in the east (Figure 1a) [40][41][42]. The Truong Son Belt and the Red River source are collectively referred to as the northwestern provenance. ...
... Some major onshore faults are shown, which include the 1 Lo River Fault, 2 Red River Fault, 3 The Yinggehai Basin had sufficient material sources from the numerous nearby river systems (Figure 1a). The provenance mainly consists of the Red River source from the Yangtze Plate in the northern part of the Yinggehai Basin, the Truong Son Belt source along the coast of Vietnam in the west and the Hainan source from Hainan Island in the east (Figure 1a) [40][41][42]. The Truong Son Belt and the Red River source are collectively referred to as the northwestern provenance. ...
... Since the late Miocene, no large-scale plate collision or river capture events have been recorded [7]. After the collision of the Indosinian-Eurasian plate and the uplift of the Qinghai-Tibet orogenic belt in the late Paleocene to early Eocene, the provenance characteristics of the Yangtze plate, Indosinian plate and South China plate have been relatively stable [40,58]. Previous research has found that the Red River was captured by the Yangtze River before the late early Miocene [37]. ...
The Ledong submarine channel and the Dongfang submarine fan, two remarkable sedimentary systems developed during the late Miocene, are considered promising hydrocarbon reservoirs in the Yinggehai Basin of the South China Sea. A comparative study was conducted to reveal the differences between the source-to-sink characteristics of the two gas-bearing and gravity-driven depositional systems to determine their provenances, formation mechanisms and migration paths as well as their key controlling factors. The heavy mineral assemblages and detrital zircon U-Pb dating results suggest that the Ledong channel was fed by the Hainan provenance from the eastern margin, whereas the Dongfang fan was supplied by northwestern terrigenous sources. The relative sea level transgression and sufficient sediment supply triggered the delivery of deltaic loads toward the continental shelves. Seismic data show that fracture activity had a great impact on the tectono-morphologic features of the margins. During downward flow, the gravity flow along the Yingdong Slope encountered steeply falling faulted slope break belts and formed the Ledong incised channel, and the gravity flow of the Yingxi Slope moved through the gently dipping flexural break slope zone and formed the Dongfang dispersed lobe deposits. Since ca. 30 Ma, the sedimentary center has been migrating from the north to the southeast, which produced a clear control of the southeastward distribution pattern of these two sedimentary systems. Observations of cores and thin sections indicate that the rock structures and their compositions are more mature in the Dongfang channel than in the Ledong fan. This study documents significant differences and similarities by comparing the source-to-sink processes of the two gravity-driven systems that developed in the Yinggehai Basin and provides analogies for understanding similar submarine sedimentary systems that developed under similar geological contexts worldwide.
