Abstract:

Depending on the data of the new oil and gas resources survey, the subsidence history and structural evolution of North Yellow Sea basin are emphatically analyzed in this paper based on the brief discussion on the characteristics of tectonic geology of North Yellow Sea basin. The study results can be summerized as following aspects:(1) The basic settling curve of this basin was broken-line shape of seven sections in which Upper Jurassic, Lower Cretaceous, Eocene, Oligocene and Neogene corresponded with the decline ones representing five episodic clear subsidences of this basin, Late Cretaceous to   Paleocene and Early Miocene corresponded with the rising ones reflecting the uplift and denudation of this basin.(2) The subsidence of this basin migrated from the east to the  west, from Mesozoic to Cenozoic. East depression underwent the most remarkable subsidence in Mesozoic. The main subsidence epoch of middle depression was in Eocene, and the rapid subsidence in west depression occurred in Eocene to Oligocene.(3) The structural evolution of this basin can be approximately divided into three development stages: Mesozoic fault basin stage, Paleogene superimposed fault basin stage and Neogene down-warped basin stage, in which the Mesozoic fault basin developed stage was the study emphasis for oil and gas exploration of North Yellow Sea basin.

Key words: structural evolution, subsidence history, North Yellow Sea basin, Mesozoic