Abstract: Late Compressional Features, East China Sea Shelf Basin

Alan E. Cunningham, Mark R. Prebish, Gloria Eisenstadt, John W. Norris, Dieter K. Letsch

Many anticlinal folds observed in the East China Sea Shelf Basin are interpreted to result from a change in regional stress from tensional to compressional. This compression is interpreted to have occurred during the late Eocene to Oligocene Yuquan movement. These features were observed most frequently south of the Mingyuefeng 1 well within China's recently offered Fourth Round Acreage. Many of these structures are interpreted to be related to reverse and strike-slip motion along reactivated, Late Cretaceous to late Eocene, synrift, normal faults. An early to middle Miocene regional unconformity truncates the crest of most anticlinal features, and does not appear to be involved in the folding episode.

Late Eocene to Oligocene compressional highs present attractive structural targets in the East China Sea Shelf Basin. The deformed sedimentary section thickens toward the rift-basin boundary faults, suggesting synrift sedimentation. Consequently, there is no thinning of the synrift section across the crest of the structural highs formed by postrift compression. The timing of these compressional structural highs, however, must be compared with the hydrocarbon generation and migration history from source rocks in adjacent half grabens to properly assess accumulation potential.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90982©1994 AAPG International Conference and Exhibition, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, August 21-24, 1994