The South China Sea Deep: A Research Project on Life History of Marginal Sea
Abstract
A major research project has been launched in China to investigate evolution and various processes in the deep-water part a of the South China Sea. The "South China Sea Deep" project (2011-2018) is supported by the NSF of China with a total budget no less than ~23 US Dollar (150 Million Chinese yuan), and covers a broad spectrum of scientific topics. Advanced geophysical and geochemical tools will be applied to re-estimate the age of its oceanic crust, to verify the existence of the "Hainan Mantle Plume", and to explore the origin of volcanic chains in the deep basin. Sedimentary archives, both off-shore and on-shore, will be analyzed to reconstruct the history of sediment response to the basin evolution, with focus on changes of deep-water circulation driven by tectonic deformation of the basin. Deep-water observations will be organized to examine near-bottom sediment transport, methane seepages, and microbial distribution and ecology above and below sea-floor. With a combination of tectonic-magmatic, sedimentologic-paleoceanographic, and microbiological-geochemical approaches, the project is expected to reveal the life history of the South China Sea, the largest low-latitude marginal sea in the modern world. Recent progress of the project will be presented, and perspectives of international cooperation will be discussed.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2011
- Bibcode:
- 2011AGUFMOS52B..01W
- Keywords:
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- 0400 BIOGEOSCIENCES;
- 4200 OCEANOGRAPHY: GENERAL;
- 4900 PALEOCEANOGRAPHY;
- 8100 TECTONOPHYSICS