Western fault zone of South China Sea and its physical simulation evidences

摘要

The western fault zone of the South China Sea is a strike-slip fault system and consists of four typical strike-slip faults. It is the western border of the South China Sea. The formation of the system is due to the extrusion of Indo - China Peninsula caused by the collision of India with Tibet and the spreading of the South China Sea in Cenozoic. There are five episodes of tectonic movement along this fault zone, which plays an important role in the Cenozoic evolution of the South China Sea. By the physical modeling experiments, it can be seen the strike-slip fault undergoes the sinistral and dextral movement due to the relative movement velocity change between the South China Sea block and the Indo - China block. The fault zone controls the evolution of the pull basins locating in the west of the South China Sea.