Marine sediments on the continental slope of the NE South China Sea have appropriate thickness, methane-generating potential, and occur in a suitable pressure-temperature regime to hsot gas hydreate. Evidence for gas hydrate, the bottom simulating reflector (BSR), is observed ot the south of Taiwan on reflection seismic records, and can be used to suggest that gas hdyrates are widely distributed. The tectonosedimentary framework south of Taiwan gbears directly upon methane generation and the likelihood of the presence of significant gas hydrate deposits. Three zones of probable hydrate occurrence have been delineated along the margins of the NE South China Sea: (1) in a thick accumulation of sediment along the northern passive margin; (2) along a more thinly sedimented eastern active collisional margin, and especially; (3) in a zone of thick originally passive margin sedimentaion into which the collisional margin has encroached obliquely.
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