Geology of the China Seas

Among the marginal basins worldwide, the South and East China Seas have been the focus of extensive research activities in the last three decades. It is now one the global hot spots in hydrocarbon explorations and scientific investigations. The region is experiencing rapid economic development with the offshore petroleum industry providing approximately one third of the domestic hydrocarbon production for Mainland China. Gas hydrates have been successfully recovered from the China Seas for the first time. Over the years, many volumes on the petroleum geology of the China Seas have been published in Chinese. Although an increasing number of papers in English have appeared recently, the majority deal with local or regional paleo-environment and sedimentology and they are scattered in different journals. This book provides a synthesis of the rich data available, particularly those generated by Chinese marine geologists and petroleum geologists and provides the very first synthesis of the geology off China.