The South China Sea

1. Front Matter

   Pages I-X

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2. Introduction

   • Pinxian Wang, Qianyu Li

   Pages 1-23

3. Oceanographical and Geological Background

   • Pinxian Wang, Qianyu Li

   Pages 25-73

4. Stratigraphy and Sea Level Changes

   • Qianyu Li, Guangfa Zhong, Jun Tian

   Pages 75-170

5. Sedimentology

   • Zhifei Liu, Wei Huang, Jianru Li, Pinxian Wang, Rujian Wang, Kefu Yu et al.

   Pages 171-295

6. Upper Water Structure and Paleo-Monsoon5

   • Zhimin Jian, Jun Tian, Xiangjun Sun

   Pages 297-394

7. Deep Waters and Oceanic Connection

   • Quanhong Zhao, Qianyu Li, Zhimin Jian

   Pages 395-437

8. Biogeochemistry and the Carbon Reservoir

   • Meixun Zhao, Pinxian Wang, Jun Tian, Jianru Li

   Pages 439-483

9. History of the South China Sea – A Synthesis

   • Pinxian Wang, Qianyu Li

   Pages 487-496

10. Back Matter

    Pages 497-506

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Pinxian Wang and Qianyu Li The South China Sea (SCS) (Fig. 1. 1) offers a special attraction for Earth scientists world-wide because of its location and its well-preserved hemipelagic sediments. As the largest one of the marginal seas separating Asia from the Paci?c, the largest continent from the largest ocean, the SCS functions as a focal point in land-sea int- actions of the Earth system. Climatically, the SCS is located between the Western Paci?c Warm Pool, the centre of global heating at the sea level, and the Tibetan Plateau, the centre of heating at an altitude of 5,000m. Geomorphologically, the SCS lies to the east of the highest peak on earth, Zhumulangma or Everest in the Himalayas (8,848m elevation) and to the west of the deepest trench in the ocean, Philippine Trench (10,497m water depth) (Wang P. 2004). Biogeographically, the SCS belongs to the so-called “East Indies Triangle” where modern marine and terrestrial biodiversity reaches a global maximum (Briggs 1999). Among the major marginal sea basins from the west Paci?c, the SCS presents some of the best conditions for accumulating complete paleoclimatic records in its hemipelagic deposits. These records are favorable for high-resolution pa- oceanographic studies because of high sedimentation rates and good carbonate preservation. It may not be merely a coincidence that two cores from the southern 14 SCS were among the ?rst several cores in the world ocean used by AMS C dating for high-resolution stratigraphy (Andree et al. 1986; Broecker et al. 1988).

• Marine geology
• Ocean
• Oceanography
• Sediment
• geomorphology
• marine
• oceanic
• sea level
• hydrogeology
• mineral resources

• State Key Laboratory of Marine Geology, Tongji University, 200092 Shanghai, China, People’s Republic

  Pinxian Wang, Qianyu Li

• School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Australia

  Qianyu Li

Pinxian Wang was born in Shanghai in 1936. He graduated from the Moscow State University in 1960, majoring in paleontology, and was Alexander von Humboldt Fellow in 1981-82 in Kiel, Germany. He is now Professor at the Tongji University, where he was Director of the Department of Marine Geology and the Laboratory of Marine Geology for years. His research activities are mainly devoted to paleoceanography and micropaleontology in the Western Pacific and paleo-monsoon studies in East Asia, especially in the South China Sea. He was co-chief scientist of the Ocean Drilling Program Leg 184 to the South China Sea in 1999 and the Marco Polo Cruise to the South China Sea in 2005. He has promoted China’s involvement in international deep-sea programs and founded the series of "Asian Marine Geology Conferences". He is Member of the Chinese Academy of Science, Honorary Fellow of the Geological Society London, AAAS Fellow,and Milutin Milankovic Medalist of EGU in 2007.

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