mal>man’,’serif’; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 宋体; mso-font-kerning: 0pt" lang=EN-US>There are a lot of Cenozoic basins from west to east in the northern margin of the South China Sea, including the Beibu Gulf, the Qiongdongnan, the Pearl River Mouth and the Taixinan Basins. This paper, based on the comparison between a large number of field observation and marine seismic data, reveals that the northern continental margin of the South China Sea is not a passive continental margin before 34 Ma. The northern continental margin of the South China Sea actually became a typical passive continental margin since 15 Ma, when the South China Sea oceanic crust terminated spreading. At last, all structures in the northern continental margin of the South China Sea are offset by the late, diffusive NWW-striking faults resulting from the gradual indentation of the Philippines Plate to the Eurasian Plate along the Luzon Arc and the Taiwan Orogenic Belt between 10 Ma and about 5 Ma. mas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

mal>man’,’serif’" lang=EN-US> 

mal>