Origin of the Bohai Sea, North China Craton and implication for bi-directional back-arc extension in East Asia continental margin

Abstract. The Bohai Sea in eastern China is located in the back-arc extensional regime due to westward subduction of the Pacific Plate underneath the Eurasian Plate. It is one of the regions with frequent earthquakes. Previous recognition of the origin of the Bohai Sea was limited by the understanding of back-arc extensional mode perpendicular to the subduction zone in eastern Asian continental margin. In this paper, a new model for the genesis of the Bohai Sea is proposed, based on the construction of major fault system and investigation of several main boundaries enclosing the Bohai Sea. Through field investigation and analyses of tectonic landforms and boundary faults on the northwest coast of the Bohai Sea and eastern and western margins of the Liaodong Peninsula, and geological correlation of the Liaodong and Jiaodong Peninsulas and surrounding areas, we revealed a left-lateral strike-slip fault between the northwest coast of the Liaodong Bay and western margin of the Liaodong Peninsula, and proposed a right-lateral strike-slip fault between the eastern margin of the Liaodong Peninsula and northwestern margin of the Jiaodong Peninsula. This mode of movement may have been resulted from the NE stretching which is parallel to the subduction zone in northwestern Pacific margin. Therefore, we suggest that the formation of the Bohai Sea is resulted from the superimposition of the NE extension parallel to the subduction zone on the NW extension perpendicular to the subduction zone. We speculate that the two-direction extension perpendicular and parallel to the subduction zone should be the basic pattern of the back-arc extension with spherical-geometric effect.