The South China Sea (SCS) is the largest marginal sea in the western Pacific Ocean. Significant breakthroughs have been made in the SCS researches, especially through the South China Sea Deep Initiative and International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP). One of the surprising discoveries is that the expected mantle serpentinites at the IODP drill sites are not found at the northern SCS continental margin; instead, the magma is found to erupt rapidly, indicating the significant magmatism at the SCS soon after the continental rifting and probably due to the strong influence of surrounding subduction zones. Thus, the SCS might be regarded as a new type of rift basin of "plate-edge rifting", different from the classic Atlantic type of "intra-plate rifting". It is also suggested that the subduction-induced mantle upwelling is likely to play an important role in the magmatism of the SCS.

South China Sea  /  continental breakup  /  plate rifting  /  subduction  /  IODP ocean drilling