Abstract:

 Landscape evolution from mountain to basin and the source to sink system have become a hot topic in the earth science. The growing study field of these themes has been promoting the widely interdisciplinary research and cooperation among geology, geomorphology, atmospheric and oceanographic sciences. This has great influence on the development trend and insight of sedimentary basins. Geomorphologic evolution of an entire basin is the first response to the change of the basin dynamic setting. Distribution of uplift and depression belts, the geomorphology of uplifts and slopes and local geomorphology formed by syndepositional structures comprise the major subjects for analysis of basin geomorphology. Source to sink system from continent to ocean comprises a number of morphological segments including provenance, alluvial and coastal plain or catchment, shelf, slope and basin floor, with various erosional and depositional processes. Characteristics of sediment sources are mainly determined by source rock nature, tectonic setting and climatic condition. Revealing the interplay of tectonics and climate change reconstructing the mountain landscape and generating sediments is a long term task. The continental slope and deep marine basin are final segments in the source to sink system from land to ocean and the relevant studies have been highly regarded. The source to sink system from mountain to lacustrine basin comprises similar morphological segments including catchment (provenance), alluvialcoastal plain, shore and deep lake. The tectonically active terrigenous lacustrine basins are characterized by near and multiple source inputs, tectonic activities, relatively small catchment and various sediment types sensitive to climatic condition. Identification and classification of source to sink systems, including local source to sink systems related to paleouplifts within a basin, according to their source area, valley or channel geometry and depositional systems,are significant for the understanding of basin filling process and sedimentary facies distribution. Seismic geomorphology or sedimentology based on high resolution 3D seismic data provides an effective tool for study of subsurface depositional geomorphology and processes.

Key words: basin geomorphology, distribution of uplifts and depressions, paleostructural geomorphology, source to sink system from continent to ocean or lake, seismicdepositional geomorphology