Abstract:

 Extensional basins closely related to the stretching and thinning of crust and lithosphere, have great potential for important mineral deposits and energy resources. Recently, researches of extensional basins including Atlantic passive continental marginal basin, Australian passive marginal basin, and Cenozoic basin in Eastern China, have indicated that not only in passive marginal basins, but also in  extensional basins of convergent plate setting, the postrift subsidence processes are not uniform and slow ones and not simply controlled by thermal relaxation and equilibration of the lithosphere, but present the characteristics of multiepisode and rapid subsidence, which reflect the controlling role of tectonic activity of the periphery plates and deep lithosphere dynamic factor. On these bases, the article describes briefly the progress of research on the rapid postrift subsidence of typical extensional basins at home and abroad. Combined with the quantitative modeling of the subsidence features of postrift evolution in the Qiongdongnan basin, we have discussed the dynamic mechanisms of episodic and rapid postrift subsidence.

Key words: Key words: extensional basin; postrift; rapid subsidence; dynamic mechanism