Break-up of continental lithosphere and opening of marine basins are one of the fundamental issues in geology, known as passive margin geodynamics. Its significance goes far beyond the academic interest as passive margin basins host nearly two-thirds of the discovered hydrocarbons worldwide. Our knowledge of the geodynamic evolution of passive margin originated largely from the northern Atlantic, resulting from multiple expeditions of international ocean drilling in the 1980s and 1990s. As a standard hypothesis of rifting and rupturing, the Atlantic model of passive margin has been applied widely to paleo- and modern basins from the Alps to Pacific; yet, its universal applicability needs to be tested by drilling in other basins, as recently done in the northern South China Sea (SCS).

中文翻译：

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海盆开放的新见解

大陆岩石圈的破裂和海盆的开放是地质学中的基本问题之一，被称为被动边缘地球动力学。它的意义远远超出了学术兴趣，因为被动边缘盆地拥有全球近三分之二的已发现碳氢化合物。我们对被动边缘地球动力学演化的了解主要来自北大西洋，这是 1980 年代和 1990 年代多次国际大洋钻探探险的结果。作为裂谷和破裂的标准假设，大西洋被动边缘模型已广泛应用于从阿尔卑斯山到太平洋的古和现代盆地；然而，它的普遍适用性需要通过在其他盆地进行钻探来测试，就像最近在南海北部 (SCS) 所做的那样。