SE1
Evolution of Western Pacific Marginal Basins:
New Observations and Syntheses

Main Organiser
Sang-Mook Lee
Assistant Professor, Seoul National University, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences
Bld 25-1, Room 318, Sillim-dong, Kwanak-gu, Seoul 151-747, Korea
Tel: +82-2-880-6745
Fax: +82-2-871-3269
smlee@snu.ac.kr

Co-Organiser(s)
Kensaku Tamaki, Ocean Research Institute, University of Tokyo
tamaki@ori.u-tokyo.ac.jp

Chao-Shing Lee, Institute of Applied Geophysics, National Taiwan Ocean University
leecs@mail.ntou.edu.tw

Pinxian Wang, Department of Marine Geology, Tongji University
pxwang@online.sh.cn

Brief Description
The west Pacific margin contains numerous basins that formed during the Cenozoic as a result of westward subduction of Pacific plate and northward movement of Indo-Australian plate. Many of them belong to back-arc basin, which ranges from active-spreading systems such as Mariana Trough and Lau Basin to ones where spreading has ceased such as South China Sea and Sea of Japan (East Sea). Back-arc basins are diverse and geologically important because not only do they provide ‘windows’ into tectonic, volcanic, magmatic, and sedimentary processes, but are also important repositories of records for deciphering paleooceanographic changes and land-ocean interaction. While important progresses have been made in understanding the kinematics and tectonics of major upwelling systems and global climate changes, little advance has been made in understanding the interplay of variety of processes within back-arc basins. This session attempts to put together various recent studies and syntheses with an aim to review and update our understanding of back-arc basin evolution.