Figure 2. Distribution of the arid zones in China during the Cenozoic. A. Paleocene; B. Neogene; C. Location of sites with paleobotanic and/or lithologic data (from Sun and Wang, in prep.).
Figure 3. Tectonic setting of the South China Sea. A. Major tectonic elements of the northern and
central parts of the South China Sea. Thick dotted line outlines the Central Basin with selected
magnetic anomaly lineaments. Thin dotted and solid lines are isobaths of 200 m and 2000 m
(Hayes et al., 1995). Thick dashed box corresponds to Figure 3B. B. Geological framework of the
northern margin of the South China Sea (Ru et al., 1994). YGHB = Yinggehai Basin; QDNB =
Qiongdongnan Basin; BBWB = Baibiwan Basin; PRMB = Pearl River Mouth Basin; SWTB =
Southwest Taiwan Basin.
Figure 4. Cenozoic stratigraphy in some of the sedimentary basins in the South China Sea.
Column A = Yinggehai Basin; Column B = Pearl River Mouth Basin; Column C = Liyue Bank
(Reed Bank) Basin; Column D = Zengmu Basin; Column E = Bruneo-Sabah Basin (data from
Jin, 1989; Liu, 1992).
Figure 5. Western Pacific marginal seas at the last glacial maximum (LGM). A. Black area denotes that portion of shelf seas emerged at the glacial maximum (Wang et al., 1997). Area A = East China Sea Shelf; Area B = Sunda Shelf or the Great Asian Bank; Area C = Sahul Shelf or the Great Australian Bank. B. Paleotemperature: seasonality in SST (summer SST minus winter SST) in the South China Sea and its adjacent western Pacific and marginal seas at the LGM (Wang, in press).