Plio-Pleistocene magnetostratigraphy of northern Bohai Bay and its implications for tectonic events since ca. 2.0Â Ma

The sediments of Bohai Bay Basin in North China have recorded the processes of basin filling and structural evolution, which may have resulted from the destruction of the North China Craton during the late Mesozoic and early Cenozoic. However, the absence of a reliable chronostratigraphic framework for the sedimentary sequences in the basin has prevented a comprehensive understanding of these processes. In this study, we combine paleomagnetic and sedimentary analyses of the sediments from two new boreholes (NY05 and TZ02) from northern Bohai Bay to provide new insights into the sedimentary history and regional tectonic processes since the Pliocene. The main findings are as follows: (1) Magnetite and hematite are the main carriers of the characteristic remanent magnetization. (2) The boreholes record the Brunhes and Gauss normal chrons, and the Matuyama reversed chron. (3) Subsidence-related differences in the depths of the Matuyama/Brunhes (M/B) and Gauss/Matuyama (G/M) boundaries, sediment accumulation rates, and the sedimentary environments of the different tectonic units, enable us to identify that tectonic movements started in the Olduvai normal subchron and the development of the WNW-orientated tectonic features were intensified. (4) In the Huanghua depression, comparative analysis of subsidence-related differences between western and northern Bohai Bay indicates that the subsidence of the northern Bohai Bay may have been superimposed on the WNW-orientated tectonic activity and faulting associated with the collision between the Indian and the Eurasian Plates, in the context of localized subsidence.