Abstract: Up to now, the types of sedimentary basins have been discriminated according to the nature of the plate margin, basin position on or within a tectonic plate, etc.. It is suggested that the formation of the“Chinese-type basin”is dependent of block faulting and suture zones, but independent of subduction zones.
The author has researched into the evolution of the Qinling Basin, and contented that it was a typical Chinese-type basin during Devonian-Triassic time, as indicated by the following aspects.(1)The basin was located in the suture zone between two continental plates, then the two plates had not been conjuncted completely, but they actually stuck together.(2)Although the basin was in an epicontinental sea environment, intense rifting and subsidence occurred in the basin with a grabenhorst framework.(3)The formation of the basin was independent of subduction zones.(4)The basin formed after the first collision between continental plates was characterized by the tectonic model of the accordion-style extensional or compressional faulting.
There are large-sized lead-zinc-silver and mercury-antimony deposits resulted from exhalation-hydrothermal activity in the aulacogens developed in this kind of the basins.