资源环境科技发展态势分析平台

The Philippine Sea Plate (PSP) and the South China Sea (SCS), located at the intersection of the Eurasian, Pacific, and Indo-Australian plates, are key areas for global plate reconstruction. However, the relationships between the PSP and the SCS are still elusive. Here we report a new paleolatitude determination (16.0° ± 4.5°N at ∼20 Ma) from the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Site 1177 in the Shikoku Basin (SB) within the eastern PSP. The new results indicate that the SB had a geographical affinity with the SCS in the early Miocene. Furthermore, the similarity in the U-Pb zircon age spectra of early Miocene turbidites from SB Site 1177 and SCS Site X28 implies that the two sites might receive similar materials in the early Miocene. Based on the new paleolatitude, provenance results, and other constraints, we suggest that the eastern PSP might be coupled dynamically to the SCS in the early Miocene.