Understanding the 3D Formation of a Wide Rift: The Central South China Sea Rift System

26 pages, 11 figures.-- Data Availability Statement; Images are available at the PANGAEA world datacenter (https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.911309) (BGR, 2020)Rifted margins result from continental lithosphere extension, breakup, and transition to seafloor spreading by modes typically described by end‐member conceptual models. However, current geophysical data challenge these archetypes showing a more complex spectrum of rifting styles. Here, we integrate geophysical and geological observations to constrain the time and space evolution of the central South China Sea (SCS) rift system. We provide new insights into the continental extension mechanisms and continent‐ocean transition (COT) formation from a seismic transect parallel to the extensional direction of the central SCS rift system. We present 850‐km‐wide region of continental crust where distributed extensional deformation formed a pattern of lithospheric boudinage defined by seven 100‐ to 200‐km‐long structural segments. Each segment is formed by an 18‐ to 24‐km‐thick crust sector laterally thinning into an interboudin neck with ≤10‐km ultrathin crust (ß factors ~3.3–6.5). Drill and stratigraphic information support that extension continued at all six interboudin necks in the central SCS until ~23 Ma, when breakup by seafloor spreading propagation reached one of them. We propose that the seven segments evolved as discrete subsystems from early rifting to breakup. Structurally equivalent ultrathin crust grabens occur NE and SW of both SCS conjugate margins, supporting a 3D wide rift mode of deformation across the SCS rift system. The six ultrathin crust contemporaneous necks and the abrupt nature and location of the COT support that the breakup was not controlled by further continental lithospheric thinning but rather was determined by the seafloor spreading propagation toward the SWGeneralitat de Catalunya (Government of Catalonia). Grant Number: 2017SGR1662; Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (Spain). Grant Number: CTM2015‐71766‐R; Xunta de Galicia (Goverment of Galicia), FEDER 2014–2020: ED431G 2019/07; Xunta de Galicia (Goverment of Galicia). Grant Number: ED481B‐2017/087With the funding support of the ‘Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence’ accreditation (CEX2019-000928-S), of the Spanish Research Agency (AEI)Peer reviewe