Mantle plumes and lithosphere motion in East Asia

This paper suggests that two marginal seas (the South China Sea and Sea of Japan), large rift-basins, and intense Cenozoic basaltic volcanism in East Asia and its margins may be generated by underlying mantle plumes. Taking the northern part of China as an example, a detailed discussion on the following topics is given: mantle plumes and sub-plumes, the formation and structure of mantle plumes, migration of hotspot volcanism as a record of lithosphere drifting, volcanic eruption as a 'rivet effect' for fixing the lithosphere, and the mechanism of genesis for the Japan Sea. The interaction between asthenosphere and lithosphere is also discussed.