Continental margins as global oil and gas accumulation belts: The West Pacific belt

Most present-day oil- and gas-bearing (petroliferous) basins are localized in one of the five global oil and gas accumulation belts confined to continent-ocean transition zones that existed in the Mesozoic and Cenozoic. Two meridional belts are located in the western and eastern peripheral zones of the Pacific Ocean with intense tectonic activity during the major part of the Mesozoic and Cenozoic. The activity was reflected in extension of the continental crust, spreading of the oceanic crust, rapid subsidence of individual crustal blocks, volcanism, and formation of large batholiths and accretionary prisms. In this belt, the fore-arc, back-arc, inter-arc, and marginal riftogenic sedimentary basins are petroliferous.