China Vigorously Develops Research on Marginal Sea

It is known from an academic meeting held in Hangzhou on September 28 that China is actively engaged in the study on marginal sea in the hope that extensive achievements in this field will be gained in the coming five years.

Marginal sea refers to the water area that is close to the land and in deep water. China's marginal sea includes the South China Sea and East China Sea.

According to the introduction given by scientists present at the first academic meeting on "the Crucial Problems Relating to the Formation and Evolution of China's Marginal Sea and Important Resources", they planned, in the next five years, to find answers to the crucial scientific problems such as the lithosphere structure and dynamic mechanism of China's marginal sea, the structural evolution of the East China Sea and South China Sea and its significance, and the relation between the evolution of China's marginal sea and the formation of major resources.

Scientists said that a thorough study and understanding of China's marginal sea and undersea resources is an important foundation for safeguarding China's maritime rights and interests. The exploration and development of key resources such as oil, gas and natural gas hydrates will be the mainstream of the China's second marine industry.

Related experts told journalists that China's study on marginal sea has been listed in the State's important basic research on the "973" project. Gao Zhu, researcher of the Oceanography Institute of Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Li Jiabiao, researcher of the Second Oceanographic Institute of State Oceanography Bureau, are the chief scientists undertaking this project.



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