UPLIFT AND SUBSIDENCE RECORDS IN ACTIVE FORELAND BASINS - A CASE-HISTORY - THE FOOTHILLS OF TAIWAN (8 MA TO PRESENT)

Two foreland basins are distinguished in the Coastal Plain, the Foothi lls and the Hsueshan Range of Taiwan. These two basins are filled with Mio-Plio-Quaternary series which are divided into two sedimentary seq uence sets (8 to 3 Ma and 3 Ma to Present) related to two thrust seque nces. These tectono-sedimentary markers record the two successive coll isions of the Eurasian continent, the first one (8-3 Ma) with the Guta iwan block (Pre Cenozoic basement of the Central Chain), the second on e (3 Ma to Present) with the Coastal Range (northern extension of the Luzon Are). This paper also emphasizes the kinematics of the thrust pr opagation and depocentre migration, the effect of the shape of the con tinental margin on the geometry of the foreland basin and on the evolu tion of the deformation in the fold-and-thrust belt.