Marine tectonogeophysics, or marine tectonophysics, is the frontier of marine geosciences. This is a newly developed marginal discipline of research，resulting from the impact and infiltration between tectonics and geophysics. This research discipline has developed rapidly during the 80' s and is expected to have important breakthrough during the 90' s in quantitative studies of plate movement and its driving forces, and in the studies of formation mechanism of giant faults, orogenic belts, and sedimentary basins.
The South China Sea (SCS)，as the largest marginal sea in west Pacific，is an important area for marine tectonogeophysical researches in the 90' s with complicated geological structures, SCS is a miniature of the global tectonics and meanwhile possesses unique characteristics of marginal seas. Abundant petroleum resources found under the shelf of SCS make the area even important both politically and economically. As Chinese marine tectonogeophysicists,we must study the area systematitally and comprehensively，and put forward our view in the following fourteen principal aspects ; thetectonic affiliation of SCS,the comparison of northern and southern shelves,geological features of slope basins, Manila Trench, Nansha Trough，Xisha Trough,"Dongsha Massif, East Vietnam Fault，Littoral Fault belt，island and reef areas, and the spreading center of the Central Basin, the formation and evolution of SCS, the deep geological processes for hydrocarbon cumulation under northern and southern shelves, and the crustal structure and dynamic characteristics of SCS.