综述了80年代国外海洋地质科学的主要进展,包括现代沉积、板块构造与地体构造和古海洋学等基础理论研究;海洋矿产资源(油气、滨海砂矿和海底热液矿床)勘查与新发现;新技术方法(GPS、测深与海底扫描、海底取样、深海探矿和深潜器)。根据当今国外海洋地质科学调查研究朝“领域广、精度高、研究深”的趋势,对90年代至21世纪初海洋地质科学的发展态势作了评述。

In this paper, the principal advances in modern marine geology abroad are reviewed comprehensively. On the basis of it, the trend of development of the subject is tentatively detected. The present author predicts that the trends of development of marine geology in 90 s are to pay attention continuously to the research on basic theories, to strengthen the investigation of the marine EEZ and the evaluation of marine mineral resources, to develop energetically the offshore, bathyal oil and gas resources, and to mine preliminary the deep sea mineral resources.The developments of modern marine geology abroad are characterized by following sections:1)increasing interdiscipliary interpenetration,2)strengthened studies on basic theories,3)adoption of new methods and techniques in almost all resrarch fields,4)expanding of the investigation and evaluation of the marine EEZ,5)increasingly widened international cooperation. The advances above mentioned will make the further investigations and researches of marine geology be wider on the scale,more accurate and more deep going.