Wide rifting is one of an important continental extension modes,and field work combined with numerical and analogue modeling is main method to investigate wide rifts. Foreign scholars did lots of research on wide rifts,which mainly focused on the timing and duration of deformation processes,structural styles and magmatism. This paper,based on the study of a great deal of relevant publications,introduces the definition and structural characteristics of wide rifting,which will be verified by geologic profile of both Basin and Range and Aegean regions,and then analyses its genetic mechanism. The formation of wide rifts is dominated by a regional low-angle detachment,which also controlled the development of metamorphic core complexes,above which formed higher-angled block faulting. Parameters controlling the modes of wide rifting mainly contain:The strain rate and crust compositions,initial crustal thickness and thermal conditions,the level of mechanical instability of lithosphere,the competition between the total resistance of the lithosphere and the gravitational forces. Wide rifting may be mainly explained by passive genesis from dynamic mechanism,and it can be controlled by simple shear or decoupled extension. Through this study, we try to improve our understanding of structural styles and genetic mechanism of wide rift system in northeast China.