Abstract:

In South China reefs developed greatly in Middle and Late Devonian. The mian reef-building organisms were Stromatoporidas and some Tabulatas. According to the development degree of the reefs and the paleogeomorphic feature, they are classified as layer-reef and mound-reef . The development of the reefs tends to defer vertically from south to north little by little, and most of them are horizontally adjacent to the margins of the chief trench and of the epicontinental carbonate platform. The characteristics of the reefs are chiefly controlled by two groups of fractures at Westnorth，eastnorth，and by the factors such as the formed geomorphology of sea bottom characterized by platforms which were surounded by the trench, sea current，fresh water input etc.The Devonian sea of South China is of some main features of both epeiric sea and pericontinental sea.The ‘layer reef’ in South China is similar to the ‘low reef’ of Devonian period in Canada and the‘mound reef’ is similar to the‘high reef’of Devonian period in Canada and Devonian reefs in Germany.