Caroline海盆形成于特提斯与太平洋之间，处于印尼海道的咽喉区域，海盆范围正好对应了西太平洋暖池的大部分海域。其内部地形复杂，具有特征的隆起和残留洋中脊，而周围具有年轻活跃的俯冲带和洋中脊，并且与菲律宾海、太平洋、Ontong-Java大火成岩省、众多深海沟等相互作用，是研究俯冲带和洋中脊初始形成机理与动力学、以及固体地球与海水相互作用的理想场所。过去对Caroline海盆的研究主要是美国和日本科学家在上世纪70-80年代完成的，对很多构造单元的成因和属性的解释上存在很大争议，很少涉及多圈层相互作用方面的研究。本项目通过综合地球物理和地球化学分析手段，对Caroline海盆的构造边界过程和海盆岩石圈蛇纹岩化程度开展详细研究，探索深部过程与海底过程之间，特别是在水和热流通量方面的联系。提出典型海洋微板块的演化模式和未来进一步深入研究（包括科学大洋钻探）的建议，提升我国深海的科研能力。

The Caroline Basin (plate) is formed between the Tethys and the Pacific Ocean, and is currently located at the throat of the Indonesian seaway, and corresponds in area to most of the waters of the western Pacific warm pool. The interior of the Caroline plate is topographically complex and has a characteristic ridge and relic spreading centers. The plate is bordered by young active subduction zones and active spreading center, and strongly interacts with the surrounding Philippine Sea, the Pacific, the Ontong-Java Large Igneous Province, many deep trenches and so on. Therefore, the Caroline Basin is an ideal place for studying process and dynamics of initiations of subduction and seafloor spreading, and of the interaction of solid earth with seawater. . In the past, the study of the Caroline Basin was mainly done by the US and Japanese scientists in the last 70-80s, and there are great controversies about the genesis and nature of many tectonic units, and the interactions of multi-geospheres were seldom explored. . By comprehensive geophysical and geochemical analyses, this proposal plans to conduct a detailed study of the tectonic boundary process of the Caroline Basin and the extent of serpentinization the uppermost lithospheric mantle in the basin, and explores the coupling between the deep lithospheric process and the seabed process, especially in the water and heat flux. We aim to propose an evolutional model of this unique oceanic micro-plate and suggest further research activities (including scientific ocean drilling), and to enhance our deep sea research capability.