The Yangtze plate, extending from east to west in southern China, was formed about 800 Ma ago. Since the Sinian, two aulacogens trending east-northeast and connected at the east ends, have been initiated in the Jiangsu-Zhejiang-Anhui region on the east margin of the plate with a sedimentary sequence up to 10,000 m in thickness. At a later stage of sedimentologic evolution, flysch and molasse were produced. The flyseh was accumulated in the Late Ordovician, when the two aulacogens became bays that opened to the east; the elastic materials were derived from the Yangtze oldland on the northern and southern sides of the basins. The molasse was accumulated from the terminal Late Ordovician to the Middle Ordovician; the clastie materials came from an uplifted orogenic belt in the east. This indicates that a major change in the tectonic pattern of the basins has taken place.