Abstract: Many stratiform and stratabound Cu，Pb，Zn，Fe，Au，Ag，Sn，S mineral deposits are found in South China．They were interpreted as hydrothermal or skarn type in origin up to early 1970’s．In middle 1970’s Professor Xu Keqin proposed a submarine volcanic exhalative sedimentation-hydrothermal superimposition origin for these mineral deposits，specifically formed in the fault depression environment．Led by Prof．Xu，the academic staff and students in the Department of Earth Sciences，Nanjing University conducted a large amount of investigations in this field and gained significant achievements．Nowadays this point of view is recognized by most domestic investigators and supported by geological exploration practice．