Structural patterns of the late Mesozoic crustal detachment system in the Raoyang Sag, Bohai Bay Basin, eastern China: New insights from 3D seismic data

Abstract Understanding the late Mesozoic tectonic origin and structural patterns of the Bohai Bay Basin (BBB) is of growing importance for its buried-hill petroleum exploration. This study revealed, based on 3D seismic and borehole data, that the Raoyang Sag in the Jizhong Depression, western BBB, was dominated by a crustal detachment system during the late Jurassic to the early Cretaceous. It was characterized by the WNW-dipping low-angle detachment fault F 0 (namely Cangxi Fault), the structural dome cored by Archean Basement rocks at the footwall and supradetachment basins on the hanging wall. We suggested the late Mesozoic volcanic materials and coarse deposits accumulated in the supradetachment basins had locally diminished the petroleum prospect, but the syndetachment deformation and denudation had contributed to it by means of promoting petroleum migration from source rocks to reservoirs and improving porosity and permeability of the reservoir rocks by karstification and structural fracturing.