Geological features and petroleum accumulation in the foreland basins in central and western China
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There are abundant oil and gas resources in the foreland basins in central and western China.Many outstanding successes of petroleum exploration have been obtained recently in that region.However,the exploration activity is rare because of the complex geology in the foreland basins.A classical foreland basin overseas is a linear depression located between the active orogen and stable craton.Nevertheless,in central and western China,there are mainly rejuvenated foreland basins resulting from convergence within the craton,related to the reactivation of old Tethys tectonic domains during the new Tethys stage.Therefore,there are many differences in comparison with the classical foreland basin abroad.The difference,due to the superimposition of foreland structures of two periods,is responsible for differences in basin geometry,in plate flexure and subsidence,in sedimentation,and in structural deformation.According to these differences,we have classified the foreland basins in central and western China into four types,i.e.,alteration foreland basin,palingenetic foreland basin,superposition foreland basin and caduceus foreland basin.They have different structural characteristics that determine the different reservoir features and the variable exploration potential for these three types of foreland basin.Keywords:
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This paper reviews the previous and current research on foreland basins, including the concept, modes of tectonics-sedimentation, types, characteristics, and hydrocarbon bearing features. At the same time, the features and hydrocarbon potential of the rejuvenated foreland basins around intracontinental orogens in Mid-West China are discussed. Conclusions are as follows: ① The rejuvenated foreland basins, juxtaposing with peripheral foreland basin and retro-arc foreland basins, should be considered as a main type of foreland basins; ② The foreland basins, on the basis of their geodynamic environments, can be subdivided into three fundamental types: the peripheral foreland basins, retro-arc foreland basins and rejuvenated foreland basins. The former two types are the representative foreland basins, and the latter one is a rather unique type around introcontinental orogens in the Mid-West of China. ③ Due to different regional background and evolutional processes of three types of foreland basins, individual styles of oil and gas system are developed in these foreland basins.
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Foreland basins are important areas of exploration for petroleum in China.According to the basin construction and evolution,the foreland basins in central and western China can be divided into four types of assemblages including the presenile,the reconstructed,the regenerated and the superimposed.This paper discusses the geological conditions of accumulation,such as the assemblages of source rock,reservoir and seal,in different foreland basins based on the examples of northwestern Junggar foreland basin(the presenile),western Sichuan foreland basin(the reconstructed),northern Chaidamu foreland thrust(the regenerated) and southern Junggar foreland basin(the superimposed).The thermal evolutions of main source rocks are stated in the four types of foreland basins.The foreland development in the late period of Himalayan movement has an obvious control on the thermal evolution of source rocks in the Chaidamu foreland thrust(the regenerated) and southern Junggar foreland basin(the superimposed).
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The stratigraphy and sedimentology of foreland basin clastic wedges is believed to be controlled largely by the spatial and temporal effects of 'time lag' between the initiation of flexure-induced subsidence and the deposition of large amounts of sediment generated from the overthrust belt. The initial accretion of a terrane to an older continental margin, thereby converting the margin to a compressional orogen, should be associated with a relatively large time-lag effect because initial loading by overthrusting takes place on the continental slope, in the absence of significant early subaerial relief across the thrust belt. The large time-lag effect results in a succession grading from deep-water to shallow-water sediments in the early foreland basin. Clastic wedges resulting from later overthrusting events are generally expected to show considerably reduced time-lag effects, with composite transgressive sequences succeeded by highstand regressive sequences, both composed mainly of non-marine, marginal-marine and shallow-marine sediments of varied lithologies. This reduced time-lag effect may reflect a relatively continuous background supply of orogen-derived sediment readily available to fill accommodation space as it is created. In extreme cases, some clastic wedges may show essentially no time-lag effect, lacking basal transgressive or deep-water sediments. As well as orogenesis, other factors also condition foreland successions. In the Alberta Basin, the effects of some base-level change events (eustatic?) are more dramatic in cratonward areas where tectonic subsidence rates are lower. Valley-fill and lowstand deposits reflecting base-level drops are more common and easily recognizable toward that side of the basin. The structures and lithologies of the pre-existing shelf/miogeoclinal succession also affect thicknesses and facies of foreland units through their influence on relief of the basal unconformity and synsedimentary salt dissolution.
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Research Article| July 01, 2015 Foreland basin stratigraphic control on thrust belt evolution James B. Chapman; James B. Chapman Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, 1040 E. 4th Street, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Peter G. DeCelles Peter G. DeCelles Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, 1040 E. 4th Street, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Author and Article Information James B. Chapman Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, 1040 E. 4th Street, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA Peter G. DeCelles Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, 1040 E. 4th Street, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA Publisher: Geological Society of America Received: 09 Jan 2015 Revision Received: 16 Apr 2015 Accepted: 17 Apr 2015 First Online: 09 Mar 2017 Online ISSN: 1943-2682 Print ISSN: 0091-7613 © 2015 Geological Society of America Geology (2015) 43 (7): 579–582. https://doi.org/10.1130/G36597.1 Article history Received: 09 Jan 2015 Revision Received: 16 Apr 2015 Accepted: 17 Apr 2015 First Online: 09 Mar 2017 Cite View This Citation Add to Citation Manager Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Email Permissions Search Site Citation James B. Chapman, Peter G. DeCelles; Foreland basin stratigraphic control on thrust belt evolution. Geology 2015;; 43 (7): 579–582. doi: https://doi.org/10.1130/G36597.1 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Refmanager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentBy SocietyGeology Search Advanced Search Abstract The link between orogenic activity and foreland basin stratigraphy is well established; however, potential controls by foreland basin stratigraphy on thrust belt architecture have not been fully evaluated. Mechanical properties of typical foreland basin stratigraphic successions influence the structural development of fold-thrust belts in predictable ways. Fundamental features of foreland basins include the onset of rapid subsidence and deposition of a coarsening-upward sedimentary succession. In the lower part of this succession are fine-grained, distal foreland basin deposits. Enlargement of the orogenic wedge through frontal accretion incorporates the foreland basin strata into the thrust belt, and distal foreland basin depositional units may be preferentially exploited as a thrust detachment zone, resulting in multiple detachment levels. We propose that foreland basin stratigraphic architecture has significant influence on the structural development of thrust belts and that, by extension, processes that influence foreland basin sedimentation may ultimately influence orogenic evolution far removed in time and space. You do not have access to this content, please speak to your institutional administrator if you feel you should have access.
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Foreland basin is the richest in oil and gas distribution of the world's different petroliferous basins.It has more favorable petroleum geology conditions and greater exploration potential.In this paper,the authors compare and analyze the coupling relationship between basins and adjacent mountains of foreland basins and the controlling factor of oil and gas,then acquire the initial understanding of the oil and gas reservoir characteristics foreland basins.That the structure of foreign typical foreland basin is a single,generally superimposed over a passive continental margin or back-arc basins.While the basement structure of Chinese central and western foreland basins is of much complexity,multi-stage evolution and more cause types.The distribution of oil and gas is related to the development characteristics of the fold-thrust belt.
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The foreland basins of the Mesozoic and Cenozoic in mid_western area of China are located in the eastern end of Northern Basin groups of Tethys tectonics.The forming of foreland basin was controlled by the revolution of Tethys Tectonics.Two epochs of foreland basins were developed in mid_western China during the Early Mesozoic and the Late Cenozoic respectively.Foreland basins may be divided into three types and four kinds of responding foreland basins (or thrust belts).All of those foreland basins were controlled by the evolution of Thetys tectonics.Two epochs of foreland basins both underwent the tension tectonics.The tectonics environments of the foreland basins formed the specific geological characteristics for natural gas.Effective resource rock was grown in the tension tectonics settings.Foreland thrust belts were developed in the compression tectonics settings.The foreland was well match with the trapping time and space in the large rowed and belted structural traps.The early foreland basin and thrust belt were altered and superposed by the structures of the late foreland basin.The traps in the main body of the early foreland basin almost were seriously damaged,and the traps in the thrust frontier,fore_deep and fore_bulge slopes and uplift of the early foreland basin could be well preserved.For the late foreland basin,the large structural traps in the thrust belt and fore bulge have some good conditions for pooling gas and will be the key exploration targets recently.
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Located in the area between orogenic belt and craton, intracontinental foreland basin in Western China was formed by the intracontinental fold thrust movementresulted from the long distance effect of plate collision. Without marine source rocks and marine molasses that are always developed along the passive continental margin, the intracontinental foreland basin is different from the typical foreland basin in foreign countries to some extent. With abundant hydrocarbon resources, the intracontinental foreland basin has attracted increasing attention of petroleum geologists in recent years. Main differences between intracontinental foreland basin and typical foreland basin have been analyzed and main sedimentary characteristics of the intracontinental foreland basin have been proposed. During the fold faulting episode, the superposition of coarse grained sediments could form apron shaped sedimentary body. While during the inactive period of the fold thrust movement, the well developed coal bed and mudstone could form source rocks of high quality. However, during the whole process, the migration of depression center and the excursion between depression center and deposition center are common. According to the superposition style of deposits, the intracontinental foreland basin has been subdivided into step forward, superposition and step backward types and sedimentary sequence model for each type has been established. Finally, the hydrocarbon generation, accumulation and preservation condition of each type of basin have been discussed, which will be helpful to the hydrocarbon exploration according to their respective sequence model and to the improvement of exploration efficiency.
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Recently,with the discover of petroleum in the foreland basin,the search for the foreland basin is very important.People do comprehensive and profound research on the concept,characteristics,classifications and the relation with petroleum of the foreland basin but many unsolved issues remain,such as what is the marine hydrocarbon source rock,indentification mark of foreland basin,complicated factors of petroleum accumulation and so on.
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According to the tectonic evolution,structure of section,sequence relationship and source-reservoir-cap composition of foreland basins,the foreland basins can be divided into two types including epicontinental foreland basin and intracontinental foreland basin.The former includes peripheral foreland basin and retro?-arc foreland basin.There are some differences between the two types of foreland basins:(1) The epicontinental foreland basin went through passive continental margin or retro?-arc rift stage during tectonic evolution stage,but the intracontinental foreland basin lacked this period.(2) For the texture of sequences,the tectonic-sequence of the epicontinental foreland basin lain on the marine passive continental margin sequence or retro?-arc rift sequence,and the intracontinental foreland basin lacked of marine sequence in generally.(3) On the genetic mechanism,the forming of the epicontinental foreland basin was related to the collided orogenic belt or retro?-arc orogeny,and the intracontinental foreland basin was related to the rejuvenated orogenic belt.(4) On the characters of hydrocarbon development,the epicontinental foreland basin developed marine and non-marine source rocks,and the intracontinental foreland basin mainly developed non-marine source rocks.The differences of geological characteristics and hydrocarbon potentials between the epicontinental foreland basin and intracontinental foreland basin are obvious.
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Being impacted by India-Eurasia continental collision and its agelong convergence,the Cenozoic tectonics of the Middle and the Western China are obviously characterized by the Circum-Tibet Plateau Basin and Range System and the foreland basins including the foreland thrust belts in the basin-mountain joint areas. Based on a great number of geological and geophysical data,this study first brought up the concept and the distribution features of the Circum-Tibet Plateau Basin and Range System, and then discussed its deep structure characteristics and origin-dynamics mechanism. Through deep investigation into the structure features of this system,this study thought those foreland basins came into being as superposed basins from the regenerated foreland basins in the Himalayan tectonic movements and circum and post-arc foreland basins in the late Hercynican-Indosinian orogeny, and their prototype basins included circum foreland basins in the Hercynian-Indosinian orogeny (such as the northern Tarim basin, the West Sichuan basin,and the western Ordos basin,etc.), post-arc foreland basins in the Hercynian-Indosinian orogeny (such as the southern Tarim basin,etc.)and the regenerated foreland basins in the Himalayan orogeny (such as the Kuqa basin,the Southwestern Tarim basin,the Huainan basin,etc.). These three prototype basins in addition to the thrusting and uplifting movements in the Himalayan orogeny are classified into four types of superposed foreland basins:the superimposed,the neogenic,the converted,and the premature decayed. Within the Circum-Tibet Plateau Basin and Range System there developed several foreland thrust belts with complex tectonic deformation and the main structures include fault-correlative folds combination,salt-correlative folds,strike slip-thrust combination,and so on. In the end,through analysis on the geological conditions for oil and gas in the Circum-Tibet Plateau Basin and Range System, this paper considers that there are such favorable conditions for abundant oil and gas resources that this area will surely be the important target for oil and gas exploration in China.
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