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Qaidam Basin (qaidam + basin)
Selected AbstractsUPPER TRIASSIC-MIDDLE JURASSIC STRATIGRAPHY AND SEDIMENTOLOGY IN THE NE QAIDAM BASIN, NW CHINA: PETROLEUM GEOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF NEW OUTCROP AND SUBSURFACE DATAJOURNAL OF PETROLEUM GEOLOGY, Issue 4 2003Yang Yongtai Although Mesozoic source and reservoir rocks are known to occur at oilfields in the northern Qaidam Basin (NW China), the precise identification and distribution of Mesozoic rocks in the subsurface are outstanding problems. The Dameigou locality has in the past been considered as the type section for Lower-Middle Jurassic strata in northern Qaidam. Previous studies have concluded that the onset of non-marine sedimentation here took place in the Early Jurassic; and that Mesozoic strata penetrated by wells in the Lenghu structural zone are Middle Jurassic. In this paper, we present new data from the Lengke-1 well, drilled in the Lenghu structural zone in 1997. This data indicates the existence of a more extensive pre-Middle Jurassic stratigraphy than has previously been recognized. Biostratigraphic data together with regional seismic mapping suggest that the pre-Middle Jurassic succession at Lengke-1 includes both Late Triassic and Early Jurassic deposits. The Late Triassic sedimentary rocks appear to have been deposited in local half graben, some of which were later inverted during Jurassic, Cretaceous and Cenozoic tectonism. Lower and Middle Jurassic strata (lacustrine and fluvial deposits) are present in the SW and NE parts of the Lenghu structural zone, respectively. Extensive organic-rich intervals are present in both successions. Lower Jurassic lacustrine mudstones may represent a previously under-appreciated, and potentially large, source rock sequence. [source] Reconstruction of a 1436-year soil moisture and vegetation water use history based on tree-ring widths from Qilian junipers in northeastern Qaidam Basin, northwestern ChinaINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CLIMATOLOGY, Issue 1 2008Zhi-Yong Yin Abstract Tree-ring widths have been used widely in studies of environmental changes and reconstructions of past climate. Eleven tree-ring chronologies of approximately 800,1500 years long were developed from Qilian junipers (Sabina przewalskii Kom.) for northeastern Qaidam Basin, along the margin of the Qinghai,Tibetan Plateau. Previous studies have revealed that water usage stress is the most limiting factor for tree growth in the study region. To evaluate the impact of the combined effects of temperature and precipitation changes over time, we performed water balance modelling using 1955,2002 meteorological data. We found that the tree-ring widths were strongly correlated with variables representing soil moisture conditions obtained from the water balance model. Specifically we considered actual evapotranspiration (AE) to represent the combined effect of water use demand and moisture availability, deficit as the difference between potential evapotranspiration (PE) and AE to represent the severity of water use stress, and relative soil moisture as the measure of moisture availability. For certain individual monthly and seasonal combinations, the tree-ring chronologies explained up to 80% of the variation in the soil moisture variables in regression analysis, indicating very good potential for reconstruction of regional soil moisture conditions in the past. These soil moisture variables outperformed precipitation and Palmer's drought severity index in most cases. We reconstructed the soil moisture conditions from 566 AD to 2001, which revealed major dry and wet periods and a general trend toward a wetter condition during the most recent 300 years. By comparing with other proxies in the region, we concluded that the moisture conditions reconstructed from tree-ring widths very well reflected the climate variability at the interannual and interdecadal scales. Copyright © 2007 Royal Meteorological Society [source] UPPER TRIASSIC-MIDDLE JURASSIC STRATIGRAPHY AND SEDIMENTOLOGY IN THE NE QAIDAM BASIN, NW CHINA: PETROLEUM GEOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF NEW OUTCROP AND SUBSURFACE DATAJOURNAL OF PETROLEUM GEOLOGY, Issue 4 2003Yang Yongtai Although Mesozoic source and reservoir rocks are known to occur at oilfields in the northern Qaidam Basin (NW China), the precise identification and distribution of Mesozoic rocks in the subsurface are outstanding problems. The Dameigou locality has in the past been considered as the type section for Lower-Middle Jurassic strata in northern Qaidam. Previous studies have concluded that the onset of non-marine sedimentation here took place in the Early Jurassic; and that Mesozoic strata penetrated by wells in the Lenghu structural zone are Middle Jurassic. In this paper, we present new data from the Lengke-1 well, drilled in the Lenghu structural zone in 1997. This data indicates the existence of a more extensive pre-Middle Jurassic stratigraphy than has previously been recognized. Biostratigraphic data together with regional seismic mapping suggest that the pre-Middle Jurassic succession at Lengke-1 includes both Late Triassic and Early Jurassic deposits. The Late Triassic sedimentary rocks appear to have been deposited in local half graben, some of which were later inverted during Jurassic, Cretaceous and Cenozoic tectonism. Lower and Middle Jurassic strata (lacustrine and fluvial deposits) are present in the SW and NE parts of the Lenghu structural zone, respectively. Extensive organic-rich intervals are present in both successions. Lower Jurassic lacustrine mudstones may represent a previously under-appreciated, and potentially large, source rock sequence. [source] Oil and Gas Accumulation in the Foreland Basins, Central and Western ChinaACTA GEOLOGICA SINICA (ENGLISH EDITION), Issue 2 2010Yan SONG Abstract: Foreland basin represents one of the most important hydrocarbon habitats in central and western China. To distinguish these foreland basins regionally, and according to the need of petroleum exploration and favorable exploration areas, the foreland basins in central and western China can be divided into three structural types: superimposed, retrogressive and reformative foreland basin (or thrust belt), each with distinctive petroleum system characteristics in their petroleum system components (such as the source rock, reservoir rock, caprock, time of oil and gas accumulation, the remolding of oil/gas reservoir after accumulation, and the favorable exploration area, etc.). The superimposed type foreland basins, as exemplified by the Kuqa Depression of the Tarim Basin, characterized by two stages of early and late foreland basin development, typically contain at least two hydrocarbon source beds, one deposited in the early foreland development and another in the later fault-trough lake stage. Hydrocarbon accumulations in this type of foreland basin often occur in multiple stages of the basin development, though most of the highly productive pools were formed during the late stage of hydrocarbon migration and entrapment (Himalayan period). This is in sharp contrast to the retrogressive foreland basins (only developing foreland basin during the Permian to Triassic) such as the western Sichuan Basin, where prolific hydrocarbon source rocks are associated with sediments deposited during the early stages of the foreland basin development. As a result, hydrocarbon accumulations in retrogressive foreland basins occur mainly in the early stage of basin evolution. The reformative foreland basins (only developing foreland basin during the Himalayan period) such as the northern Qaidam Basin, in contrast, contain organic-rich, lacustrine source rocks deposited only in fault-trough lake basins occurring prior to the reformative foreland development during the late Cenozoic, with hydrocarbon accumulations taking place relatively late (Himalayan period). Therefore, the ultimate hydrocarbon potentials in the three types of foreland basins are largely determined by the extent of spatial and temporal matching among the thrust belts, hydrocarbon source kitchens, and regional and local caprocks. [source] Characteristics of Abnormal Pressure Systems and Their Responses of Fluid in Huatugou Oil Field, Qaidam BasinACTA GEOLOGICA SINICA (ENGLISH EDITION), Issue 5 2009Xiaozhi CHEN Abstract: Based on the comprehensive study of core samples, well testing data, and reservoir fluid properties, the construction and the distribution of the abnormal pressure systems of the Huatugou oil field in Qaidam Basin are discussed. The correlation between the pressure systems and hydrocarbon accumulation is addressed by analyzing the corresponding fluid characteristics. The results show that the Huatugou oil field as a whole has low formation pressure and low fluid energy; therefore, the hydrocarbons are hard to migrate, which facilitates the forming of primary reservoirs. The study reservoirs, located at the Xiayoushashan Formation (N21) and the Shangganchaigou Formation (N1) are relatively shallow and have medium porosity and low permeability. They are abnormal low-pressure reservoirs with an average formation pressure coefficient of 0.61 and 0.72 respectively. According to the pressure coefficient and geothermal anomaly, the N1 and N21 Formations belong to two independent temperature-pressure systems, and the former has slightly higher energy. The low-pressure compartments consist of a distal bar as the main body, prodelta mud as the top boundary, and shore and shallow lake mud or algal mound as the bottom boundary. They are vertically overlapped and horizontally paralleled. The formation water is abundant in the Cl, ion and can be categorized as CaCl2 type with high salinity, which indicates that the abnormal low-pressure compartments are in good sealing condition and beneficial for oil and gas accumulation and preservation. [source] Cenozoic Stratigraphy Deformation History in the Central and Eastern of Qaidam Basin by the Balance Section Restoration and its ImplicationACTA GEOLOGICA SINICA (ENGLISH EDITION), Issue 2 2009Dongliang LIU Abstract: The Qaidam Basin, located in the northern margin of the Qinghai,Tibet Plateau, is a large Mesozoic,Cenozoic basin, and bears huge thick Cenozoic strata. The geologic events of the Indian-Eurasian plate,plate collision since ,55 Ma have been well recorded. Based on the latest progress in high-resolution stratigraphy, a technique of balanced section was applied to six pieces of northeast-southwest geologic seismic profiles in the central and eastern of the Qaidam Basin to reconstruct the crustal shortening deformation history during the Cenozoic collision. The results show that the Qaidam Basin began to shorten deformation nearly synchronous to the early collision, manifesting as a weak compression, the deformation increased significantly during the Middle and Late Eocene, and then weakened slightly and began to accelerate rapidly since the Late Miocene, especially since the Quaternary, reflecting this powerful compressional deformation and rapid uplift of the northern Tibetan Plateau around the Qaidam Basin. [source] A Preliminary Study on Fluid Inclusions and Mineralization of Xitieshan Sedimentary-Exhalative (SEDEX) Lead-Zinc DepositACTA GEOLOGICA SINICA (ENGLISH EDITION), Issue 4 2008WANG Lijuan Abstract The Xitieshan lead-zinc deposit is located at the northern margin of the Qaidam Basin, Qinghai Province, China, and had developed a complete marine sedimentary-exhalative system. Our preliminary study of ore-forming fluids shows that fluid inclusions in quartz from altered stockwork rocks that represent the pipe facies have a wide range of temperature and salinity. The intense fluid activities are characteristics of the pipe facies of the exhalative system. Fluid inclusions in carbonates near the unstratified ore bodies hosted in the thick-bedded marble which represents vent-proximal facies are large in size and have moderate to high temperatures. They represent unerupted sub-seafloor fluid activity. Fluids in altered stockwork rocks and carbonates have similar H2O-NaCl-CO2 system, both belonging to the sedimentary-exhalative system. The fluids migrate from the pipe facies to the unstratified ore bodies. Boiling of the fluids causes the separation of CO2 vapor and liquid H2O. When the fluids migrate into the unconsolidated thick-bedded marble, the escape of CO2, decreasing temperature and pressure as well as some involvement of seawater into the fluids result in the unmixing of fluids with high and low salinity and deposition of ore-forming materials. The two unmixed fluids were trapped in unconsolidated carbonates and the ore-forming materials were deposited in the unconsolidated carbonates to form the sedimentary-exhalative type unstratified ore bodies. The ore-forming temperature of unstratified ore bodies is up to high temperature indicating that there is a huge ore-forming potential in its deep. [source] Geochemical Characteristics and Origin of Natural Gases in the Qaidam Basin, ChinaACTA GEOLOGICA SINICA (ENGLISH EDITION), Issue 1 2003ZHANG Xiaobao Abstract, Sixty-five natural gas samples were collected from 19 oil-gasfields in the Qaidam basin, China. The chemical composition and carbon isotope values of the samples were measured, and the geochemical characteristics and origin of the natural gases were studied. The gases can be divided into biogenic gases, sapropelic oil-type gases, mixed type oil-type gases, coal-type gases and mixed gas. The ,13C1 values of the biogenic gases are very small and the C2+ contents of them are very low, ranging from ,68.2± to ,61.8± and 0.06% to 0.20% respectively. They have heavy ,D and ,13Cco2. showing a CO2 reduction pathway. They are distributed in the East depression region and derived from the Quaternary source rocks. The sapropelic oil-type gases have small ,13C2 values and high C2+ ranging from ,36.6± to ,28.6± and from 33.01% to 47.15% respectively. The mixed type oil-type gases have ,13C2 values and C2+ contents varying from ,28.6± to ,24.8± and from 4.81% to 26.06% respectively. Both sapropelic oil-type gases and mixed type oil-type gases are associated with oil-type oils, distributed in the West depression region and derived from the Tertiary saltwater lacustrine sapropelic source rocks and humic source rocks respectively. The ,13C2 values of the coal-type gases are extremely high and the C2+ contents are very low, changing from ,23.3± to ,12.5± and from 0.06% to 18.07% respectively. The coal-type gases in the Nanbaxian gasfield and the Lenghu oil-gasfields in the North fault block belt are derived from the Middle Jurassic coal-measures source rocks, whereas those in the West depression region are derived from the Tertiary saltwater lacustrine humic source rocks. Compared with some other basins in China, the natural gases there have obviously heavier ,13C due to the heavier ,13C of different types of kerogens of the Tertiary saltwater lacustrine source rocks in the West depression region of the basin. The mixing of natural gases is common in the West depression region, but the mixed gases are formed by sapropelic oil-type gases, mixed type oil-type gases or coal-type gases, respectively, of different levels of maturity. Most of the sapropelic oil-type gases and mixed type oil-type gases in the west part are thermally immature and low-mature, but the coal-type gases in the West depression region and the North fault block belt are mature and high- to over-mature. [source] Crustal structure of central Tibet as derived from project INDEPTH wide-angle seismic dataGEOPHYSICAL JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL, Issue 2 2001W. Zhao Summary In the summer of 1998, project INDEPTH recorded a 400 km long NNW,SSE wide-angle seismic profile in central Tibet, from the Lhasa terrane across the Banggong-Nujiang suture (BNS) at about 89.5°E and into the Qiangtang terrane. Analysis of the P- wave data reveals that (1) the crustal thickness is 65 ± 5 km beneath the line; (2) there is no 20 km step in the Moho in the vicinity of the BNS, as has been suggested to exist along-strike to the east based on prior fan profiling; (3) a thick high-velocity lower crustal layer is evident along the length of the profile (20,35 km thick, 6.5,7.3 km s,1); and (4) in contrast to the southern Lhasa terrane, there is no obvious evidence of a mid-crustal low-velocity layer in the P- wave data, although the data do not negate the possibility of such a layer of modest proportions. Combining the results from the INDEPTH III wide-angle profile with other seismic results allows a cross-section of Moho depths to be constructed across Tibet. This cross-section shows that crustal thickness tends to decrease from south to north, with values of 70,80 km south of the middle of the Lhasa terrane, 60,70 km in the northern part of the Lhasa terrane and the Qiangtang terrane, and less than 60 km in the Qaidam basin. The overall northward thinning of the crust evident in the combined seismic observations, coupled with the essentially uniform surface elevation of the plateau south of the Qaidam basin, is supportive of the inference that northern Tibet until the Qaidam basin is underlain by somewhat thinner crust, which is isostatically supported by relatively low-density, hot upper mantle with respect to southern Tibet. [source] Geochemical Characteristics and Origin of Natural Gases in the Qaidam Basin, ChinaACTA GEOLOGICA SINICA (ENGLISH EDITION), Issue 1 2003ZHANG Xiaobao Abstract, Sixty-five natural gas samples were collected from 19 oil-gasfields in the Qaidam basin, China. The chemical composition and carbon isotope values of the samples were measured, and the geochemical characteristics and origin of the natural gases were studied. The gases can be divided into biogenic gases, sapropelic oil-type gases, mixed type oil-type gases, coal-type gases and mixed gas. The ,13C1 values of the biogenic gases are very small and the C2+ contents of them are very low, ranging from ,68.2± to ,61.8± and 0.06% to 0.20% respectively. They have heavy ,D and ,13Cco2. showing a CO2 reduction pathway. They are distributed in the East depression region and derived from the Quaternary source rocks. The sapropelic oil-type gases have small ,13C2 values and high C2+ ranging from ,36.6± to ,28.6± and from 33.01% to 47.15% respectively. The mixed type oil-type gases have ,13C2 values and C2+ contents varying from ,28.6± to ,24.8± and from 4.81% to 26.06% respectively. Both sapropelic oil-type gases and mixed type oil-type gases are associated with oil-type oils, distributed in the West depression region and derived from the Tertiary saltwater lacustrine sapropelic source rocks and humic source rocks respectively. The ,13C2 values of the coal-type gases are extremely high and the C2+ contents are very low, changing from ,23.3± to ,12.5± and from 0.06% to 18.07% respectively. The coal-type gases in the Nanbaxian gasfield and the Lenghu oil-gasfields in the North fault block belt are derived from the Middle Jurassic coal-measures source rocks, whereas those in the West depression region are derived from the Tertiary saltwater lacustrine humic source rocks. Compared with some other basins in China, the natural gases there have obviously heavier ,13C due to the heavier ,13C of different types of kerogens of the Tertiary saltwater lacustrine source rocks in the West depression region of the basin. The mixing of natural gases is common in the West depression region, but the mixed gases are formed by sapropelic oil-type gases, mixed type oil-type gases or coal-type gases, respectively, of different levels of maturity. Most of the sapropelic oil-type gases and mixed type oil-type gases in the west part are thermally immature and low-mature, but the coal-type gases in the West depression region and the North fault block belt are mature and high- to over-mature. [source] | ||||||||||