The tectonic setting, material source and paleoenvironment of the Upper Carboniferous Keluke Formation in the Ounan Depression of the eastern Qaidam Basin: Evidence from element geochemistry of fine-grained sedimentary rocks
The research for tectonic setting, material source and paleoenvironment of Keluke Formation in the Lower Carboniferous remains weak, although hydrocarbons have been discovered in the formation of Ounan Depression, which is located in the east of northern Qaidam Basin. The study about element geochemistry of the C2k fine-grained deposits from the Baishugou outcrop in the northeastern depression has been investigated; and the results indicate that the depression should be one part of the back-arc rifted basin, which developed in the tectonic setting of active continental margin while the Animachen ocean crust subducting northward during C2k. Terrigenous detrital materials were provided into the depression from parent rocks of the North Qaidam Orogenic Belt in the south, which were dominated by acidic igneous rocks. The pillow basalt were erupted in the Zongwulong Rough to the north of the depression, which were easily eroded to the dissolved silica, carried by the upwelling into the depression and subsequently transformed to the biogenic silica by thriving siliceous plankton organisms. The C2k stage was in the phase III of the late Paleozoic ice age and three interglacial warming events (periods A, B and C) have been identified, when the temperature increment causing the transgression for the glacial ablation, palaeobathymetric increasing, anoxic event and salinity growing for the seawater recharge and heating evaporation. The intensity of temperature rise and the extent of sea level rise in the warming period B were stronger than that in the periods A and C, when the sea level reached the maximum sea surface and depositional environment was weakly-reductive in the study area during C2k. The C2k paleoproductivity in the outcrop was composed of terrigenous plants and ocean aquatic organisms such as siliceous organism, respectively from the directions of North Qaidam Orogenic Belt and Zongwulong Rough, which are the typical mixed terrestrial and marine organic matters. The input intensity of ocean aquatic organic matters reached the maximum in the warming period B and it was primary influenced by the terrigenous organic matter in the other periods. This study has significance for comprehending the tectonic-sedimentary-palaeogeographic evolution process and mechanism of organic matter enrichment in the Carboniferous of the Qaidam Basin.
Hui SHI, Zongxing LI, Bo PENG, Yuqi SUN, Hao ZHANG, Yuanyuan YANG, Junjie HU, Xinxin FANG, Xiaojie WEI. The tectonic setting, material source and paleoenvironment of the Upper Carboniferous Keluke Formation in the Ounan Depression of the eastern Qaidam Basin: Evidence from element geochemistry of fine-grained sedimentary rocks. Natural Gas Geoscience[J], 2022, 33(10): 1554-1570 DOI:10.11764/j.issn.1672-1926.2022.04.012
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