Characteristics of China’s oil and gas pool formation in latest geological history

The structural activities took place extensively in the Asia continent during the Cenozoic era owing to the strong continent-to-continent collision and continuous compression between the India Plate and the Eurasia Plate. Huang Jiqing called such structural activities Himalayan movement. China’s sedimentary basins developed and took shape mainly during the Himalayan movement period. It is also the main period for formation and development of the oil and gas reservoirs. Of 366 large and medium-sized oil and gas fields currently found in China, 212 reservoirs were formed in the Neogene-Quaternary period. The proportion is as high as 68.2%. The oil and gas migration and accumulation in the latest geological period, which were controlled by the times, properties, styles and strength of the Himalayan movement, took place mainly in eight regions, such as the low uplift area of Bohai Sea, the onshore faulted sag area of Bohai Bay, anticlinorium zone in Daqing, the foreland fold-and-thrust belt in West China, the tilted structural zone in West China, the cratonic palaeohigh in the Tarim Basin, the zone of fault and fold belt in the East Sichuan Basin, and the biological gas zone in the East Qaidam Basin. The oil and gas pool formations in those regions have their own characteristics. With the great potential and broad prospect, those regions are the main exploration areas in China in the future.     

Lithology and palynology of Neogene sediments on the narrow edge of the Kitakami Massif (basement rocks), northeast Japan: Significant change for depositional environments as a result of plate tectonics

Abstract A controversial stratigraphic section, the Taneichi Formation, is exposed along the Pacific Coast of northeastern Honshu, the main island of the Japanese Archipelago. Although most sediments of the formation have long been dated as late Cretaceous, the northern section of it has been assigned to (i) the Upper Cretaceous; (ii) the Paleogene; or (iii) the Neogene. In the present report, we present the data of palynological and sedimentological studies, showing that the northern section should be assigned to the Neogene. A more important point in the present study is that we invoke some basic principles of fluvial sedimentology to resolve this stratigraphic subject. The lignite layers full of Paleogene–Miocene dinoflagellate cysts and pollen assemblages drape over the boulder‐sized (>40 cm in diameter) clasts in the northern section. However, the layers totally consist of aggregates of small lignite chips, indicating that the lignites are allochthonous materials. The mega‐clasts with derived microfossils in the lignites are thought to have been deposited as Neogene fluvial (flood) sediments in the newly formed Japanese Archipelago. Prior to the Miocene, the northern Honshu was part of the Eurasian Plate, thus the boulder‐sized clasts cannot be envisaged as long river flood deposits along the continental Paleogene Pacific Coast. Instead, the mega‐clasts with the draping lignites were probably derived from nearby Miocene highlands in the newly born island arc.     

冲积-河流相层序地层模式--以济阳坳陷新近系为例

从层序边界分析人手，对层序类型体系域类型等进行了研究，认为冲积-河流相地层体系域划分具4分性，即发育有低位体系域、扩张体系域、高位体系域，当基准面缓慢下降时，还可发育收缩体系域．同时，根据济阳坳陷新近系沉积特征，指出各体系域对应的沉积体系及相类型，认为低位体系域以侵蚀下切、冲积扇．辫状河沉积为主；扩张体系域由辫状河向曲流河过渡；高位体系域时期以曲流河为主．其次，根据构造演化、古气候变化、古地形等研究认为，尽管新近纪济阳坳陷进入坳陷发育时期，断裂活动明显减弱，但是构造运动对层序发育仍有一定影响；根据古气候分析认为，新近纪经历了北亚热带温湿气候，中亚热带温湿气候，北亚热带干旱气候等阶段．这种气候变化导致了馆陶组沉积早、中期河流纵横交错，辫状河道发育，馆陶组沉积后期逐渐向曲流河过渡；明化镇组沉积期河道相对不发育．由古地形及物源供给分析，认为古地形差异的变化与物源供给对济阳坳陷新近系层序发育、层序样式等有一定程度影响．     

Ulmus harutoriensis Oishi et Huzioka角质层特征及古环境意义

根据大量室内实验分析，对产于云南腾冲的植物化石Ulmus harutorensis Oishi et Huzioka的角质层进行了细致研究，揭示了Ulmus harutoriensis叶的表皮构造，其主要特征为：上表皮厚1．1μm，下表皮厚小于1μm，上表皮细胞大于下表皮细胞、毛基少、气孔器很小、只在下表皮发育、无规则型、散生、下陷较浅，在此基础上结合其他资料推测了古气候变化，并与现生Umlus pumila L。同时进行了气孔密度和气孔指数的统计，用生物学的方法推测了古大气CO2浓度，讨论了Berner的碳平衡模型。     

Eocene-Pliocene time scale and stratigraphy of the Upper Rhine Graben (URG) and the Swiss Molasse Basin (SMB)

We present a general stratigraphic synthesis for the Upper Rhine Graben (URG) and the Swiss Molasse Basin (SMB) from Eocene to Pliocene times. The stratigraphic data were compiled both from literature and from research carried out by the authors during the past 6 years ; an index of the stratigraphically most important localitites is provided. We distinguish 14 geographical areas from the Helvetic domain in the South to the Hanau Basin in the North. For each geographical area, we give a synthesis of the biostratigraphy, lithofacies, and chronostratigraphic ranges. The relationships between this stratigraphic record and the global sea-level changes are generally disturbed by the geodynamic (e.g., subsidence) evolution of the basins. However, global sea-level changes probably affected the dynamic of transgression–regression in the URG (e.g., Middle Pechelbronn Beds and Serie Grise corresponding with sea-level rise between Ru1/Ru2 and Ru2/Ru3 sequences, respectively) as well as in the Molasse basin (regression of the UMM corresponding with the sea-level drop at the Ch1 sequence). The URGENT-project (Upper Rhine Graben evolution and neotectonics) provided an unique opportunity to carry out and present this synthesis. Discussions with scientists addressing sedimentology, tectonics, geophysics and geochemistry permitted the comparison of the sedimentary history and stratigraphy of the basin with processes controlling its geodynamic evolution. Data presented here back up the palaeogeographic reconstructions presented in a companion paper by the same authors (see Berger et al. in Int J Earth Sci 2005).     

Saprolite Remnants as Indicators of Pre-Glacial Landform Genesis in Southeast Sweden

Twenty‐six sites with remnants of gravelly saprolites (grus) have been located in southeast Sweden. Joint block hills (castle kopjes) and steep rock walls with weathered joints as well as rounded boulders are documented to have an origin in deep weathering and subsequent stripping of saprolites. The saprolite remnants and landforms result from the fragmentation of the re‐exposed sub‐Cambrian peneplain along fracture systems. Only shallow saprolites occur on the elevated intact parts of the sub‐Cambrian peneplain, while saprolites up to 20 m thick are encountered in areas where the sub‐Cambrian peneplain is fractured and dissected. Neogene uplift with reactivation of the weathering system is thought to be the main cause of saprolite formation. Deep weathering is thus judged to have been the major agent of landform formation in the study area, while glacial and glaciofluvial erosion has contributed mainly by stripping saprolites, detaching corestones, and plucking joint blocks along weathered joints.     

Coastal neotectonics in Southern Central Andes: uplift and deformation of marine terraces in Northern Chile (27°S)

Neotectonic observations allow a new interpretation of the recent tectonic behaviour of the outer fore arc in the Caldera area, northern Chile (27°S). Two periods of deformation are distinguished, based on large-scale Neogene to Quaternary features of the westernmost part of the Coastal Cordillera: Late Miocene to Early Pliocene deformations, characterized by a weak NE–SW to E–W extension is followed by uppermost Pliocene NW–SE to E–W compression. The Middle Pleistocene to Recent time is characterized by vertical uplift and NW–SE extension. These deformations provide clear indications of the occurrence of moderate to large earthquakes. Microseismic observations, however, indicate a lack of shallow crustal seismicity in coastal zone. We propose that both long-term brittle deformation and uplift are linked to the subduction seismic cycle.     

吉林珲春新近系土门子组孢粉组合及其意义

通过对吉林珲春土门子组孢粉样品分析。建立了Quercoidites-Ulmipollenites-Liquidambar-pollenites组合。根据孢粉植物群特征及其与周围地区对比，其地质时代归属新近纪中中新世为宜。孢粉组合中喜温成分占多数，亚热带成分如Caryapollenites、Liquidambarpollenites等也较为常见，反映了当时比较温暖湿润的暖温带-亚热带气候，在我国第三纪植物群区系中属于东部落叶阔叶林植物区。     

Ar/Ar ages of tephras intercalated in astronomically tuned Neogene sedimentary sequences in the eastern Mediterranean

We present new ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar data for sanidine and biotite derived from volcanic ash layers that are intercalated in Pliocene and late Miocene astronomically dated sequences in the Mediterranean with the aim to solve existing inconsistencies in the intercalibration between the two independent absolute dating methods. ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar sanidine ages are systematically younger by 0.7-2.3% than the astronomical ages for the same ash layers. The significance of the discrepancy disappears except for the upper Ptolemais ashes, which reveal the largest difference, if an improved full error propagation method is applied to calculate the absolute error in the ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar ages. The total variance is dominated by that of the activity of the decay of ⁴⁰K to ⁴⁰Ar (∼70%) and that the amount of radiogenic ⁴⁰Ar_p in the primary standard GA1550 biotite (∼15%). If the ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar ages are calculated relative to an astronomically dated standard, the influence of these parameters is greatly reduced, resulting in a more reliable age and in a significant reduction of the error in ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar dating.Astronomically calibrated ages for Taylor Creek Rhyolite (TCR) and Fish Canyon Tuff (FCT) sanidine are 28.53±0.02 and 28.21±0.04 Ma (±1 S.E.), respectively, if we start from the more reliable results of the Cretan A1 ash layer. The most likely explanation for the large discrepancy found for the younger Ptolemais ash layers (equivalent to FCT of 28.61 Ma) is an error in the tuning of this part of the sequence.     

下辽河平原新近系地下水开采的动态变化特征

新近系地下淡水是下辽河三角洲地区的盘锦市和辽河油田主要供水水源。地下水处于封闭到半封闭环境，包括明化镇组(Nm)和馆陶组(Ng)两个含水岩组。天然状态下，地下水位接近或高于地表；开采条件下，地下水位逐年下降，形成区域性降落漏斗，地下水流场均发生显著变化，形成汇向开采区的向心流场。开采明化镇组地下水为主的盘东水源地，开采初期水位下降速率为1.61～5．19m／a，至1996年降至0．63～1．03m／a；馆陶组地下水为主的各水源地，开采初期水位下降速率为2．10～4．21m／a，至1996年减至1．49～2．05m／a。这是由于地下水流场变化，导致明化镇成水体内侵和下移所致，该地地下水中Cl^-的不断增高也证明了这一点。至1998年。平面上，成水体每年增加3．18km^2，盘东水源南部，成水体内侵速率已达每年220m。垂向上成水体年下移速率一般每年0．5～1．67m。进行新近系地下水动态特征和演化趋势研究，将为合理开发利用宝贵的淡水资源提供科学依据。