The property, age and formation environment of the palaeokarst in Qinghai-Xizang Plateau

The karst landforms distributed on the Qinghai-Xizang (Tibet) Plateau can be genetically classed with the Tertiary underground karst, which were gradually exhumed to the surface with the uplift of the plateau during Quaternary period. The relative deposits of the Tertiary palaeokarst processes, such as the residuum and speleothem, were discovered recently in the southern and southeastern fringe areas of the plateau, where has geological-currently been disintegrated by the headward erosion processes of the modern river systems. The major chemical components of the clay portion of the residuum consist mainly of SiO2C, Al2CO3 and Fe2O3. The clay minerals composition of the clay portion belongs to illite-kaolinite pattern for most of the residuum samples, and kaolinite-illite pattern for a few of the samples. It can be judged from the silicic acid index and the clay minerals composition that the formation of the residuum of the Plateau was in its initial phase. However, such a lower chemical weathering index only reflected the weathering degree in the bottom or lower parts of the lateritic weathering crust. The relatively intensive chemical weathering processes of the surface layers of the lateritic weathering crust could be logically speculated. The surface feature textures of quartz grains in the residuum were formed mainly by the chemical erosion, which revealed a long-term humid-tropical environment when the residuum and the palaeokarst formed.     

Sulfide‐bearing palaeokarst deposits at Lune River Quarry,Ida Bay,Tasmania

The Lune River Quarry at Ida Bay, Tasmania exposes numerous palaeokarst features developed in the Ordovician Gordon Limestone. These palaeokarst features contain carbonate and siliciclastic deposits probably representing Late Devonian to early Late Carboniferous and Late Carboniferous karstification and sedimentation. Five facies of palaeokarst deposits are recognised, namely megabreccia, graded‐bedded carbonate, laminated sandstone/siltstone, diamictite/quartz‐lithic sandstone and coarse crystalline calcite. Pyrite, dolomite and sphalerite were emplaced in the palaeokarst deposits after the Carboniferous. These deposits are probably associated with a phase of hydrothermal cave development in Exit Cave, which adjoins the quarry. Pyrite weathering accounts for the abundance of gypsum speleothems and cave breakdown in Exit Cave.     

矿物包裹体特征对古岩溶作用的指示性

碳酸盐岩溶蚀孔缝中充填矿物包裹体特征对古岩溶作用环境和期次具有较好的指示性。黄骅坳陷奥陶系充填矿物包裹体物理特征反映古岩溶作用环境为埋藏型,包裹体化学特征显示了古岩溶作用与有机质熟化程度有关。包裹体各项特征指标的明显差异性与古岩溶作用的多期性相对应：3种盐度类型反映了浅埋藏、中等埋藏和深埋藏3种环境;4个均一温度段与古岩溶发育的4个期次相吻合。     

塔里木盆地塔北露头区的古岩溶发育模式

目前塔里木盆地海相碳酸盐岩的油气勘探已进入高峰期,为弥补钻井岩心资料不足,进一步认识井下岩溶发育规律及发育模式特征,开展塔北露头区奥陶系风化壳古岩溶缝洞系统发育特征及发育模式研究。研究表明,岩溶发育主要受控于岩性因素和不整合面,主要发育层位为一间房组地层;主要岩溶作用期为吐木休克组／一间房组沉积间断岩溶期。为井下岩溶缝洞系统的认识及岩溶地质模型的建立提供了重要理论依据。     

Palaeosols and palaeokarst beneath subaerial unconformities in an Upper Devonian isolated reef complex (Judy Creek), Swan Hills Formation,west‐central Alberta,Canada

Subaerial unconformities are used widely for palaeoenvironmental and palaeogeographic reconstructions, sequence stratigraphy and petroleum reservoir assessments. Recognition and interpretation of these unconformities, particularly those with associated palaeosols, may be problematic in Lower and Middle Palaeozoic carbonate successions because of the collective effect of limited land plant development, superficial similarities between some pedogenic and marine features, and overprinting by later diagenesis. The isolated Judy Creek reef complex in the Lower Frasnian Swan Hills Formation in west‐central Alberta, Canada, contains two subaerial unconformities, R0.5 and R4, which formed as a consequence of relative sea‐level falls of at least regional scale. Deposits beneath these unconformities have distinctive palaeosol and palaeokarst features. The lower unconformity, R0.5, occurs at the top of a progradational reefal phase of stromatoporoid rudstones–floatstones and peloidal packstones–grainstones and has been recognized in at least one other isolated Swan Hills reef complex (Snipe Lake). Palaeosol–palaeokarst profiles beneath this unconformity extend as deep as ca 2 m below the unconformity. These profiles are characterized by the presence of small rhizoliths, laminar calcretes, ferroan dolomite glaebules, desiccation cracks, breccias, green shale and solution vugs. The upper unconformity, R4, occurs at the top of a backstepping phase of reef growth and has been correlated widely between isolated reefs and carbonate banks on both the western and eastern shelves of the Central Alberta Basin. Palaeosol–palaeokarst profiles, extending as deep as ca 9·5 m beneath the R4 unconformity, are distinguished by abundant, sub‐horizontal desiccation cracks filled with green shale, occurring in peloidal wackestones–packstones. Comparison of the R0.5 and R4 profiles indicates that the major intrinsic controls on the development and modification of the profiles are parent‐material lithology, particularly the prior degree of induration and particle size; the low topographic relief at the top of the reef interior; and limited vegetation of the exposed reef top due to unfavourable growth conditions and geographic isolation. In addition to climate, the major extrinsic controls are the extent of relative sea‐level fall, estimated to be 2·5 to 3 m and 13 to 14 m associated with the R0.5 and R4 unconformities, respectively, and the degree of shoreface erosion during the ensuing marine transgression, estimated to be up to 3 m. This study highlights the complex interplay of mainly physical and chemical processes influencing the formation of subaerial unconformities in carbonate environments during the Devonian, before major evolutionary innovations among vascular land plants led to more intense pedogenesis.     

Palaeokarst and rauhwacke development,mountain uplift and subaerial sliding of tectonic sheets (northern Sierra de los Filabres,Betic Cordilleras,Spain)

The rauhwackes near Serón in the northern Sierra de los Filabres (S Spain), previously considered as true tectonic breccias, are reinterpreted on the basis of sedimentological, geomorphological and geometrical evidence as subaerial or nearly subaerial sedimentary deposits. Channel fills, parallel lamination, cross-lamination, graded bedding, sedimentary clastic dykes and other sedimentary structures and features occur in the rauhwacke body. These sedimentary rocks correspond to continental deposits of alluvial and karstic origin deposited over a karstified erosional surface of Nevado–Filabride marbles. Although no fossils have been found in the rauhwackes, a Tortonian age for these rocks is suggested on the basis of structural arguments and lithostratigraphic data from the nearby Almanzora basin. The rauhwackes were buried by slabs of Alpujarride rocks that gravitationally slid over them during the uplifting of the Sierra de los Filabres.     

川东石炭系地层—构造复合圈闭控制因素及有利区研究

根据川东石炭系实钻资料，结合前人资料对石炭系地层—构造复合圈闭进行了分类和总结；在此基础上，对川东石炭系地层—构造复合圈闭的控制因素进行了研究。研究表明沉积相是地层—构造复合圈闭的次要控制因素，而古岩溶、古构造是其主要控制因素；在此过程中，根据黄龙纽残余厚度分布状况提供的岩溶剥蚀强度信息、经压实恢复上覆梁山组碳质泥岩等厚度图反映的黄龙组顶面侵蚀地形变化印模及由岩溶相组合特征所显示的古水文条件，恢复了川东地区黄龙组古岩溶地貌。在分析古岩溶地貌单元古水文状况、溶蚀方式和强度、古构造及古岩溶厚度的基础上，对川东内古岩溶进行了区块划分。最后综合了各种资料，对川东石炭系地层—构造复合圈闭有利区带进行了预测。     

Palaeokarst in the Ordovician of the southern Great Basin, USA: implications for sea-level history

Abundant and regionally unique dolostone lithoclast breccias occur throughout the shallow-marine, Lower to Middle Ordovician Pogonip Group in the Nopah Range and adjacent ranges in eastern California and southern Nevada. Breccia bodies display sharply cross-cutting relationships with host dolostone bedrock stratigraphy. They also show stratigraphic variability in size, shape and dolostone clast composition, but similarity in breccia matrix composition and framework texture and fabric. These characteristics are consistent with a palaeokarst origin. Upsection changes in breccia clast lithology as well as multiple occurrences of associated quartz sand-filled grikes (solution-widened fissures) indicate multiple episodes of carbonate platform exposure and karstification. Repeated karstification is also indicated by stratiform bodies of quartz sand and thin terra rossa palaeosols that locally truncate breccias and grike systems, thus bracketing karstified exposure surfaces. Facies successions and stacking patterns between recognized exposure surfaces are developed as transgressive–regressive cycles and thus show depositional sequence architecture. Hence, these breccias and other associated palaeokarst features are related to a succession of disconformities that provide a sequence-stratigraphic framework for assessing Ordovician relative sea-level history of the south-western Cordilleran margin of Laurentia.     

The unconformity-related palaeokarst in the uppermost Ediacaran carbonate rocks in the northwestern Tarim Block,NW China: implication for sedimentary evolution during the Ediacaran–Cambrian transition

ABSTRACT

The unconformity between the Ediacaran and Cambrian and its associated palaeokarst was well preserved within the Aksu area of the northwestern margin of the Tarim Block and provides new insights into the sedimentary evolution of the Tarim Basin during the Ediacaran–Cambrian transition. In this contribution, the typical palaeokarst features in the uppermost Ediacaran dolostones at nine outcrops in the Aksu area were documented, including palaeocaves, cave-sediment infills, solution vugs, and pores. Large-scale collapsed breccia assemblages in palaeocaves indicate that strong karstification had occurred in the south belt from the Xiaoerburak to Kule sections. Karst characterized by small-scale caves and solution vugs at the Chigebrak and Kakebashi sections suggests that the karstification in the north belt was not stronger than that in the south belt. Whereas sparse solution pores and small vugs can only be observed at the Sugetbrak and Yuermeinak sections, demonstrating that the karstification was weak in the middle belt. Combined with the thickness of sediments in the base of the Cambrian which subsequently overlay on the Ediacaran–Cambrian unconformity, it is speculated that the palaeo-upland was probably located in the middle belt from the Sugetbrak to Yuermeinak sections and the slope was developed in the south and north belts during the Ediacaran–Cambrian transition. The palaeokarst documented in the uppermost Ediacaran dolostones in the Aksu area illustrates an important sedimentary hiatus of the Tarim Block during the Ediacaran–Cambrian transition, which might be due to the sea-level fall at the end of the Ediacaran.     

四川盆地东部黄龙组碳酸盐岩储层沉积-成岩系统

四川盆地东部上石炭统黄龙组是天然气藏的主力产层.在岩心观察、野外剖面实测和室内薄片鉴定分析的基础上, 结合钻井、测井、物性分析和X-衍射分析资料, 对川东黄龙组碳酸盐岩储层沉积-成岩系统进行了深入研究.认为川东黄龙组主要发育萨勃哈、有障壁海岸和陆棚3个相带以及特殊的古喀斯特相, 储集岩类型以白云质岩溶角砾岩及颗粒白云岩为主, 有效的储集空间类型主要为晶间孔、晶间溶孔, 最重要的储层类型为孔洞缝型, 最有利储层发育部位为岩溶上斜坡中的坡地和残丘微地貌单元.综合分析认为, 沉积-成岩系统与储层在时空上具有良好的耦合关系, 粒屑滩沉积微相控制了黄龙组储层的区域分布, 早-中成岩阶段压实卤水成岩系统、古表生期大气水成岩系统以及埋藏成岩阶段的温压水成岩系统对优质储层发育贡献最大.