Late Neoproterozoic to Early Palaeozoic evolution and hydrocarbon prospectivity of the NW Tarim Basin, China

Abstract

Recent contraction in the NW Tarim Basin, China, has exhumed a thick (2-3 km) sequence of Upper Neoproterozoic to Lower Palaeozoic sediments that provide a unique insight into the early evolution of the basin. The sedimentary sequence was examined in outcrop and consists of a lower, 500-m-thick fluvial-lacustrine clastic and volcanic succession, conformably overlain by a 2000-m-thick shallow marine carbonate succession which records a major rifting event that initiated in the Late Neoproterozoic. This rifting event probably corresponds to the breakup of East Gondwana and the separation of the Tarim Block from a conjugate margin equivalent in NW Australia. The generation and infilling of rift basins creates a number of potential hydrocarbon plays, although analysis of individual play elements indicates a relatively high risk, despite the prevalence of hydrocarbons derived from the same rift sequence elsewhere in the basin.

Palaeo‐Mesoproterozoic magmatic and metamorphic events from the Kuluketage block, northeast Tarim Craton: geochronology, geochemistry and implications for evolution of Columbia

“…Several investigations related to the geological, structural, petrological, geochemical and geochronological history of the TC were carried out in the recent years, which led to the identification of five distinct Precambrian basements exposed along the margins of the craton. These include the Kuluketage block along the northeastern margin (Guo et al, 2003;Xu et al, 2005Xu et al, , 2009Zhang et al, 2007aZhang et al, , b, 2009aZhang et al, , 2011Zhang et al, , 2012aLu et al, 2008b;Long et al, 2010Long et al, , 2011bLong et al, , 2012Zhu et al, 2010Zhu et al, , 2011Shu et al, 2011;Lei et al, 2012), the Aksu block along the northwestern margin (Zhang et al, 2009a, b;Zheng et al, 2010;Turner, 2012;Yong et al, 2013), the Tiekelike block along the southwestern margin (Zhang et al, 2003a, b;Lu et al, 2008b;Wang et al, 2012) and the north Altyn Tagh block and the Dunhuang block along the southeastern margin (Mei et al, 1998;Lu and Yuan, 2003;Zhang et al, 2012aZhang et al, , 2013bWang et al, 2013).…”