Oil & Gas Geology ›› 2023, Vol. 44 ›› Issue (3): 539-552.doi: 10.11743/ogg20230302

• Petroleum Geology • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Quantitative reconstruction, hierarchical division and coupling mode establishment for ancient source-to-sink systems in continental basins

Hongtao ZHU1(), Changgui XU2, Xiaofeng DU3, Qianghu LIU1, Zhongheng SUN1, Zhiwei ZENG1   

  1. 1.School of Earth Resources,China University of Geosciences (Wuhan),Wuhan,Hubei 430074,China
    2.CNOOC,Beijing 100010,China
    3.Research Institute,CNOOC,Beijing 100028,China
  • Received:2023-02-13 Revised:2023-03-19 Online:2023-06-01 Published:2023-06-05

Abstract:

Quantitative reconstruction, hierarchical division and coupling mode establishment are important means to restore the erosion and sedimentation processes for depth-time ancient source-to-sink systems in continental basins. The main difficulties in quantitative reconstruction of provenance lie in paleo-geomorphology reconstruction and paleo-drainage reconstruction. New techniques for paleo-geomorphology reconstruction use a “three-zone and five-step” restoration method based on the framework of denudation, overlap-denudation and overlap zones as well as steps of residual geomorphology reconstruction, differential subsidence correction, overlap-denudation zone restoration, denudation zone restoration and depositional paleo-geomorphology restoration. In terms of paleo-drainage system reconstruction, a quantitative restoration and picking method is resorted to based on the ArcGIS system. The division of ancient source-to-sink systems in continental basins is usually realized by using the “three-line and three-level” method, of which, picking up watersheds, water dividing lines and ridge lines are very critical before a further division of first-order, second-order, and third-order source-to-sink systems. According to the area, geometric configuration and coupling relationship of the drainage unit and sedimentary body within the reconstructed ancient source-to-sink system, this paper puts forward four types of source-sink coupling modes, i.e., “dumbbell”, “racket”, “trophy” and “javelin” modes, and thus may serve as a valuable reference for quantitative study of source-to-sink system and prediction of deep exploration targets.

Key words: hierarchical division, coupling mode, ancient source-to-sink system, quantitative reconstruction, paleo-geomorphologic reconstruction, reconstruction of paleo-drainage system, continental basin

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