Tazhong low salient is part of the foreland thrusting system in the southeastern Tarim Basin from Middle Ordovician to early Late Devonian.During this geologic period

the faults in Tazhong area were dominated by north-dipping and thrusts

and might intersected the deep north-thrusting major fault

forming a north-propagating wedge structure front.The low salient in Tazhong area experienced multistage tectonic movements

resulting in different structural geometries in different stratigraphic units.For example

NW-trending compressional fault-related folds dominate the Sinian-Ordovician structural layer;NE-trending negative flow structures and pull-apart grabens are predominant in the Silurian-Devonian structural layer;while positive flow structures and collapse structures resulted from magma invasion or diaper are prevalent in the Carboniferous-Permian structural layer.The early structures are commonly destroyed by the later structures duo to multistage faulting

making it difficult to identifying them on seismic section.Therefore

structure interpretation should be based on the seismic profiles with approximate the same vertical and horizontal scales

so as to correctly define the deformation features in these structural layers and extrapolate into areas where seismic data quality is low.