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AAPG Bulletin; September 2006; v. 90; no. 9; p. 1425-1447; DOI: 10.1306/03230605076
© 2006 American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
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Longmen Shan fold-thrust belt and its relation to the western Sichuan Basin in central China: New insights from hydrocarbon exploration

Dong Jia1, Guoqi Wei2, Zhuxin Chen3, Benliang Li4, Qing Zeng5 and Guang Yang6

1 Department of Earth Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, People's Republic of China; djia{at}nju.edu.cn
2 Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration and Development, Langfang Branch, PetroChina Company Limited, Langfang 065007, People's Republic of China; weigq{at}petrochina.com.cn
3 Department of Earth Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, People's Republic of China; chenzhuxin{at}gmail.com
4 Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration and Development, Langfang Branch, PetroChina Company Limited, Langfang 065007, People's Republic of China; LBL{at}petrochina.com.cn
5 Southwest Oil & Gasfield Company, PetroChina Company Limited, Chengdu 610051, People's Republic of China; zengqing{at}sina.com
6 Southwest Oil & Gasfield Company, PetroChina Company Limited, Chengdu 610051, People's Republic of China

Dong Jia is a professor in the Department of Earth Sciences of Nanjing University in China. He received his Ph.D. in structural geology from Nanjing University in 1988. His current research projects are focused on structural geometries and timing of deformation in the sedimentary basins of China.

Guoqi Wei is a chief geologist in the Langfang Branch of the Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration and Development, PetroChina Company Limited. He received his Ph.D. from Nanjing University in 2000. His current researches are focused on sedimentary basins in western China.

Zhuxin Chen received his B.A. degree in petroleum geology from the Chinese University of Petroleum in 2001. He is currently finishing his Ph.D. (geology) at Nanjing University, where he specializes in seismic interpretation and balancing cross sections.

Benliang Li is a senior geologist in PetroChina Company Limited. He earned a B.A. degree in geology from the Chinese Southwestern Petroleum Institute in 1995 and obtained a Ph.D. in geology from Nanjing University in 2000. His current research focuses on the Mesozoic–Cenozoic basin in western China.

Qing Zeng is a senior research scientist in PetroChina Company Limited. He obtained his B.A. degree in structural geology from Nanjing University in 1986. Presently, he is working on several projects on structural reconstruction and trap analysis in the Sichuan Basin.

Guang Yang is the project manager in PetroChina Company Limited. He received his B.A. degree in geology from Nanjing University in 1984, followed by his M.S. degree in 1989. His interests include petroleum geology, basin analysis, and entrapment assessment.

The Longmen Shan fold-thrust belt is one of the key regions of demonstrable Mesozoic–Cenozoic tectonic evolution in China, and the Sichuan Basin was the first natural-gas-producing area in China. In this article, the structural features of the Longmen Shan belt are presented, using both seismic profiles and field data. The complex structures of the northeast-trending Longmen Shan fold-thrust belt and its foreland in the western Sichuan Basin are formed by southeast-directed thrusting. Several eastward-verging, rootless thrust sheets and imbricates of Cambrian–Triassic rocks have been recognized in the northern Longmen Shan belt. Evidence suggests that the northern Longmen Shan belt experienced at least two major periods of deformation in the Late Triassic and Cenozoic. However, the southern Longmen Shan belt is represented by the basement-involved thrust structures and klippen, and its major periods of deformation were in the latest Cretaceous–early Cenozoic. Sedimentary features in the western Sichuan Basin reflect a two-phase flexural-loading history and illustrate that the Late Triassic foreland basin extends along the foredeep of the entire length of the Longmen Shan belt, but the uppermost Cretaceous–Paleogene rejuvenated foreland basin is restricted in the southern part of the western Sichuan Basin.

Structural geometries suggest that prospective traps are mainly developed in the frontal zone of the Longmen Shan fold-thrust belt and in the southern part of the western Sichuan Basin. One of the major contributions of this article is finding preexisting Paleozoic rift basins under the Cenozoic thin-skinned thrust belts, which represent a new potential hydrocarbon play.






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