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Tectono-thermal evolution of the Liwan Sag, deepwater area in the Zhujiang River Mouth Basin, northern South China Sea

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Abstract

The Liwan Sag, with an area of 4 000 km2, is one of the deepwater sags in the Zhujiang River (Pearl River) Mouth Basin, northern South China Sea. Inspired by the exploration success in oil and gas resources in the deepwater sags worldwide, we conducted the thermal modeling to investigate the tectono-thermal history of the Liwan Sag, which has been widely thought to be important to understand tectonic activities as well as hydrocarbon potential of a basin. Using the multi-stage finite stretching model, the tectonic subsidence history and the thermal history have been obtained for 12 artificial wells, which were constructed on basis of one seismic profile newly acquired in the study area. Two stages of rifting during the time periods of 49–33.9 Ma and 33.9–23 Ma can be recognized from the tectonic subsidence pattern, and there are two phases of heating processes corresponding to the rifting. The reconstructed average basal paleo-heat flow values at the end of the rifting events are ~70.5 and ~94.2 mW/m2 respectively. Following the heating periods, the study area has undergone a persistent thermal attenuation phase since 23 Ma and the basal heat flow cooled down to ~71.8–82.5 mW/m2 at present.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Geothermal and Environmental Research Laboratory, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, 710049, China

    Xiaoyin Tang & Shaopeng Huang

  2. State Key Laboratory of Lithospheric Evolution, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Guangzheng Jiang & Shengbiao Hu

  3. CNOOC Research Institute, Beijing, 100027, China

    Shuchun Yang & Mo Ji

Authors
  1. Xiaoyin Tang
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  2. Shaopeng Huang
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  3. Shuchun Yang
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  4. Guangzheng Jiang
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  5. Mo Ji
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  6. Shengbiao Hu
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Correspondence to Xiaoyin Tang.

Additional information

Foundation item: The Program of the Key Technologies for Petroleum Exploration in Deep Oceanic Areas under contract No. 2011ZX05025-006-05; the Chinese Postdoc Fund, No. 58 General Fund, 2015 under contract No. 2015M582636; the National Natural Science Foundation of China under contract No. 41602251.

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Tang, X., Huang, S., Yang, S. et al. Tectono-thermal evolution of the Liwan Sag, deepwater area in the Zhujiang River Mouth Basin, northern South China Sea. Acta Oceanol. Sin. 37, 66–75 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13131-017-1125-9

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