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The co-relationship of marine carbonates and evaporites: a study from the Tarim Basin, NW China

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Abstract

The coexistence of carbonates and evaporites is common for various petroliferous basins in geological periods globally. It holds much more significance to find out the interaction of these two. This paper expounds the macroscopical and microscopic relationship from petrography, facies, and geochemical analyses from core samples. The study area is dominated by successions of evaporites and carbonates, and three sulfate, five carbonates and mudstone lithofacies have been identified. And carbonates and evaporites are commonly lateral equivalents, both resulted from the similar sedimentary environment and chemical constituents. The intergrowth relationship was mainly reflected in the factors for their formation (including sea-level, evaporation, salinity, climate and so on), sedimentary cycle (including the vertical cycle and banded distribution) and the diagenetic transitions (including TSR, dolomitization, dedolomitization and dissolution). A depositional model has been developed that reveals a bull’s-eye pattern which was dominated by restricted carbonate platform and evaporitic platform with shoal and reef facies developed around the platform margins. With gypsum salts served as the caprock, favorable dolomite reservoir which largely resulted from the diagenetic transition and source of high quality can form a large reservoir.

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(Modified from Du and Pan 2016)

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Acknowledgements

This work was finished under the guidance of my tutor, Professor Zhidong Bao (Email: baozhd@cup.edu.cn). And thanks are due to senior engineer Wei Liu and postdoc. Qingyu Huang for data and constructive comments. We thank Research Institution of Petroleum Exploration & Development, PetroChina, Beijing 100083 for its assistance in research.

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  1. College of Geosciences, China University of Petroleum-Beijing, No. 18, Fuxue Road, Changping District, Beijing, 102249, China

    Xue Chen, Mingyang Wei, Xiaobo Li & Min Li

  2. State Key Laboratory of Petroleum Resource and Prospecting, China University of Petroleum-Beijing, Beijing, 102249, China

    Xue Chen, Mingyang Wei, Xiaobo Li & Min Li

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Chen, X., Wei, M., Li, X. et al. The co-relationship of marine carbonates and evaporites: a study from the Tarim Basin, NW China. Carbonates Evaporites 35, 122 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13146-020-00653-x

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