New interpretation on the provenance changes of the upper Pinghu–lower Huagang Formation within Xihu Depression, East China Sea Shelf Basin
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Abstract: Both Pinghu and Huagang formations are important hydrocarbon reservoirs of the Xihu Depression in the East China Sea Shelf Basin. Clarifying the source suppliers and restoring source-to-sink transport routes are of great significance to the future petroleum and gas undertakings. Previous researchers were largely confined by either limitation of geological records, highly dependence on a singular method or low-precision dating techniques. Our study integrated heavy mineral assemblages, geochemical analyses and detrital zircon U-Pb dating to reconstruct multiple source-to-sink pathways, and to provide a better understanding on the provenance evolution for the upper Pinghu–lower Huagang depositions of the Xihu Depression. At least three major provenances have been confirmed and systematically investigated for their separate compositional features. The Hupijiao Uplift (or even farther northern area) was dominated by a major Paleoproterozoic population peaked at ca. 1 830 Ma along with minor Mesozoic clusters. The Haijiao Uplift to the west and the Yushan Low Uplift to the southwest, on the other hand, generate opposite U-Pb age spectra with apparently larger peaks of Indosinian and Yanshanian-aged zircons. To be noted, both Indosinian and Paleoproterozoic peaks are almost identical in proportion for the Haijiao Uplift. The overall sedimentary pattern of late Eocene−early Oligocene was featured by both spatial and temporal distinction. The Hupijiao Uplift was likely to cast limited impact during the late Eocene, whereas the broad southern Xihu Depression was transported by a large abundance of materials from the nearby Haijiao and Yushan Low Uplifts. The northern source substantially extended its influence to the farther south during the early Oligocene by delivering plentiful sediments of higher-degree metamorphic parent rocks. Combined with the proximal western and southwestern suppliers, the overall Xihu Depression was under control from both distant and local provenances.
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Figure 1. Tectonic units of the East China Sea Shelf Basin (modified after Zhou et al. (1989) and Zhang et al. (2018)).
Figure 2. Regional stratigraphic framework of the Xihu Depression (modified after Zhu (2010) and Su et al. (2014b)).
Figure 6. Sketch-up and location map of the Xihu Depression and its potential surrounding source areas (a); detrital zircon U-Pb age combination patterns of the potential source end-members (b). Hupijiao Uplift data was recompiled from Choi et al. (2013, 2016).
Table 1. The information of drill-core sediments, Pinghu-Huagang Formation, Xihu Depression
Drill-core No. Sample No. Strata Depth/m Lithology Method T-1 T-1A Pinghu Fm. 3744 sandstone heavy mineral/elemental geochemistry T-1B Huagang Fm. 3209 sandstone heavy mineral T-1 Pinghu Fm. 3743 sandstone zircon U-Pb dating T-12 T-12A Pinghu Fm. 3439 sandstone heavy mineral T-12B Huagang Fm. 3684.5 sandstone heavy mineral D-1 D-1A Pinghu Fm. 3853 sandstone heavy mineral D-1B Huagang Fm. 3045 sandstone heavy mineral T-6 T-6A Pinghu Fm. 3898 sandstone heavy mineral T-6B Huagang Fm. 3366 sandstone heavy mineral B-3 B-3 Pinghu Fm. 3408−4126 sandstone elemental geochemistry Q-1 Q-1A Pinghu Fm. 4414−4516 sandstone elemental geochemistry Q-1B Huagang Fm. 4354−4404 sandstone elemental geochemistry H-29 H-29A Pinghu Fm. 3175−3204 sandstone zircon U-Pb dating H-29B Huagang Fm. 3030−3060 sandstone zircon U-Pb dating G-1 G-1 Huagang Fm. 3552 sandstone zircon U-Pb dating N-13 N-13 Baoshi Fm. 4136−4182 sandstone zircon U-Pb dating B-1 B-1 Lowermost Pinghu Fm. 3341.68 sandstone zircon U-Pb dating -
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