A buried submarine canyon in the northwestern South China Sea: architecture, development processes and implications for hydrocarbon exploration

Bin Wang Fuliang Lü Shuang Li Jian Li Zhili Yang Li Li Xuefeng Wang Yintao Lu Taotao Yang Jingwu Wu Guozhong Sun Hongxia Ma Xiaoyong Xu

Bin Wang, Fuliang Lü, Shuang Li, Jian Li, Zhili Yang, Li Li, Xuefeng Wang, Yintao Lu, Taotao Yang, Jingwu Wu, Guozhong Sun, Hongxia Ma, Xiaoyong Xu. A buried submarine canyon in the northwestern South China Sea: architecture, development processes and implications for hydrocarbon exploration[J]. Acta Oceanologica Sinica, 2021, 40(2): 29-41. doi: 10.1007/s13131-021-1751-0
Citation: Bin Wang, Fuliang Lü, Shuang Li, Jian Li, Zhili Yang, Li Li, Xuefeng Wang, Yintao Lu, Taotao Yang, Jingwu Wu, Guozhong Sun, Hongxia Ma, Xiaoyong Xu. A buried submarine canyon in the northwestern South China Sea: architecture, development processes and implications for hydrocarbon exploration[J]. Acta Oceanologica Sinica, 2021, 40(2): 29-41. doi: 10.1007/s13131-021-1751-0

doi: 10.1007/s13131-021-1751-0

A buried submarine canyon in the northwestern South China Sea: architecture, development processes and implications for hydrocarbon exploration

Funds: The National Scientific Foundation of China under contract No.41876054; the National Science and Technology Major Project “the evaluations of deepwater oil and gas geological conditions and targets in Zhongjian area of the South China Sea” under contract No.2017ZX05026006; the CNPC Science and Technology Major Projects under contract No. 2019A-1009&2019D-4309; the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences under contract No. XDA13010101; the National Natural Science Foundation of China under contract No. 41706054.
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  • Figure  1.  Location map of the study area in the Qiongdongnan Basin on the northwestern South China Sea margin. The black dotted lines present the boundaries of the Zhujiang River Mouth Basin, the Qiongdongnan Basin and the Yinggehai Basin. The red box indicates the location of Fig. 2. Major topographical features, including the Hainan Island, the Xisha Islands and the Zhongsha Islands are marked.

    Figure  2.  Distributions of submarine channels on the northwestern South China Sea. The Xisha Platform in the eastern of the HGC. The red lines indicate the seismic profiles in Figs 59. HGC: Huaguang Canyon, ZJC: Zhongjian Canyon, CC: Central Canyon.

    Figure  3.  The chronostratigraphy profile of the Qiongdongnan Basin (QDNB) from Neogene to Quaternary. The sea level change of the Qiongdongnan Basin and global eustatic were adopted from Haq et al. (1987).

    Figure  4.  The paleogeomorphic map of study area in later Miocene with overlying sediment filling thickness ranging from 500 m to 4500 m. The red lines indicate the seismic profiles in Figs 59. The orange area in the northwest of the map denotes the Huaguang Canyon (HGC), and the orange regions in the southeast of the map indicate the Zhongjian Canyon (ZJC). HGD: Huaguang Depression, XSU: Xisha Uplift, ZJD: Zhongjian Depression, GLU: Guangle Uplift, LDD: Ledong Depression.

    Figure  5.  The cross-sectional seismic profile across the Huaguang Channel (HGC) (a). Location of seismic profile is shown in Fig. 2. The black box indicates the buried channels in Fig. 5b. The buried channels lie in the middle area of the seismic profile (b). The sketch profile shows deposits buried in the HGC (c). The HGC is 9.5 km in width and 90 m in depth. The orange line indicates the basement of the HGC.

    Figure  6.  The cross-sectional seismic profile across the Huaguang Channel (HGC) (a). Location of seismic profile is shown in Fig. 2. The black box indicates the buried channels in Fig. 6b. The buried channels are located in the upper region of the seismic profile (b). The sketch profile shows deposits buried in the HGC (c). The HGC is 4.6 km in width and 225 m in depth. The orange line indicates the basement of the HGC.

    Figure  7.  The cross-sectional seismic profile across the Huaguang Channel (HGC) (a). Location of seismic profile is shown in Fig. 2. The black box indicates the buried channels in Fig. 7b. The seismic profile shows that the buried channels distributed near the upper reach (b). The sketch profile shows deposits buried in the HGC (c). The HGC is 5 km in width and 135 m in depth. The orange line indicates the basement of the HGC.

    Figure  8.  The cross-sectional seismic profile across the Huaguang Channel (HGC) (a). Location of seismic profile is shown in Fig. 2. The black box indicates the buried channels in Fig. 8b. The buried channels are close to the southwestern area of the seismic profile (b). The sketch profile shows deposits buried in the HGC (c). The HGC is 2.5 km in width and 375 m in depth. The orange line indicates the basement of the HGC.

    Figure  9.  The seismic profile is shown in the Figs 2 and 4. The Xisha carbonate platform and the Huaguang Channel (HGC) are shown in the cross-sectional seismic profile. The orange line indicates the basement of the HGC. The green lines represent the progradation reflection. The high-amplitude reflection indicates the clastic fillings, the strong and high reflections indicate the muddy fillings.

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  • 收稿日期:  2019-08-30
  • 录用日期:  2020-03-19
  • 网络出版日期:  2021-04-02
  • 刊出日期:  2021-04-02

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