SEDIMENTARY EVOLUTION STUDY ON THE GANYANCHI PULL-APART BASIN ALONG THE HAIYUAN FAULT |
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| Authors: | LEI Sheng-xue RAN Yong-kang LI Yan-bao XU Liang-xin GUO Wei XIE Jing-bo |
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| Affiliation: | 1.Key Laboratory of Active Tectonics and Volcanos, Institute of Geology, China Earthquake Administration, Beijing 100029, China;2.Tianjin Earthquake Agency, Tianjin 300201, China;3.State Key Laboratory of Earthquake Dynamics, Institute of Geology, China Earthquake Administration, Beijing 100029, China;4.North China Engineering Investigation Institute, Shijiazhuang, Hebei 050021, China |
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| Abstract: | Ganyanchi (Salt Lake)basin, located in the central part of the Haiyuan Fault, northeastern corner of the Tibetan plateau, is the largest pull-apart basin along this fault. Due to its location in northeastern Tibet, the Ganyanchi Basin preserves an important sedimentary record of tectonism and climate change associated with progressive growth of the Tibetan plateau. The sediments of this basin also contain abundant information regarding the deformational history of the bounding strike-slip fault, i.e., the Haiyuan Fault. Therefore, a detailed study on the depository history of the Ganyanchi Basin is of great importance. Earlier studies only focused on regional geological mapping and paleoseismic research, however, no sedimentologic or chronological work has been done in the Ganyanchi pull-apart basin. To address this problem, we drilled a 328m-deep borehole, named HY-C8, at the south of the cross-basin fault and near the active depocenter, and employ magnetostratigraphic analyses and seismic reflection data to constrain the age and to deduce the evolving history of the basin. The deep borehole profile shows that the stratigraphy of the basin can be divided into three main units (Unit Ⅰ, Ⅱ and Ⅲ), which began to deposit at about 2.76, 2.33 and 1.78Ma, respectively. The grain size of the deposits manifests an upward thinning trend, which probably implies the profile is a characteristic retrogradational sequence. The magnetic susceptibility results indicate that the playa lake probably was formed at about 1.78Ma ago, the corresponding playa-lake deposits recorded more than eight high susceptibility sections, which are most likely due to the iron sulfides (such as melnikovite, pyrrhotine etc.)that were usually produced in high-lake-level and reduction conditions. A combination of boreholes and shallow seismic reflection data indicates that the Ganyanchi Basin is mainly controlled by the cross-basin fault and its northern boundary fault, and the depocenter, probably deeper than 550m, lies in between these two faults. Finally, the sedimentary facies of the Ganyanchi Basin experienced a four-stage evolving history:eluvial facies (before~2.76Ma)to alluvial fan facies (about 2.76~2.33Ma)to distal alluvial fan facies (2.33~1.78Ma)to playa lake facies (1.78Ma~present). Based on accumulation rates, the stage of playa lake can be divided into two subchrons, and the depositional rates of subchrons 2 (about 0.78Ma~present)is as high as 232.5m/Ma, which probably was caused by the activity along the cross-basin fault in the Ganyanchi Basin. |
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| Keywords: | Ganyanchi pull-apart basin sedimentary facies magnetic susceptibility basin evolution Haiyuan Fault |
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