Aspects of sedimentary basin evolution assessed through tectonic subsidence analysis. Example: northern Gulf of Thailand

Abstract

Tectonic subsidence and subsidence rate analyses were conducted using a forward burial technique for the Cenozoic sediments of the northern Gulf of Thailand, a region presently bounded and intersected by major strike-slip fault systems. Basins represented by the seven wells studied are the Thon Buri, Hua Hin, Chumphon, Kra, and Pattani basins. The total observed subsidence was stratigraphically calibrated using well biostratigraphy and/or regional seismic stratigraphy. Tectonic subsidence was subsequently determined assuming local Airy isostasy by correcting decompacted sediments for sediment loading and variations in paleowater depths. Statistical comparison of the observed tectonic subsidence profile versus the theoretical thermal subsidence profile reveals zero-intercept times of incipient thermal-rifting and furthermore helps differentiate times of thermal subsidence from episodes of fault-controlled mechanical subsidence. Differences in tectonic subsidence, tectonic subsidence rates, and in the zero-intercept times of thermal rifting imply the Paleogene thermal associated rifting of the northern Gulf of Thailand was neither restricted spatially nor universally synchronous among the basins, but instead both spatially and time transgressive. Although coupled thermal-mechanical subsidence played a major role in the evolution for most of these basins, in some basins, e.g. the Thon Buri and northern Kra basins, subsidence was not thermally initiated. Instead, these basins experienced relatively slow-paced sediment loaded subsidence until a sudden fault-associated acceleration commenced in the Pliocene. Additional evidence for temporal and spatial changes in local strain is demonstrated by observed asynchronous episodes of “see-saw” subsidence-uplift of the basin floors. For example, while the northern Hua Hin Basin experienced Miocene-Pliocene alternations of subsidence and uplift, portions of the Pattani Basin to the southeast underwent periods of subsidence and uplift which differed in magnitude and phase. In comparison to the tectonic subsidence rates compiled for basin classes worldwide, these Gulf of Thailand basins exhibit time-transient characteristics of cratonic, rift, and wrench style basins. The opening of the northern Gulf of Thailand, basin formation, and subsequent basin evolution have varied both in time and space. Therefore, in terms of hydrocarbon potential, it would be both inappropriate and inaccurate to suggest the thermal histories and subsequent hydrocarbon maturities of these wrench-associated basins to be equivalent. Though tectonically related, each basin has had its own geohistory.