Geophysical survey on the tectonic and sediment distribution of Qinghai Lake basin

Abstract

The intensive geophysical survey of Qinghai Lake reveals the buried depth of lake sediments and their distribution features. The result indicates that there are three important interphases of Qinghai Lake sediments: T1 is the rife interphase of the lake, above which sediments are spread all over the lake basin with roughly the same thickness; T5 is the interphase from which the neotectonic sedimentary cycle begins, and its above sedimentary environment is relatively stable; Tg is the base of the lake basin. Five west-northwest (WNW) fault belts defined the tectonic structure of Qinghai Lake basin: the central hunch around Haixin Shan with two subbasins both in its north and south. The thickness of the lake sediments varies at different places, the thickest sediments are found within the two subbasins. According to the depth that the Sparker System can reach, sediment in the northern subbasin is deeper than 560 m, while sediment in the southern subbasin is deeper than 700 m. The correlation between the seismic sequence stratigraph and the lithology of onshore core shows that Qinghai Lake sediments consist of muddy silt, clay silt, silty clay, gravel silty clay, etc.