Orbital obliquity evolution during the late Paleozoic ice age across the northeastern gondwana: Implications for regional sea-level change trigger and reservoir quality assessment

Abstract

Orbitally-induced cycles build stratigraphic sequences on time spans ranging from several thousand to several million years by altering depositional conditions. Previous works have shown that the gas-bearing Faraghan Formation (Cisuralian) has been impacted by orbitally-forced climatic change, resulting in the development of sedimentary sequences on astronomical cycle timescales. Obliquity evolution has been observed in the Faraghan Formation, with ∼1.2 Ma and ∼173 ka modulation cyclicities recorded. We attribute a strong sedimentary noise observed in the Faraghan Formation, which is distinct from the other noises, to a transregional sea-level rise, most likely correspond to MFS P10. The prolific gas zones (PGZ) in the Faraghan Formation are in consistent relationship with obliquity maxima and depositional noise events, which are associated with high obliquity power. This constant offers the hypothesis that obliquity altered the sedimentary regime in such a way that favorable conditions for reservoir quality development occurred. The ∼173 ka obliquity modulation cycle is recorded from the Late Paleozoic. It is postulated that this periodicity was the causal mechanism for the creating of the Faraghan Formation's fifth-order sequences. The reconstructed sea-level patterns from sedimentary noise modeling (DYNOT) confirm the three third-order sequences proposed for the Faraghan Formation by displaying three different sedimentary noises. The detected ∼1.2 Ma obliquity modulation cycles match the ∼1.2 Ma periodicities filtered from the DYNOT median values, indicating that the ∼1.2 Ma orbital cycle is one of the primary drivers of regional sea level. ∼1.2 Ma obliquity modulation cycles are correlated with third-order sequences, implying that the aforementioned cycle was one of the key mechanisms causing the creation of these third-order sequences.