Abstract
The main factors of the developmental environment of marine source rocks in continental margin basins have their specificality. This realization, in return, has led to the recognition that the developmental environment and pattern of marine source rocks, especially for the source rocks in continental margin basins, are still controversial or poorly understood. Through the analysis of the trace elements and maceral data, the developmental environment of Miocene marine source rocks in the Qiongdongnan Basin is reconstructed, and the developmental patterns of the Miocene marine source rocks are established. This paper attempts to reveal the hydrocarbon potential of the Miocene marine source rocks in different environment and speculate the quality of source rocks in bathyal region of the continental slope without exploratory well. Our results highlight the palaeoenvironment and its control on the formation of Miocene marine source rocks in the Qiongdongnan Basin of the northern South China Sea and speculate the hydrocarbon potential of the source rocks in the bathyal region. This study provides a window for better understanding the main factors influencing the marine source rocks in the continental margin basins, including productivity, preservation conditions, and the input of terrestrial organic matter.
Highlights
The quality of marine source rocks depends on the abundance of organic matter (OM) supply, and the OM preservation conditions, and these factors are controlled by factors such as paleoclimate, biologic productivity, redox conditions, sedimentation rate, origin of organic matter, and paleostructure
All the above data from the exploratory wells indicate that Miocene marine source rocks have lower OM abundance and poor hydrocarbon potential in the Qiongdongnan Basin
Terrestrial higher plants, paleoproductivity, and redox conditions are the main factors influencing the formation of Miocene marine sources rocks in the Qiongdongnan Basin
Summary
The quality of marine source rocks depends on the abundance of organic matter (OM) supply, and the OM preservation conditions, and these factors are controlled by factors such as paleoclimate, biologic productivity, redox conditions, sedimentation rate, origin of organic matter, and paleostructure. The mechanism of OM accumulation or the developmental patterns of marine source rocks have been under heated dispute ever since the 1980s. Two theories that are “preservation” and “production” have been dominating the argument. The former suggests that OM accumulation is mainly influenced by redox conditions rather than biologic productivity [3, 4]. Anoxic water masses used to be observed in upwelling regions with high biologic productivity in open continental shelf, such as the coastal upwellings in Peru [6] and Namibia [7] regions
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