Abstract
There are 9 major coal-accumulating periods during geological history in China, including the Early Carboniferous, Late Carboniferous-Early Permian, Middle Permian, Late Permian, Late Triassic, Early-Middle Jurassic, Early Cretaceous, Paleogene and Neogene. The coal formed in these periods were developed in different coal-accumulating areas (CAA) including the North China, South China, Northwest China, Northeast China, the Qinghai–Tibet area, and China offshore area. In this paper, we investigated depositional environments, sequence stratigraphy, lithofacies paleogeography and coal accumulation pattern of five major coal-accumulating periods including the Late Carboniferous to Middle Permian of the North China CAA, the Late Permian of the South China CAA, the Late Triassic of the South China CAA, the Early-Middle Jurassic of the North and Northwest China CAA, and the Early Cretaceous in the Northeast China CAA. According to distribution of the coal-bearing strata and the regional tectonic outlines, we have identified distribution range of the coal-forming basins, sedimentary facies types and coal-accumulating models. The sequence stratigraphic frameworks of the major coal-accumulating periods were established based on recognition of a variety of sequence boundaries. The distribution of thick coals and migration patterns of the coal-accumulating centers in the sequence stratigraphic framework were analyzed. The lithofacies paleogeography maps based on third-order sequences were reconstructed and the distribution of coal accumulation centers and coal-rich belts were predicted.
Highlights
China is one of the major coal resource countries in the world, with a total of 5.9 trillion tons of shallow coal resources less than 2000 m in depth, including 2.02 trillion tons of discovered resources and 3.88 trillion predicted resources (Cheng 2016)
We investigated depositional environments, sequence stratigraphy, lithofacies paleogeography and coal accumulation pattern of five major coal-accumulating periods including the Late Carboniferous to Middle Permian of the North China coal-accumulating areas (CAA), the Late Permian of the South China CAA, the Late Triassic of the South China CAA, the Early-Middle Jurassic of the North and Northwest China CAA, and the Early Cretaceous in the Northeast China CAA
It is obvious that coal is still the primary energy in China, and with the rapid development of national economy, the energy guarantee for the national economy will continue to rely on the coal resources
Summary
China is one of the major coal resource countries in the world, with a total of 5.9 trillion tons of shallow coal resources less than 2000 m in depth, including 2.02 trillion tons of discovered resources (reserves) and 3.88 trillion predicted resources (Cheng 2016). The sedimentary paleogeography theory is widely used for analyzing coal accumulation regularity of different coal-accumulating periods, and these works have been well summarized in several important published monographs, including the ‘‘Prediction and Assessment of Coal Resource in China’’, ‘‘Review of Coal Quality in China’’, and ‘‘China Coal-Accumulation Systems’’, together with several other monographs describing the provincial coal accumulation in different coal-accumulating periods Another coal resource assessment led by Ministry of Geology and Mineral Resources during 1983–1988, has a formal name of ‘‘Nation-wide Prospective Survey of Coal Resources’’. The latest round of coal resource assessment, which has a formal name of ‘‘Nation-wide Assessment of Coal Resource Potentials in China’’, was led by the Ministry of Land and Resources and conducted by the China National Administration of Coal Geology in collaboration with China University of Mining and Technology (Beijing) in 2007–2012 In this newest study on coal resource assessment, the sequence stratigraphy theory was used to establish the synchronous stratigraphic framework and to reconstruct the paleogeography under the synchronous sequence stratigraphic units for the different coal-accumulating periods. South China, the Late Triassic in South China, the Early and Middle Jurassic in North and Northwest China, and the Early Cretaceous in Northeast China
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