Source‐controlled carbonates in a small Eocene half‐graben lake basin (Shulu Sag) in central Hebei Province, North China

Abstract

AbstractCarbonate deposits, which unconformably overlie the Palaeozoic bedrocks, extensively occur in the base of the Tertiary lake succession in the half‐graben Shulu Sag, central Hebei Province, North China. This study focuses on the basal carbonate successions on the hinged western slope. Based on seismic, borehole and core data, nine facies are identified in the carbonate successions, and are further grouped into five facies associations: mid‐proximal alluvial fan, distal alluvial fan, fan fringe, moderately deep lake and deep lake. The first two facies associations constitute alluvial fans formed by debrisflows at the edge of lake and are dominated by mounded‐ to lobate‐shaped, matrix‐ to clast‐supported carbonate rudstones with minor calcretes in the lowermost rudstone units and basinward increase in interfingering with lacustrine carbonate facies. The fan fringe, moderately deep lake and deep lake associations are dominated by pebbly carbonate arenites (or rare carbonate arenites), calcisiltite‐calcilutites, and varve‐like calcilutites, calcareous shales and oil shales, respectively. Widespread occurrences of fine‐grained limestone packages containing varve‐like organic‐rich laminations, minor authigenic glauconite and pyrite, and planktonic and plant fossils suggest a meromictic, anoxic deep lake under a semi‐humid to humid climate, probably with a connection to marine basins. Similarities in lithology and fossil assemblages (e.g. trilobites) of lithoclasts with those of the Mid‐Upper Cambro‐Ordovician bedrock carbonates suggest that the clastic and dissolved carbonate loads were sourced from this Lower Palaeozoic catchment, and shed off the surrounding highlands into the basin. These carbonate facies associations represent the lake lowstand and transgressive deposits of the basal third‐order sequence (Ia) in which the highstand deposits are composed of lacustrine siliciclastics. During the lake lowstand stage (or initiation of basin‐filling) under an intermediate climate, carbonate alluvial fans occurred mostly subaerially at the bottom of the hinged slope with a narrow, shallow lake zone basinwards, and locally were perched within the palaeovalley on the mid‐upper slope. During the transgressive (deepening) stage under a semi‐humid to humid climate, carbonate alluvial fans became smaller in size and episodically stepped backwards upon the slope, with greatly expanded and deepened lake. Nevertheless, the carbonate system was switched to an exclusively siliciclastic system during the highstand stage. The exhumation and erosion of the Mid‐Lower Cambrian bedrock dominated by siliciclastics was probably the cause due to further uplift of the drainage basin. All these facts indicate that the carbonate deposition in the Shulu Sag was mostly controlled by the interactions of tectonics, climate and provenance.