Tectonic Controls on Upper Permian Lacustrine Oil Shales in the Junggar Basin, NW China

Abstract

Collision of the Tarim craton with the southern margin of Asia during the Late Carboniferous-Early Permian resulted in uplift of an ancestral Tian Shan range and geographic isolation of the previously marine Junggar basin. Dramatic shifts from marine to nonmarine sedimentation took place in both the southern Junggar and northern Tarim basins during the Permina. Paleocurrent analysis indicate that by the Late Permian, coarse-grained sediments in both basins were being supplied predominantly from the area of the Tian Shan. During the Late Permian, the southern Junggar received in excess of 5,000 m of nonmarine sediments, including approximately 1,000 m of laminated, highly organic-rich lacustrine mudstones (oil shales). These deposits commonly have TOCs of 20-30%, and Rock-Eval pyrolitic yields reaching 2,000 mg/g, ranking them among the most prolific petroleum source rocks in the world. Based on a comparison of the distribution of steranes and extended tricyclic terpanes, these Upper Permian oil shales appear to be the primary source of oils in the giant Karamay field in the northwestern Junggar basin. Ancestral uplift of the Tian Shan thus produced a complex tectono-hydrologic partitioning of the Late Permina Junggar basin, which exerted a strong influence on the character of petroleum source rocks depositedmore » within the basin.« less