--> China's Tarim Basin: An Awakening Giant?, by J. L. Weiner and C. Wang; #90986 (1994).

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Abstract: China's Tarim Basin: An Awakening Giant?

John L. Weiner, Chet Wang

The Tarim basin of northwestern China is one of the largest inland basins in the world still remaining to be widely explored and developed.

The basin is underlain by a microcontinental block with a platform cover of latest Precambrian and Paleozoic carbonates and clastics of marine and continental origin. The block collided with Eurasia's southern margin during the Late Carboniferous, and on this accreted segment the largely-continental Mesozoic and Cenozoic Tarim basin evolved. Subsequent collisions of microcontinents further to the south caused several episodes of reactivation of tectonic belts bordering the Tarim. Up to 15,000 meters of total sediment may be present in the deepest parts of the basin.

Cambro-Ordovician marine shales are the most important known source rocks in the basin, sourcing both Paleozoic and Mesozoic reservoirs. Triassic-Jurassic lacustrine mudstones and oil-prone coals are of secondary importance as source rocks.

Foreland depressions along the northern and southwestern margins of the Tarim are characterized by belts of folded and reverse-faulted Mesozoic and Cenozoic deposits. Here mainly small accumulations of oil and gas have been discovered. Towards the basin interior, two major Paleozoic uplifts, the Central and North Tarim, are present. On these eroded paleo-uplifts, masked by younger sediments, more than 10 fields have been discovered. Test flows of thousands of barrels of oil and up to 10 or more million cubic feet of gas per day have been recorded, both from Paleozoic carbonates in buried hills and other traps (at 3500 to 6000 meters), and from unconformably-overlying Mesozoic sandstones in gentle drape anticlines.

Unfortunately, the reserve dimensions of the above discoveries have yet to be reported, and it is unclear whether or not the Tarim is an awakening "giant."

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90986©1994 AAPG Annual Convention, Denver, Colorado, June 12-15, 1994