Abstract: Gravity Imaging Deformation and Tectonics of the Indus Basins Onshore and Offshore Pakistan

FAIRHEAD, J. DEREK*, and CHRISTOPHER M. GREEN

Pakistan is the site of major plate interactions which have been spectacularly recorded in its geology. Much of Pakistan was originally part of Gondwana which fragmented, in late Permian, from Africa forming an `Atlantic' type passive continental margin generating thick shelf reefal limestones. During the Paleocene and Eocene Pakistan obliquely collided with Eurasia resulting in the emplacement of ophiolites and generating the Indus foredeep basins filled with large volumes of sediments which extend offshore as the Indus delta.

To image the resulting subsurface structures both onshore and offshore Pakistan, GETECH, in collaboration with OGDC and Geological Survey of Pakistan, has compiled the first comprehensive gravity database for onshore Pakistan as part of the South East Asia Gravity Project. For the offshore areas, GETECH has generated the satellite derived gravity field based on the altimeter data from the combined Geodetic Missions of GeoSat and ERS1. When these datasets are combined they provide new, spectacular images of the plate tectonic processes as well as the deformation and structure of the Indus basins which control hydrocarbon accumulation.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90942©1997 AAPG International Conference and Exhibition, Vienna, Austria