ABSTRACT: Impact of climate cycles on lithologic variability: Model predictions tested for Mesozoic and Cenozoic Basins in China

Dempster, Kelly, and Martin A Perlmutter , Texaco Upstream Technology, Bellaire, TX

Global cyclostratigraphy is a technique that integrates high frequency changes in climate and sediment supply with basin evolution and base level change to forecast lithostratigraphy. Predictions made using this technique are tested against Mesozoic and Cenozoic stratigraphic data from thirty-four Chinese basins. In order to forecast the lithostratigraphy of the basins under investigation, global maps of high frequency climate changes were interpreted from the distribution of known paleoclimate indicators to describe geographic zones with similar ranges of climatic variation. Climate changes, together with topographic relief, provenance, and accommodation space, were used to predict lithologic variation, including likely paleoclimate indicators, at the basin scale to reservoir scale through time. Thirty-four Chinese basin locations were plotted and rotated back to their paleogeographic positions for eight periods from the Early Permian to the Miocene. Predicted lithologies and paleoclimate indicators were then contrasted with the observations from the Chinese basins. Evaluations were made of the overall fit of predictions to the observed data, and lithologic variation within a climatic zone for a given time interval. It is demonstrated that by using specific criteria, basin analogs can be established that help infer lithologic succession in areas where data is sparse or unavailable.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90913©2000 AAPG International Conference and Exhibition, Bali, Indonesia