A buried submarine canyon in the northwestern South China Sea: architecture, development processes and implications for hydrocarbon exploration
| Autor: | Jingwu Wu, Xiaoyong Xu, Zhili Yang, Yintao Lu, Bin Wang, Shuang Li, Hongxia Ma, Jian Li, Li Li, Xuefeng Wang, Fuliang Lü, Taotao Yang, Guozhong Sun |
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| Rok vydání: | 2021 |
| Předmět: |
Canyon
geography geography.geographical_feature_category 010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences Carbonate platform Submarine canyon Aquatic Science Late Miocene Structural basin 010502 geochemistry & geophysics Oceanography 01 natural sciences chemistry.chemical_compound Paleontology chemistry Carbonate Hydrocarbon exploration Geology Sea level 0105 earth and related environmental sciences |
| Zdroj: | Acta Oceanologica Sinica. 40:29-41 |
| ISSN: | 1869-1099 0253-505X |
| DOI: | 10.1007/s13131-021-1751-0 |
| Popis: | High-resolution multichannel seismic data enables the discovery of a previous, undocumented submarine canyon (Huaguang Canyon) in the Qiongdongnan Basin, northwestern South China Sea. The Huaguang Canyon with a NW orientation is 140 km in length, and 2.5 km to 5 km in width in its upper reach and 4.6 km to 9.5 km in width in its lower reach. The head of the Huaguang Canyon is close to the Xisha carbonate platform and its tail is adjacent to the Central Canyon. This buried submarine canyon is formed by gravity flows from the Xisha carbonate platform when the sea level dropped in the early stage of the late Miocene (around 10.5 Ma). The internal architecture of the Huaguang Canyon is mainly characterized by high amplitude reflections, indicating that this ancient submarine canyon was filled with coarse-grained sediments. The sediment was principally scourced from the Xisha carbonate platform. In contrast to other buried large-scale submarine canyons (Central Canyon and Zhongjian Canyon) in the Qiongdongnan Basin, the Huaguang Canyon displays later formation time, smaller width and length, and single sediment supply. The coarse-grained deposits within the Huaguang Canyon provide a good environment for reserving oil and gas, and the muddy fillings in the Huaguang Canyon have been identified as regional caps. Therefore, the Huaguang Canyon is a potential area for future hydrocarbon exploration in the northwestern South China Sea. The result of this paper may contribute to a better understanding of the evolution of submarine canyons formed in carbonate environment. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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