GEOLOGICAL SETTING

The Qaidam Basin is the largest petroliferous basin within the northern Tibetan Plateau (Fu et al., 2015). It
is a triangle-shaped basin bounded by the Altyn Tagh range to the northwest and Qimen Tagh–eastern
Kunlun range to the south (Figure 1). Because
both of these basin boundaries are controlled by strike-slip faults, the tectonic style in the Qaidam Basin is
affected by strikeslip tectonics (Cheng et al., 2014; F. Cheng et al., 2015)………………
Present new seismic data that show transpressive structures in the western Qaidam Basin. Cheng et al.
(2018), .. and southern Yingxiongling area is dominated by left-lateral strike-slip
faults…there is a lower dextral transpressional fault systemcharacterized by typical flower structures in the
northwestern Qaidam Basin.
Based on a detailed field survey in the western Qaidam Basin combined with petroleum
exploration results, point out that strike-slip–related structures controlled by the faults in the Yingxiongling
range are ideal places for oil and gas accumulation from Paleogene source rocks.

Transpressional salt tectonic system in western Qaidam

Basin,
Western China
Qing Bian, Daowei Zhang, Xiangjiang Yu, Xiang Cheng,
WeiDu,RunchaoLiu,ZhendongWang,andZhaojieGuo
DATA SET AND METHODOLOGY
This study uses a high-resolution, 200.96-km2 (77.59-mi2) prestack
depth–migrated 3-D seismic reflection survey that has a bin size of 15m·
15m(49 ft · 49 ft) and a vertical sample rate of 2ms.
The depth of the seismic volume extends to 11,500m(37,700 ft).
The seismic survey is displayed with Society of Exploration Geophysicists
reverse polarity, in which a downward increase in acoustic impedance is
represented by a negative reflection event,
and a downward decrease in acoustic impedance is represented
by a positive reflection event.
The computation of similarity attributes in the seismic data is used to identify
the faults. The windowed amplitude-related attributes in this study are extracted
to provide meaningful geological information for the defined strata (Brown,
1996). All seismic cross-section interpretations, attribute extractions, and 3-D
interpretations are performed using Seismic Micro-Technology software.

THE LITHOLOGY AND DISTRIBUTION OF THE

SALT
TheQaidamBasin is a salt-bearing basin (Chen et
al., 1986; Wang et al., 1993). In the northwestern
part of Yingxiongling, there is an Eocene salt
layer at a depth of 1500–3000 m (4900–9800 ft).
The lithology of the salt layer is characterized as
follows.
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
 1730
2400 2500 2620 2700 2650 25001230 1220 1250 1500 2000 2400 2450 2150

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
 2620 2830 1450 1700 2000 1700
2500 1500 1450 1500 2250 2250
3000 3000
0 1 2 3 2800 4 5 6 7 8
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
3000 2000 1250
3100 3100 3000 1000 2000 2250 2250
2500 1500 1500
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 6 7 8
 2300 2500 2750 2750 1800 2000 2500 3000
2000 3250
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 2500 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 6 7 8
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 6 7
 2000 1550 1350 1350 1500 2000 2500 2700
1800 2000 2000 1750 1500
0 2000 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 6 7
 D 0
1
E 18 0
00
20 2
00 1
23
00
20
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2 25
00

8
20 4
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27

7
20 50
00 5
0 50
200 4 24
17 27 00

6
6 00

8
50 50 17
0 24
150 5
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30 20 22

5
7 7 50

7
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6155000 00 22
2500

50 00

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Harta cu izobate la limita N2/N1

31
13100

(reper verde pe sectiunea seismica)

00
0
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C
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26 0
A 1

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25 25
00

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0

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030

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B 23000
00

Harta cu izobate la limita N2/N1

31
13100

(reper verde pe sectiunea seismica)

00
0
30

C
 D 0
1
E 0
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1
3
2

8
4
3

7
5
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6
6

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5

5
7

7
6

4
8

6
7

3
9

5
8

8
2

10

4
9

7
11
1

3
10

6
0

12
2

11

5
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1

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4
0

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B 2

Harta cu izobate la limita N2/N1

1

(reper verde pe sectiunea seismica)

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C
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Harta de adancime la baza sarii 1 2620 2

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015 350
2 330

650 0
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0
003 20
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0

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28 00145 14 00
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0020
0
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027
1300
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32153
00 8