Geochemical characteristics of mud volcano fluids in the southern margin of the Junggar basin, NW China: implications for fluid origin and mud volcano formation mechanisms

Mud volcanoes can provide important information about the underlying strata, hydrocarbon accumulation, and recent neotectonic movements in an area. The fluids erupting from mud volcanoes provide important information about their formation and evolution. The ion concentration and the hydrogen and oxygen isotopes of the fluids that were erupted from the three mud volcano groups, Baiyanggou, Aiqigou, and Dushanzi, and nearby rivers in the southern margin of the Junggar basin, northwestern China, are studied. The concentrations of Na and Cl in mud volcano fluids are clearly elevated, displayed as the Na-Cl type. The D and 18O values of the fluids are similar between the Baiyanggou and Dushanzi mud volcanoes, which are mainly from ancient sedimentary pore water. However, the Aiqigou mud volcano is depleted in dissolved Cl and shows lower 18O values with mixed sources, including deep pore and local meteoric water. Two types of mud volcanoes are proposed in this study. One type is low-energy mud volcanoes with a low volume of fluid of deep origin on the hillcrest, which display as mud pool/pie/hole. The other type is high-energy mud volcanoes having mixed fluid origin in the valley and formed in the shape of a mud cone (dome).