Origin of the penecontemporaneous sucrosic dolomite in the Permian Qixia Formation, northwestern Sichuan Basin, SW China

The characteristics, formation time, and origin of the sucrosic dolomite reservoirs in the Permian Qixia Formation of northwestern Sichuan Basin are analyzed. Core and outcrop description and microscopic analysis of the sucrosic dolomite samples are carried out. It is found that the dolomite has typical features different from other kinds of dolomites: (1) This dolomite is generally medium-coarse in crystal size, and often associated with very finely to finely crystalline dolomite and cave-filling dolomite. (2) Typical identification marks of eogenetic karstification are developed at the top of the upward-shallowing sequence. (3) The medium-coarse crystalline sucrosic dolomite is cut by the early diagenetic karst fabric, and is characterized by dolomite with dissolution edge, dolomite vadose silt in pores, and transgression clay filling between the medium-coarse dolomite crystals. The medium-coarse crystalline sucrosic dolomite was formed earlier than the eogenetic karstification. The sucrosic dolomite with occasional cloudy core and clear rim has bright cathodoluminescence, high inclusions temperature, significant negative skewness carbon and oxygen isotopic compositions, and rare-earth element (REE) pattern similar to seawater, indicating it experienced two periods of dolomitization, evaporative concentration reflux-infiltration and penecontemporaneous seawater circulation hydrothermal fluid dolomitization. The study results not only update the understanding on the dolomitization time of Qixia Formation, demonstrate that the sucrosic dolomite can be formed in the penecontemporaneous stage when seawater reflux superimposed with hydrothermal fluid effects, but also show that the taphorogenesis in the Dongwu period began in the Early Permian. Moreover, the dolomite controlled by the grain bank migration and terrain in the slope break appears in bands of large scale, this knowledge provides basis for expanding the exploration field of this type of reservoirs.