TECTONIC CHARACTERISTICS AND EVOLUTION HISTORY OF THE PEARL RIVER MOUTH BASIN

On the basis of the new understandings from tens of thousand of kilometres of geophysical material and over 60 exploration and evaluation wells providing data on the Pearl River Mouth Basin (PRMB), this paper analyses the special tectonic position of the PRMB where three major plates (i.e., the Eurasian, the Pacific and the Indo-Australian plates) meet and interact. The characteristics of the basin geological structure and its tectonic evolution are also discussed. Situated on continental and transitional crust, the PRMB is a Mesozoic-Cenozoic oil- and gas-bearing basin developed on Caledonian folding basement which was reformed during the Mesozoic. In the process of its formation and evolution, the PRMB underwent extension, slight compression and re-extension, with the eruption of intermediate-acid and basic magma. Meanwhile, it formed double structural layers, with faulting below and depression above, and sediments were laid down with marine facies following continental facies. Hydrocarbons accumulated from continental source rocks in the marine reservoir rocks. By using a fracture structure model of the uplift and depression, the mechanism of the PRMB and its evolution history have been interpreted.