Geophysical Investigations of Crustal Structure of Cenozoic Rifting Basin in Passive Continental Margin: The Pearl River Mouth Basin, South China Sea

Abstract:

The Pearl River Mouth Basin (PRMB) initiated in the Cenozoic with rifting, and became a part of the South China Sea (SCS) rifted passive continental margin. Decades of industrial exploration in this proliferous region have produced lots of geological and geophysical data.

In order to get the first order crustal scale structure, we integrate well data, multi channel seismic reflection, and the observed gravity field for a joint inversion. The Cenozoic sediment of PRMB comprises of several stratigraphic sequences, including the terrestrial facies, the marine facies and the transitional facies. The sedimentary model takes into account of two main parts that refer to the Paleogene to Neogene unit and the Neogene to Quaternary unit, which were respectively formed during the intercontinental rifting stage and the passive continental margin post-rifting stage.

By integrating long cable seismic profiles, interval velocity and performing gravity modelling, we have modelled the sub-sedimentary basement. There are some high-density bodies in the lower part of crust (ρ> 2.8 g/cm³), most of which were probably made up by emplacement from the upper mantle into the lower crust. The crystalline continental crust spans from unstretched domains (as thick as about 25 km) near the continental shelf to extremely thinned domains (of less than 6 km thickness) in the sag center. The presented crust-scale structural model shows that the crystalline crust of the Liwan Sag (LWS) and Baiyun sag (BYS) are thinner than other parts of PRMB, especially, the crystalline crust thickness in BYS is even less than 6 km. we could preliminary infer that the crystalline crust may be more easily stretched and be thinned by the existence of hot and soft substances at the lower crust.