{"title":"Characteristics and genesis of geothermal systems in the southern Junggar Foreland Basin, NW China","authors":"","doi":"10.1016/j.jseaes.2024.106363","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Complex structural styles of foreland basins and limited temperature data hinder our understanding of the characteristics and genesis of geothermal systems in these basins. Characteristics and genesis of the present thermal regime in the southern Junggar Foreland Basin are discussed and a conceptual model of the geothermal system is established based on steady-state temperatures, well-testing temperatures, thermal conductivities, radiogenic heat production, and thermal structures. Thermal conductivities of mudstone, sandstone, and volcanic rocks exhibit normal distribution patterns, with their average thermal conductivities in a consistent order. Heat production varies according to lithologic assemblages and uranium anomalies, being higher in mudstones and tuffs and lower in sandstones and coal measures. The geothermal characteristics are predominantly controlled by tectonic patterns, including geodynamic process and current basement structure. Surface heat flow is decreased from the first structural belts in the south to the third structural belts in the north and is converged from sub-depressions to sub-uplifts or anticlines, whose distribution matches well with positions of three structural belts. The generally low geothermal characteristics are attributed to thick thermal lithosphere and crust, as well as the thermal structure of “cold crust and cold mantle”. Groundwater and fault activities also influence heat flow. Additionally, uranium anomalies at the Cretaceous and Jurassic strata in the first structural belts enhance radiogenic heat production and result in continuously-distributed high heat flow. The heat generated by uranium anomalies helps explain the heat flow distribution in the first structural belts, which cannot be fully accounted for by tectonic-related thermal genesis alone.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50253,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Asian Earth Sciences","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.7000,"publicationDate":"2024-10-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Asian Earth Sciences","FirstCategoryId":"89","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1367912024003584","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"GEOSCIENCES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Complex structural styles of foreland basins and limited temperature data hinder our understanding of the characteristics and genesis of geothermal systems in these basins. Characteristics and genesis of the present thermal regime in the southern Junggar Foreland Basin are discussed and a conceptual model of the geothermal system is established based on steady-state temperatures, well-testing temperatures, thermal conductivities, radiogenic heat production, and thermal structures. Thermal conductivities of mudstone, sandstone, and volcanic rocks exhibit normal distribution patterns, with their average thermal conductivities in a consistent order. Heat production varies according to lithologic assemblages and uranium anomalies, being higher in mudstones and tuffs and lower in sandstones and coal measures. The geothermal characteristics are predominantly controlled by tectonic patterns, including geodynamic process and current basement structure. Surface heat flow is decreased from the first structural belts in the south to the third structural belts in the north and is converged from sub-depressions to sub-uplifts or anticlines, whose distribution matches well with positions of three structural belts. The generally low geothermal characteristics are attributed to thick thermal lithosphere and crust, as well as the thermal structure of “cold crust and cold mantle”. Groundwater and fault activities also influence heat flow. Additionally, uranium anomalies at the Cretaceous and Jurassic strata in the first structural belts enhance radiogenic heat production and result in continuously-distributed high heat flow. The heat generated by uranium anomalies helps explain the heat flow distribution in the first structural belts, which cannot be fully accounted for by tectonic-related thermal genesis alone.
期刊介绍:
Journal of Asian Earth Sciences has an open access mirror journal Journal of Asian Earth Sciences: X, sharing the same aims and scope, editorial team, submission system and rigorous peer review.
The Journal of Asian Earth Sciences is an international interdisciplinary journal devoted to all aspects of research related to the solid Earth Sciences of Asia. The Journal publishes high quality, peer-reviewed scientific papers on the regional geology, tectonics, geochemistry and geophysics of Asia. It will be devoted primarily to research papers but short communications relating to new developments of broad interest, reviews and book reviews will also be included. Papers must have international appeal and should present work of more than local significance.
The scope includes deep processes of the Asian continent and its adjacent oceans; seismology and earthquakes; orogeny, magmatism, metamorphism and volcanism; growth, deformation and destruction of the Asian crust; crust-mantle interaction; evolution of life (early life, biostratigraphy, biogeography and mass-extinction); fluids, fluxes and reservoirs of mineral and energy resources; surface processes (weathering, erosion, transport and deposition of sediments) and resulting geomorphology; and the response of the Earth to global climate change as viewed within the Asian continent and surrounding oceans.