| Abstract: | The Yitong graben is located in the northeastern segment of the Tertiary rift system in East China. The graben is bounded by a steep dipping transform fault on the northwestern side and subparallel normal faults on the southeastern side, with very thick marginal fan complexes indicating syntectonic sedimentation. The graben is infilled with Tertiary sediments up to 6 000 m thick, in which a series of different scaled hiatuses and tectonic inversion events have been discerned during hydrocarbon exploration. According to regional and local conformities, the basin infill may be divided into three tectonic sequences, among which the major sequence TS2 is further subdivided into three sequence sets and fourteen subsequences. Based on the sequence stratigraphic framework, depositional system tracts which are characterized by marginal fan complexes on both sides of basin and deep or shallow lacustrine deposits in the central part are reconstructed. The subsidence curves show that the graben had undergone several rapid subsidence episodes, which is interpreted to have been caused by multiple stretching of the lithosphere. Integrative analysis of the depositional structural features shows that the regional tectonic stress system experienced a transformation from dextral transformational shear through thermal subsidence to sinistral compressional shear with a general extensional setting. Extension and wrenching dominated the graben evolution and affected the depositional style in different evolutionary stages, the spatial configuration of depositional system and its relationship with unconformities. The conclusions have been applied with some successes to studying the reservoir and hydrocarbon source rock distribution and lithologic stratigraphic traps in this basin. |
