Abstract: | The Yanchang period(T3y)is the main development period of the high-quality oil source rocks in the Ordos Basin. With abundant data of drills, logs, outcrops, cores and so on, the present study established the stratigraphic correlation framework of the Yanchang Formation in the Ordos Basin. Three different depocenters were found to have formed during the Middle-Late Triassic Yanchang period in the basin, with two significant depocenter migration events. The early depocenter represented by the deposition of the Chang9 unit(from the Chang10 to Chang8 units)was located in the area of Wuqi-Zhidan-Fuxian- Luochuan. The heyday depocenter represented by the deposition of the Chang7 unit(from the Chang7 to Chang2 units)was located in the area of Jiyuan-Huachi-Zhengning-Yijun. And the shrinking depocenter represented by the deposition of the Chang1 unit and was formed in the Hengshan-Zichang area. The former two depocenters(the early and the heyday ones)have affected the formation and distribution of the high-quality source rocks as well as the distribution of the conventional and unconventional oil-gas resources in the Ordos Basin. According to the tectonic analyses of the basin and its periphery mountains, these depocenter formation and migration events in the Late Triassic in the Ordos Basin mainly resulted from the southward movement of the Qinling orogenic belt. The first depocenter migration event(from the early to the heyday depocenter)is interpreted as a response to the northward subduction and convergence of the South China block to the North China block. Because of the convergence, large amount of materials and energy gathered around the south part of the North China block. Its shallow lithosphere arched, fractured and then extended laterally, resulting in local subsidence and formation of a backland basin. The other depocenter migration event(from the heyday to the shrinking depocenter)occurred in the period of the Chang1 unit, which is also believed to relate to the continuous convergence of the South China block and North China block, but with a different mechanism. As the compression of the Qinling orogenic belt strengthened, the south part of the Ordos Basin uplifted. The ever-large Ordos paleolake shrank and the sedimentation migrated northeastward. Overall, the evolution of the Qinling orogenic belt caused the depocenter formation and migration of the Ordos Basin. The Ordos Basin and the Qinling orogenic belt can be seen as a good example of the basin-range coupling. |