| Title | Heat Flow and Deep Temperature of the Kuqa Foreland Basin, Northwestern China |
|---|---|
| Authors | Guanzhong Feng, Wenjing Zhu, Shaowen Liu |
| Year | 2023 |
| Conference | World Geothermal Congress |
| Keywords | Deep temperature, Heat flow, Kuqa Foreland Basin, China |
| Abstract | Heat flow and deep temperature of sedimentary basins play a key role in understanding basin (de)formation process and assessing hydrocarbon and geothermal energy resources (Barker, 1996; Ziegler and Cloetingh, 2004), and has attracted increasing attention from academia and industry. The Kuqa Foreland Basin (KFB), located between the northern Tarim Craton and southern Tianshan Mountain, is one of petroliferous areas and ongoing hydrocarbon exploration targets in China, therefore calling for an accurate geothermal regime of this basin for sustainable energy strategy. Here we investigated the geothermal regime of the KFB with the formation temperature data and newly measured thermal properties. The present-day geothermal gradient of the KFB is between 15℃/km~32℃/km, with a mean of 22±2.76℃/km; the heat flow value ranges from 41mW/m2 to 56mW/m2, with an average of 49±5.8 mW/m2. The temperatures-at-depth from 1000 to 5000 meters for the KFB are also predicted, constrained by temperature logging. The temperatures at 1000m range from 27℃ to 44℃, with a mean of 34℃, while the temperatures at 2000m are between 42℃ and 76℃, and the mean is 56℃. As for the temperatures at 3000m, they are from 56℃ to 108℃, averaging at 78℃. Temperatures at 4000m vary from 72℃ to 141℃, with a mean of 100℃. For the depth of 5000m with the KFB, the temperatures increase from 86℃ to 173℃, and the average temperature is 122℃. The spatial patterns of heat flow and deep temperature of the KFB are quite similar, characterized by high temperature in the north and low temperature in the south. Which indicates the geothermal regime of the KFB decreases from the foredeep to the forebulge. We infer that this geothermal pattern is mainly affected by the Cenozoic convergence between the Tarim Craton and Tianshan Mountain. In addition, the oil and gas discoveries are generally coincident with the high temperature areas of the Kuqa Foreland Basin, and this coincidence could shed light on hydrocarbon exploration there. REFERENCES Barker, C.: Thermal modeling of petroleum generation: theory and applications. Netherlands: Elsevier Science B V, (1996), 512pp. Ziegler, P.A., and Cloetingh, S.: Dynamic processes controlling evolution of rifted basins, Earth-Science Reviews, 61(1/2), (2004), 1-50. |