Abstract:

Great advancement has been made in basin geodynamics in the past 20 years. The most important driving force for basin geodynamic research is the great necessity of the hydrocarbon resources for the development of human society. Due to the increased efforts on hydrocarbon exploration and development by both national oil companies and private enterprises, vast data on the architecture and evolution of sedimentary basins have become available for scientific research, especially the large amount of full sets of deep well borehole data with depth of 7000-8000 m, and the high resolution reflection seismic profiles, which have been available for co-operation research groups and scientists in China. Innovative thinking and methods have been suggested on the dynamic processes of basinfill, structural framework and physical mechanism, geodynamic background and petroleum systems, and parts of them are reflected in the research outline of this paper, for instance the routing system and the tectonostratigraphic sequence analysis. While understanding the deep processes of basin dynamics may have been one of the most complicated challenges, using tomography imaging technique and magmaticgeochemistry methods to study plate subduction, mantle flow and lithosphere thinning and rifting, several multidisciplinary groups have achieved comprehensive results for revealing the deep controlling factors of basins and large igneous province in the eastern part of China. Occurring in West China, the geodynamic settings of the superimposed large multicycle basins are completely different from the basins in East China. Tarim Basin and Sichuan Basin are the typical examples. These basins occurred on pre-Cambrian cratons with orogenic belts around them. Strong compaction regimes have impacted these basins during their orogenic periods. The structural deformation created a series of uplifts and depressions, and large oil and gas fields were found to be commonly distributed on the uplifts and their slope area. Systematic age determination of the tectonic events in the orogenic belts has been done by the continental dynamic research groups. The tectonic events and stages during basin evolution can be correlated to that of the orogenic belts.A comprehensive geotectonic process was also developed by the multidisciplinary research groups.

Key words: sedimentary basin dynamics, continental dynamics, natural seismic tomography and image noise, basin physical models, petroleum system