Earth Science Frontiers ›› 2023, Vol. 30 ›› Issue (5): 384-401.DOI: 10.13745/j.esf.sf.2023.2.63

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Geodynamic processes and mechanisms of the formation of hot dry rock in the Gonghe Basin

ZHANG Baojian1,2,3(), LEI Yude4,5,6,*(), ZHAO Zhen4,5,6, TANG Xianchun1,2,3, LUO Yinfei4,5,6, WANG Guiling1,3,*(), GAO Jun1,2,3, ZHANG Dailei1,2,3   

  1. 1. Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Beijing 100037, China
    2. SinoProbe Center, Ministry of Natural Resources, Beijing 100037, China
    3. Technology Innovation Center of Geothermal and Hot Dry Rock Exploration and Development, Ministry of Natural Resources, Shijiazhuang 050061, China
    4. Key Lab of Geo-Environment Qinghai Province, Xining 810007, China
    5. Environmental Geological Prospecting Bureau of Qinghai Province, Xining 810007, China
    6. No.906 Engineering Survey and Design Institute of Qinghai Province, Xining 810007, China
  • Received:2022-09-01 Revised:2023-01-09 Online:2023-09-25 Published:2023-10-20
  • Contact: LEI Yude,WANG Guiling

Abstract:

Hot dry rock of the Gonghe Basin is the first hot dry rock drilled in China, but its formation mechanism is still unclear. Based on previous data, combined with our thermophysical property testing and geochemical, geophysical investigation results, this paper discusses the genesis and geodynamic evolution of hot dry rock in the Gonghe Basin: (1) A series of tectonic activities, such as late collisions between the Indian and Eurasian plates and related post-collisional events lead to deep dynamic processes in the northern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, including tectonic uplift, asthenosphere upwelling and thermal intrusion. Under the combined effects of gravitational energy amassed by tectonic uplift and resulting gravity buoyancy, lateral extrusion stress in the northeastern margin of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, mantle drag force, and thermal intrusion of the asthenosphere, crustal and mantle fluids flow from southwest to northeast along weak lithospheric layers (zones) in the Tibetan Plateau and Gonghe Basin. (2) Weak lithospheric layers (zones), such as plate (block) suture zones, plastic rheological ductile shear zones or high conductivity, low velocity bodies, and deep, large strike-slip fault zones and fault intersections, are channels for mantle melt migration to the Earth’s crust. (3) Geological heterogeneity of the Earth’s deep structure leads to nonuniform accumulation of heat produced at depth in the shallow crust. Heat flow is disturbed by groundwater activity and sedimentation/denudation in the shallow lithosphere, lithospheric deformation in the deep lithosphere, and magma convection in the aesthenosphere, while deep-heat flows laterally toward high-thermal conductivity granites, resulting in uneven heat distribution from deep to shallow in the lithosphere. This paper makes a breakthrough from the previous understanding of the genesis of hot dry rock in the Gonghe Basin based on a single factor and a few heat-control factors, and expounds a comprehensive genetic mechanism of hot dry rock, from heat source, heat migration driving force and channel, to reservoir and cap (layer).

Key words: Gonghe Basin, hot dry rock, comprehensive genetic mechanism, geodynamics, crust-mantle-sourced channel fluid

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