Structural characteristics and tectonic division of the Zambezi Delta basin in the offshore East Africa:evidences from gravity and seismic data

The Zambezi Delta basin is a passive marginal basin located on the East African coast that has good oil and gas exploration potential.Due to the special geological evolutionary background of the Beira High in the Zambezi Delta basin,it has a low gravity anomaly,and the existing seismic survey lines do not cover the whole basin;therefore,it is difficult to interpret the structural characteristics of the whole basin based solely on gravity or seismic data.Based on satellite altimetry gravity anomaly data,this study infers the distribution characteristics of faults in the Zambezi Delta basin by using the normalized vertical derivative of the total horizontal derivative(NVDR-THDR)technique.Then,constrained by seismic data,the gravity anomaly at the Moho interface is extracted by using the fast forward method of the double-interface model of the gravity anomaly,and this anomaly is then removed from the Bouguer gravity anomaly to obtain the sedimentary layer gravity anomaly.The thickness of the sedimentary strata is obtained by inversing the sedimentary basement depth of the whole basin.Then,uplifts and depressions are divided based on a sedimentary layer thickness of 3 km.This research demonstrates that the Zambezi Delta basin mainly features nearly SN-trending and NE-trending faults and that these faults exhibit east-west partitioning.The nearly SN-trending strike-slip faults controlled the sedimentary development of the basin,and the NE-trending tensile faults may have acted as migration channels for oil,gas and magma.The“overcompensation”effect of the Moho interface gravity anomaly on the gravity anomaly of the sedimentary layer is caused by the depression of the Moho interface beneath the Beira High,which results in a low gravity anomaly value for the Beira High.The pattern of uplifts and depressions trends NE and has the structural characteristics of east-west blocks.

Gravity gradient distribution in China's Mainland from GOCE satellite gravity gradiometry data

At present, gravity field and steady-state ocean circulation explorer（GOCE） gravity data are always used to compute regional gravity anomaly and geoid height. In this study, the latest GOCE gravity field model data（from Oct. 2009 to Jul. 2010） are used to compute the gravity gradient of China's Mainland according to a rigorous recursion formula（in all the six directions）. The results show that the numerical values of the gravity gradients are larger in the T rr direction than those in the other directions. They reflect the terrain characteristics in detail and correlate with the regional tectonics; however, in the T ql and T r l directions,the numerical values are relatively smaller and the gravity gradients in the T r l direction do not reflect the terrain characteristics in detail.

Study on crustal thickness and the prediction of prolific depressions:the Bohai Basin as an example

The deep crustal structure is closely related to oil and gas reserves.Predicting the oil and gas enrichment of depressions based on the Moho depth and crustal thickness is a promising research topic with significant implications for guiding exploration in petroliferous basins.In this study,seismic data were used as a constraint on the use of satellite gravity anomaly inversion to obtain the distribution of Moho depth and crustal thickness in the Bohai Basin.Stretching factors were calculated to analyze the differential distribution of deep crustal structural activity.Four indicators,including the minimum Moho depth,minimum crustal thickness,sum of Moho stretching factors,and sum of crustal stretching factors,were selected.Principal component analysis was applied to reduce the dimensionality of the multi-indicator system and obtain an oil and gas enrichment score for quantitative prediction of favorable prolific depressions.The deviation between the inverted Moho depth and seismic constraints was small;thus,the data effectively reflect the variations in the characteristics of each depression.The analysis revealed significant statistical features related to the minimum Moho depth/crustal thickness and the sum of Moho/crustal stretching factors associated with prolific depressions.Based on the oil and gas enrichment score,the depressions were classified into four categories related to their different deep crustal structural characteristics.Highly active ClassⅠ,ClassⅡ,and ClassⅢdepressions are predicted to be favorable prolific depressions.This study expands the research on quantitatively predicting favorable prolific depressions in the Bohai Basin using the deep crustal structure and can contribute to reducing production costs and improving exploration efficiency in future explorations.