Print this pageUsing GIS to Improve Structural Interpretation: Junggar and Turpan Basin Margins, NW China
McKNIGHT, CLEAVY L.
The Junggar and Turpan sedimentary basins of northwestern China are separated by the Bogda Shan (Holy Range), a subdivision of the Tian Shan (Heavenly Range). The Bogda Shan and its foothills comprise a west-plunging anticlinorium cored by mafic intrusives and flanked by deformed Carboniferous through Cretaceous strata of deep marine to continental origin. The range is thrust-faulted northward and southward over the adjacent basins in a structural style identical to that of major Laramide compressional structures of the Rocky Mountain foreland region.
Of particular exploration interest are the petroleum source rocks exposed along the flanks of the Bogda Shan. The Upper Permian Lucaogou Formation is a lacustrine oil shale identified as the major source rock for the Junggar basin. Jurassic liquid-prone coals are important sources for smaller petroleum accumulations in the Turpan basin.
A Landsat Thematic Mapper image of the Bogda Shan, enhanced by digital image processing techniques including spectral band ratioing and canonical components analysis, was used to map the stratigraphy and structure of the anticlinorium. Integration of the imagery and interpretive geologic map into a geographic information system, along with available elevation data (digitized from published topographic contour maps), permits display of three-dimensional perspective views and facilitates interpretation of the structural complexities of the Bogda Shan anticlinorium. A series of balanced structural cross-sections illustrates the nature and development of this major compressional uplift.