Mechanism and development model of karsts in Ordovician buried hills in western Lungu area, Tarim Basin

• DOI: 10.7603/s40972-015-0001-y
• Publication Date: 2015-04-28T09:01:38Z
• Authors: Zhang Qingyu; Liang Bin; Cao Jianwen; Dan Yong; Hao Yanzhen; Li Jingrui
• Keywords: 15. Life on land; 01 natural sciences; 6. Clean water; 0105 earth and related environmental sciences

Abstract In the western Lungu area in the Tarim Basin, dissolution pores, holes and fractures served as reservoir space in the Ordovician carbonate rocks. The karst reservoirs had a strong heterogeneity, and were classified into four types, including fracture, hole, fracture - hole, and cave. In different landscape units, the karsted fracture and hole system was vertically zoned. The mechanism of karst was studied with sheet analysis, and a developmentmodel of the karst reservoir in the Ordovician western Lungu carbonate rocks was established. The Lungu7 block in the east was the highest in the study area, and recharged the buried hills in Lunnan. The karst platform in the western Lungu area recharged the western Lungu area. Meteoric water infiltrated, forming dissolution pores and fractures, which were filled by clays and calcites. On the karst slope, groundwater migrated horizontally, and a karst river/pipeline system developed, filled by karst breccias and clays. The karst basin drainage area determined the scale of karst development.