ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Earth Sci.

Sec. Economic Geology

Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/feart.2025.1624161

Geochemical characteristics and paleoenvironmental significance of karst reservoirs in Gaoyuzhuang-Wumishan Formations of Jixian System in Xiong 'an New Area and its adjacent areas

Provisionally accepted
Guoquan  NieGuoquan Nie1Qingyu  ZhangQingyu Zhang1*Dengfa  HeDengfa He2Xiaopan  LiXiaopan Li1Shaocong  JiShaocong Ji1
  • 1Institute of Karst Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Guilin, China
  • 2China University of Geosciences (Beijing), Beijing, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

A set of thick carbonate rocks is developed in Gaoyuzhuang-Wumishan Formations of Jixian System in Xiong 'an New Area and its adjacent areas, with diverse dolomite rock types, complex reservoir space, and large differences in physical properties, which are the main layers of hydrocarbon and geothermal resources. However, it is difficult to identify the paleokarstification, and the paleoenvironmental characteristics are not clear. The major and trace elements, carbon, oxygen and strontium isotopes of Gaoyuzhuang-Wumishan Formations are analyzed based on field geological investigation, core observation, thin section identification and physical property analysis. The results show that dolomite and siliceous bands of Gaoyuzhuang-Wumishan Formations are formed in the warm subtropical climate of seawater environment, which are partially affected by meteoric water, characterized by interactive marine, and the depth of water as a whole is relatively shallow, mainly in an oxidizing environment, affected by different degree of terrestrial fluids. The fluid temperature at the time of formation of the dolomite fillings is significantly higher than that of the seawater in the same period, which is controlled by the high temperature fluid transformation after burial. The calcite fillings exhibit a meteoric water genesis, having precipitated under anoxic reducing conditions at temperatures equivalent to those of dolomite. Four periods of carbonate paleokarstification and depositional environments have been revealed, which are marine syndiagenetic depositional period or eogenetic karst, shallow burial period, medium-deep burial period or high-temperature paleoenvironment and the hypergene period of meteoric water karstification.

Keywords: Karst reservoir, Gaoyuzhuang-Wumishan Formations, Geochemical characteristics, Palaeoenvironment, Xiong 'an New Area and its adjacent areas

Received: 07 May 2025; Accepted: 10 Jul 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Nie, Zhang, He, Li and Ji. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Qingyu Zhang, Institute of Karst Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Guilin, China

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