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LA-ICPMS in-situ U-Pb Geochronology of Low-Uranium Carbonate Minerals and Its Application to Reservoir Diagenetic Evolution Studies

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Abstract

Reconstruction of the diagenetic evolution of reservoirs is one of the most significant tasks in oil and gas exploration and development. Assessing the accurate timing of diagenetic events is critical to better understand the process of reservoir evolution, but the isotope dating of diagenetic events is technically challenging. This paper uses three case studies in the sedimentary basins in China to demonstrate the promising application of recently developed LA-(MC)-ICPMS in-situ U-Pb geochronology. Our results show that the new U-Pb dating method provides a reliable and efficient chronological approach to determine the absolute ages of diagenetic events. For example, the U-Pb age data of the Cambrian carbonate reservoir in the Tarim Basin reveals three diagenetic events at 526±14, 515±21, and 481±4.6 Ma, respectively. It is worth noting that microscopic observations are particularly important for improving the success rate of U-Pb dating. In addition, the recent progress and future prospects in the in-situ U-Pb dating method are also discussed in this study, suggesting that this method is currently hindered by the lack of international carbonate standards for data correction.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 42072142, 41702121, U19B2007), the Major National Science and Technology Programs in the “Thirteenth Five-Year” Plan Period (No. 2016ZX05024-006-002) and the PetroChina Innovation Foundation (No. 2018D-5007-0104). We thank guest editor Changqian Ma for his invitation and the reviewers for their constructive review comments. We are grateful to Dr. Tianbo Yang who provides thin section and cathode luminescence images. The final publication is available at Springer via https://doi.org/10.1007/s12583-020-1084-5.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Shale Oil and Gas Enrichment Mechanisms and Effective Development, Beijing, 100083, China

    Entao Liu & Qianglu Chen

  2. Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Depositional Mineralization & Sedimentary Minerals, Shandong University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, 266590, China

    Entao Liu

  3. Hubei Key Laboratory of Marine Geological Resources, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, 430074, China

    Entao Liu & Jiasheng Xu

  4. Key Laboratory of Tectonics and Petroleum Resources, Ministry of Education, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, 430074, China

    Entao Liu, Jian-Xin Zhao & Hua Wang

  5. Radiogenic Isotope Facility, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Qld, 4072, Australia

    Jian-Xin Zhao, Yuexing Feng & Faye Liu

  6. PetroChina Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration & Development, Beijing, 100083, China

    Songqi Pan

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  1. Entao Liu
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Liu, E., Zhao, JX., Wang, H. et al. LA-ICPMS in-situ U-Pb Geochronology of Low-Uranium Carbonate Minerals and Its Application to Reservoir Diagenetic Evolution Studies. J. Earth Sci. 32, 872–879 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12583-020-1084-5

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