Tectonic–sedimentary evolution during initiation of the Tarim Basin: Insights from late Neoproterozoic sedimentary records in the NW basin

Tectonic setting and sedimentary basin evolution during initiation of the Tarim Basin, China, are controversial, which restrain hydrocarbon explorations in the basin. Sedimentary stratigraphic framework is a key to reconstruct basin evolution and to determine the tectonic environment in which the basin has been formed. Here we, taking the northwestern Tarim Basin as an example, carried out a detailed investigation on the Neoproterozoic sedimentary records in the basin. The results shown that the NW Tarim Basin, during the Neoproterozoic era, was characterized by a paleogeographic evolutionary pattern of deep-water–glacial–littoral–platform facies, corresponding to an upward-thinning/fine sedimentary stratigraphic framework evolving from clastic rocks through mixed clastic-carbonate rocks to carbonate rocks. This stratigraphic sequence framework is comparable with the depositions of sedimentary basin obeying evolution path from syn-rifting during the pre-Cryogenian period, through rifting-to-depression transformation during the Cryogenian-early Ediacaran period, to syn-depression during the late Ediacaran period. The rifting–depression basin evolution path, may be of basin significances, implied that initiation of the Tarim Basin was in a continental rifting environment and was a long-term, continuous, pulsating process that proceeded at the same time as the global breakup of the Rodinia supercontinent.