Journal of Petroleum Geology, Vol.13, No.2, pp. 157-178, 1990

©Copyright 2000 Scientific Press, Ltd.

PETROLEUM AT THE ROOF OF THE WORLD: The geological evolution of the Tibet (Qinghai-Xizang) Plateau Part I

I. Taner* and A. A. Meyerhoff**

* 3336 E. 32nd Street, Suite 210, Tulsa, OK, 74135, USA.
** PO Box 4602, Tulsa, OK, 74159, USA.

Abstract

The Tibet (Qinghai-Xizang) Plateau is underlain by many thousands of meters of Ordovician (and possibly Cambrian) through Middle Eocene, gently-dipping, essentially undeformed stable platform sequences. These are largely of shallow-water, marine-shelf origin in the Ordovician-Triassic sections, but are of mixed continental and marine facies in the Jurassic through Middle Eocene sections. Two east-west fault troughs--the Banggong Co--Nu Jiang and Indus River-- Yarlung Zangho--contain thick sections of Triassic, Jurassic, and/or Cretaceous marine flysch associated with ophiolites. The only severe deformation to affect the plateau was during the Mesozoic, and it was concentrated close to the through-going east-west fractures.