Study on Geothermal Genesis Mechanism and Model in the Western Margin of Ordos Basin

Abstract

Among so many fault basins around Ordos presenting good geothermal background, Yinchuan Plain is the key development and protection area of the Ecological and Economic Belt along the Yellow River in Ningxia and Yinchuan Metropolitan Area. The study of geothermal resources in this region is of great significance to the sustainable economic development of Yinchuan Plain. Most scholars suggested that Yinchuan Plain geothermal resources are low-to-medium temperature geothermal resources and have high value in terms of development and utilization due to their large reserves, good water quality conditions, and wide distribution. However, there is much controversy over the geothermal mechanism of this region. As an effective means to study geothermal mechanism, geophysical methods can be used to study regional basement uplift and structural distribution characteristics. Based on the discussion of regional geothermal geology background, this paper studies the distribution rules of Moho and Curie depths in the region by applying different geophysical data. The results show that the western margin of Yinchuan Plain is obviously uplifted. As inferred from the epicentral distribution of Yinchuan Plain section, there is a significant difference of the seismic bottom interface on the east and west sides of the Yellow River fault in Yinchuan Plain. The three-dimensional gravity inversion confirms basement uplift in this region. By referring to results obtained by the inversion of gravity and magnetic data and deep seismic exploration, the paper presents a comprehensive analysis of the regional geothermal geology conditions and proposes a geothermal conceptual model of Yinchuan Plain. The heat source comes from the earth heat flow and migrates to the thermal reservoir through the fault or fissure convection. The deep-large active faults provide a channel for deep heat flow to the shallow part, and the thermal fluid accumulates in the uplift area to form the high geothermal anomaly area. There should be two large-scale geological activities in the geotropics around Ordos. One is the basement uplift of the basins around Ordos platform, which provide the heat source. The other is the uplift of Ordos, which places the surrounding basin in an extensional environment and provides a channel for the heat source upwelling.