摘要

Depressions with terrestrial sediments is a unique and very important kind of sedimentary basins on earth, which usually develops by differential subsidence within Craton and / or thermal subsidence in the late stage of rift basin. In this paper, based on the characteristics of this type of basin, we put forward a method and workflow on basin Prototype reconstruction using a comprehensive analysis of sedimentary facies, isomaps of remnant thickness, regional cross-sections and related balance sections. The method and workflow include restoring the original boundaries of the basin using residual sedimentary facies, the original shapes during different stages using balanced cross-sections, and the original sediment thickness using relevant exploratory well data and balanced cross sections. By this method we can research the basin prototype within the original shape of basin, which eliminates the effect of later tectonic alteration. We analyzed the Cenozoic Prototype of the Qaidam Basin in northern Tibetan Plateau based on the above workflow. The result shows that the change of sedimentary patterns of the Qaidam Basin over time was closed related to the activities of the Altyn Tagh Fault.