1. Geological Exploration Technology Institute of Anhui Province, Hefei 230031, China 2. Anhui Provincial Key Laboratory of Electrical Prospecting, Hefei 230031, China 3. Technology Innovation Center of Coverage Area Deep Resource Exploration Engineering, MNR, Hefei 230001, China
Geothermal resources are significant clean energy and tourism mineral resources. The Rucheng Basin, a carbonate basin in the southeastern mountainous area of Hunan Province, possesses favorable conditions for the formation of convective geothermal energy. However, the basin is enclosed on three sides by the giant Zhuguangshan rock mass, and its basement is subjected to the intrusion and destruction by the rock mass, resulting in severely deformed formations, crisscrossing faults, and significantly different eastern and western structures. The understanding of the basin's water- and heat-conducting pathways and deep reservoir structures remains elusive, thus restricting the investigation of the basin's geothermal potential. Hence, this study probed the basin's deep structures through gravity survey and audio magnetotellurics (AMT), obtaining the following insights: (1) The Rucheng Basin has developed into a bidirectional ramp structure due to east-west differentiation. The synclinorium in the east experienced compression and clockwise rotation due to the emplacement of the Yanshanian rock mass, rocks were fragmented in the core zone, and strike-slip fracture zones were found at the boundary. The faults have vertical cutting depths exceeding 4 km, widths ranging from 300~600 m, and dip angles between 80°~90°. (2) The basin's basement anticlinal axis hosts several NWW-directed concealed rock masses, with diameters from 3~4 km and buried depths from 0.5~1.5 km. Hot springs reside in the fracture zones crossing the boundaries of the concealed rock masses. (3) The basin boasts favorable conditions for the formation of convective geothermal energy. Folds, fault zones, and concealed rock masses match each other to form a unified spatial combination of heat-controlling elements, manifesting heat accumulation characterized by east-west recharge and intermediate discharge. With more thriving deep geothermal reservoirs in the east, the basin has high potential for geothermal resources.
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doi: 10.18654/1000-0569/2020.02.16