Many reefs of the Late Paleozoic have been discovered recently in the Hinggan-Inner Mongolia area.These reefs clearly are geographically extensive,and possess distinctive features and well-developed reef-facies.They have been found to contain five reef-building communities and were constructed in four periods.Colonial coral-algal reefs at Aohan and Chifeng represent a warm shallow-sea in the Carboniferous.Different reefs in the Xiwu Banner were formed in three periods:early Late Carboniferous,late Late Carboniferous and Early Permian.These reefs were built in warm sea conditions.Their buildup types include colonial coral frameworks,algae-buildings and lime-mud mounds.Bryozoan reefs in the Zhalaite and Dongwu banners were built in the late Middle Permian and thrived in a cold shallow-sea.All reefs grew independently on two kinds of sedimentary platforms,carbonate and carbonate-clastic mixed platforms.Four reef-forming periods occurred later from south to north,along a collisional course between the North China Plate and the Siberian Plate.These reefs can be arranged into three 'reef-links' or reef zones that extend along plate margins.Among these,the Aohan-Chifeng reef-link indicates a northern margin of the North China Plate,the Zhalaite-Dongwu reef-link marks a southern margin of the Siberian Plate,and the Xiwu-Beishan reef-link reflects the former existence of some inter-plates.The strata of each reef-facies are thick and contain rich asphalt deposits.Overlapping and heteropic layers are very thick and contain dark oil/gas-rich horizons;TOC analyses verify that most of these are good hydrocarbon source rocks.This study shows that the study area is an excellent candidate for oil-gas exploration.
Two important geological issues have a long history of debate in the Xingmeng area.The first concerns the final closure of the North China plate,Siberia plate and several intermediate massifs in the area,and the other concerns the folding and lifting of the Xingmeng Trough.Disagreements arise because of issues involving the tectonicpalaeogeographical environment of the Upper Permian deposits of the Linxi Formation.The Linxi Formation(Upper Permian)is generally considered to be either an exclusively continental deposit or separated into marineterrigenous facies deposited during the Lower to Middle Linxi Period and continental deposits in the Upper Linxi Period.However,in this study,large numbers of bryozoan and sponge spicule fossils were discovered for this first time in the thick limestone layers and lenses of the upper part of the Linxi Formation found in the Guandi section of Linxi county in eastern Inner Mongolia.At the same time,abundant bryozoan fossils were also found in sedimentary tuff slices that were collected from the upper part of the Taohuayingzi Formation from the Taohuayingzi section in Ar Horqin Banner,and abundant small connecting body crinoid stem fossils were found in the dark shale of the Yangjiagou Formation from the Yangjiagou section of Jiutai county,Jilin Province.These marine fossils provide the first evidence that the Xingmeng area was still a marine or mainly marine environment at the end of the late Permian.This not only provides conclusive evidence for the recognition of the above two major geological issues but also promotes changes in the approach towards research,exploration and development of oil and gas,shale gas(oil),and other mineral resources that are preserved in the late Permian layers of the Northeast-Xingmeng area.
