Academic Journal of Science and Technology 
ISSN: 2771-3032 | Vol. 9, No. 1, 2024 

 

38 

Study	on	the	Formation	Mechanism	of	The	Strike‐slip	
Fracture	Zone	in	the	Gulongnan	Area	of	the	Songliao	
Basin	
Wei Li1, a, Zhongquan Li1 

1Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu 610059, China 
aEmail: 839796502@qq.com 

 

Abstract: The Gulongnan strike-slip fracture zone consists of multi-phase active faults, which play a crucial role in the 
transportation of hydrocarbons generated from depressions to the slope area, and is of high research value. However, the main 
controlling factors of reservoir formation in the context of the development of strike- slip fracture are still unclear, and the success 
rate of drilling wells is low, so there is an urgent need to carry out the research work on the formation process of strike-slip 
fracture zones and the mechanism of genesis. Based on the principle of similarity, this paper investigates the tectonic style and 
evolution law of extension and extrusion under the control of strike-slip faults in the study area through tectonophysical 
simulation experiments, in order to reproduce the dynamical evolution process, and achieves a high degree of agreement with 
the actual geological situation. The experimental results show that at the end of the depositional stage of the Qingshankou 
Formation in the study area, a weak east-west extrusion formed the dorsal tectonics, and then a strong east-west stretching formed 
the strike-slip fault zone, and the tectonic pattern of the study area was controlled by the two main faults formed in the early 
stage of the extrusion. 

Keywords: Gulongnan area; Songliao Basin; sandbox tectonic physical simulation experiment; strike-slip fracture. 
 

1. Introduction 
Fracture system is an important element in the formation of 

oil and gas basins, which has multiple control effects on the 
formation of enclosures and the formation of oil and gas 
deposits. A number of large oil and gas fields of "strike-slip 
fracture control type" have been discovered both at home and 
abroad, such as the oil and gas-bearing basins in the Southern 
California area under the control of the San Andreas strike-
slip fracture zone in the United States. Recently, many 
exploratory wells deployed along the strike-slip fracture 
zones in the Tarim Basin have obtained high oil and gas 
production (Lu Xinbin et al. 2015; Qiu Huabiao et al. 2017; 
Jiao Fangzheng 2018; Wang 

Yuwei 2019), which has made the study of the multi-stage 
strike-slip fracture-controlled reservoirs in the Harahatang, 
Yueman, Shunbei, and Shunnan areas a hot spot. Highly 
productive oil and gas wells are closely related to fractures, 
so it is urgent to find lithologic trap and high-quality oil layers 
in the Gulongnan area of the Songliao Basin, where there are 
multi-stage strike-slip fractures. 

On the basis of fine tectonic interpretation, it is imperative 
to select favorable tectonic enclosures and carry out research 
on the formation process and genesis mechanism of the strike-
slip fracture zone in the Gulongnan area. After more than one 
hundred years of rapid development, the sandbox tectonic 
physical simulation experiment, with its basic features of high 
degree of similarity, detailed experimental process, and clear 
experimental results, has been widely noticed and applied in 
the academic world and the field of petroleum exploration. 
Through the geometric analysis of the original seismic data 

and the design of the experimental model and parameters, the 
deformation of the geologic body is simulated by means of 
the orthotropic method, so as to achieve the purpose of 
reconstructing the mechanical model of tectonic evolution. 

Based on the high-precision 2D seismic data and 
tectonophysical simulation experiments in the Gulongnan 
area of the Songliao Basin, this paper analyzes the tectonic 
characteristics of the strike-slip rupture in the study area and 
its formation and evolution process in the study area, and 
discusses the mechanism of strike-slip rupture in the 
Gulongnan area.  

2. Regional Geological Background 

2.1. Stratigraphic characteristics 
The Songliao Basin is a large-scale Meso-Cenozoic 

terrestrial basin in northeastern China, and the study area is 
located in the Central Depression Zone, a primary tectonic 
unit in the northern part of the Songliao Basin, geographically 
located in Zhaoyuan County, Daqing City, Heilongjiang 
Province. Tectonically, it is located at the southern end of the 
Qijia-Gulong Depression in the Central Depression Area, 
which is a faulted depression basin (Fig. 1), developed in the 
Late Jurassic and Cretaceous, and was formed by the mantle 
thermal energy and stratigraphic pressure provided by the 
plate extrusion movement. The stratigraphy of the study area 
consists of bedrock, Yingcheng Formation (K1 y), 
Dengloukou Formation (K1 d), Quantou Formation (K1 q), 
and Late Cretaceous Qingshankou Formation (K2 qn), Yaojia 
Formation (K2 y),Nenjiang Formation (K2 n), Sifangtai 
Formation (K2 s), Mingshui Formation (K2 m), and the 
Cenozoic stratigraphy in the order of the bottom to the top.  

 



 

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Figure 1. Comprehensive histogram of tectonic position and stratigraphy of the study area 

 

2.2. Structural characteristics of fault profiles 
 

 
Figure 2. Seismic plan A-A' 

 
In the section over the study area (Fig. 2), we can see that 

the main faults are two deep and large faults cutting the 
basement, and with the age of the stratum becoming newer, 
the fracture spacing has a tendency to become smaller, which 
is in line with the fracture spacing development law of the 
same sedimentary faults. The secondary faults are distributed 
along the two main faults, and the tendency is opposite to that 
of the main faults, with a smaller scale, and they are not 
developed in the locations where no basal faults are 
developed, and most of them only cut one or two layers, 
which are obviously controlled by the basal faults, and the 
whole faults are in a multi-stage "Y"- shaped combination in 
the section. 

In the study area, the formation of a dense zone of strike-
slip fractures developed at the end of the Qing section of 
sedimentation is divided into two stages. (i) the formation of 
micro-amplitude broad and slow backslope under the weak 
extrusion in the near east-west direction in the early stage; and 
(ii) the formation of north-north-east oriented right-trending 
right-step strike-slip fracture zones under the strong tensile 
force in the near east-west direction in the late stage, which is 
controlled by the pre-existing basal fractures that are 
diagonally intersected by the tensile force. The influencing 
factors will be further verified by experiments next. 

3. Tectonic Physics Simulation 
Experiment 

Tectonophysical simulation experiments were firstly 
proposed by the famous geologist Hall (1815) in the early 
nineteenth century, mainly used to simulate the deformation 
and dislocation of rocks in nature, which created a new idea, 
a new method and a new means in the field of tectonophysical 
geology research. On the basis of the basic principle of 
experimental similarity, sandbox physical simulation uses 
appropriate mechanical equipment and materials to enlarge or 
reduce the prototype year-on-year (Li Zhongquan, 2010), 
which is the most intuitive means of reproducing the process 
of geologic evolution in the natural environment and 
revealing the mechanism of its tectonic dynamics (Long Wei, 
2017), and it has a strong superiority in the geometrical 
analysis of the complex underground geologic structures, thus 
it has attracted a lot of attention. It has attracted extensive 
attention in academia and petroleum exploration, and has 
been widely used in the actual research process. 

Based on the geometrical characteristics of the strike-slip 
faults, the present study analyzes the boundary conditions of 
the experiment, combines the theory of fault- related folding, 



 

40 

and analyzes the tectonic styles of folds and faults, and 
designs the experiment according to the overall tectonic 
characteristics of the Gulongnan strike- slip faults, and then 
conducts tectonophysical simulation experiments in the 
Tectonics and Mineralogy and Deposits Laboratory of the 
Ministry of Natural Resources, Chengdu Polytechnic 
University.  

3.1. Experimental materials 
Materials commonly used in tectophysical simulation 

experiments include dry quartz sand, silica gel, glass beads, 
clay, petroleum jelly, talcum powder, and so on. In the natural 
gravity field environment, the deformation of loose and dry 
quartz sand follows the Moore-Cullen rupture criterion, 
which is very close to the brittle deformation behavior of 
sedimentary rocks in the shallow part of the earth's crust 
(10,000-15,000 m) (W-P Schellrt, 2000), which is an ideal 
material for simulating brittle rock formations in the upper 
crust. 

This experiment is mainly aimed at the systematic study of 
the tectonic style of the Gulongnan strike-slip fault, so loose 
and dry quartz sand is selected as the preferred experimental 
material, the average density of the quartz sand selected in the 
experiment is 1297 kg/m3 , the particle size is between 0.3 and 
0.4 mm, the rupture internal friction angle is about 31°, the 
cohesion is 923 Pa, and the coefficient of internal friction is 
about 0.55 (Long W., 2018). ). In order to facilitate the 
observation of the experimental process as well as the 
deformation and dislocation of the model and the 
characteristics,quartz sand with different colors but the same 
mechanical properties was selected to simulate different strata 
for the experiments.  

3.2. Experimental setup 
This experiment uses the device of the comprehensive 

experimental platform for tectonic deformation physics 
simulation in the State Key Laboratory of Tectonogenesis and 
Mineralization and Depository of Chengdu University of 
Science and Technology. 

The sand box consists of transparent glass panels with fixed 
height and width, and the force source is provided by the 
electric cylinders on both sides of the baffle plate. A piece of 
plastic cloth is placed at the bottom of the sand box, and the 
plastic cloth is tightly fastened to fix the model, and then the 
model is fixed on the right movable baffle plate, so that the 
movable baffle plate can drive the model to move. During the 
experiment, quartz sand was laid between the substrate and 
the right baffle to simulate the brittle stratum. 

A piece of polystyrene foam substrate is placed at the 
bottom of the sand box to simulate the pre-existing substrate. 
The length of the lower boundary of the substrate is 170 mm, 
the length of the upper boundary is 120 mm, the width is 300 
mm, and the height is 45 mm. the size of the sand box is 43 cm 
× 30 cm × 9 cm. based on the designed model, white quartz 
sand is laid at the bottom of the sand box flush with the 
substrate, with the thickness of about 45 mm, and then a layer 
of thin green marking layer, and the overlaying ground layer 
is laid with three layers of 1-cm white quartz sand, and each 
layer is covered with a layer of marking layer. Each layer is 
overlaid with a marker layer. The right movable baffle was 
fixed, and the left movable baffle could be extended and 
extruded under the force of the left driving cylinder, and the 
extension and extrusion speeds were set to 0.4mm/s (Figure 
3). 

 

 
Figure 3. Schematic diagram of the experimental apparatus 

 
The data recording in the experiment was done by staged 

measurements of the experimental process in addition to the 
traditional photographic recording, a method that allowed the 
surface to be properly contoured and visualized, 
encompassing all the major and many minor faults at the same 
time as responding to the degree of undulation in the surface 
elevation. At the end of the experiment, an appropriate 
amount of water was added to soak the sand body, and the 
internal structural features of the experiment were observed 
and measured by cross-cutting. 

3.3. Model setup 
The key to the success of a physics simulation experiment 

is the similarity between the model and the prototype. The 
degree of similarity between the experimental model and the 

prototype is an important criterion for the success or failure 
of simulation experiments (Chuanxiang, War, 2010; Shijun, 
Zhao, 2010).Hubbert (1937) proposed that three similarity 
criteria (geometric, kinematic, and kinetic) can ensure that the 
model is scaled appropriately. Considering that the basement 
boundary is closely related to the morphology of the basin and 
the characteristics of its internal fracture system, and based on 
the results of previous studies on the basement, which show 
that the basement fault blocks in the area are "V" shaped, and 
that the spreading direction of this pre-existing structure 
located in the west is in the NW direction, the foam plate of 
the similarity model was polished (4.5 cm in height and 43° in 
angle), and was placed on the left side of the experimental 
setup (Fig. 4).  

 



 

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Figure 4. Morphology of foam boards simulating preexisting substrate fracture 

 

4. Experimental Procedure and Results 

4.1. Experimental process  

 

Figure 5. Initial stage of the physical simulation experiment 

 
The initial shape of the experiment is shown in Fig. 5. The 

initial stress of the experiment is unilateral extrusion, and then 
it transitions to unilateral tension. At 22 mm of unilateral 
extrusion, the extruded reverse fault located at the boundary 
of the tectonically weak zone is the first to develop, and the 
location and distribution direction of the backslope 
development are controlled by the boundary fractures. In plan, 
the location near the basement fault block is slightly uplifted, 
albeit with a small amplitude, and the development of 
extrusion reverse faults on both sides can be observed. The 
longitudinal section shows that the fractures propagate from 
the boundary of the tectonic zone to the center of the tectonic 
zone, but the cutting of the central bulge is not obvious. As 
the amount of extrusion increases, the dorsal tectonics 
narrows, the faults develop further, and the central bulge in 
the plunge zone is still uncut, and the style of the tectonic zone 
does not change (Fig. 6).  

After the end of extrusion, the tensile stage is entered, and 
the left side is tensioned by 40 mm with a tensile velocity of 

0.04 mm/s. The experimental simulation results show the 
elevation changes in the cross section of the model boundary. 
The correspondence between flat and longitudinal sections is 
very obvious, two groups of extruding reverse faults are 
developed at the boundary of the tectonic zone, two groups of 
tensile positive faults are developed inwardly, and the 
development of secondary depressions is obvious. During the 
stretching process, it is found that with the gradual increase 
of the stretching amount, the stress gradually spreads to the 
center of the tectonic belt, and a new set of tensile normal 
faults gradually develops between the two extruding reverse 
faults, and these two new faults develop in the center of the 
tectonic belt, and the fracture spacing of the early-developed 
faults increases further, and the depressions further become 
deeper and wider. The tectonic zone as a whole is 
characterized by a "graben-base-graben" pattern (Figure 7). 

 

 



 

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Figure 6. Extrusion phase of the physical simulation experiment 

 

 
Figure 7. Stretching phase of the physical simulation experiment 

 



 

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The differential distribution of faults is characterized more 

clearly after cutting (Fig. 8). It was found that, in addition to 
the two main-stem extruded reverse faults and two main-stem 
tensile normal faults observed previously, three secondary 
tensile normal faults were developed between the main-stem 
normal faults, and these minor faults were formed at the latest 
time. This phenomenon can also be observed in plan, where 

they form three secondary minor fault traps. Vertically, the 
fracture breaks in the vertical zone away from the base of the 
fault block are all small but numerous. Towards the sides, the 
fracture spacing gradually increases and the number 
decreases, reflecting the continuity of the evolution of the 
secondary depressions controlled by the boundary fault block.  

 

 
Figure 8. Physics simulation experiment cutting stage 

 

4.2. Evolutionary sequences  
This tectonic experiment is divided into two stages, 

extrusion and tension, and the sequence of the formation of 
each fault is shown in Figure 9. 

squeeze-out phase 
Fault No. ①: two reverse faults controlled by the basal 

faults, first developed at the two ends of the sandbox. 
elongation stage 
Fault No. ②: close to the basement fault block, belongs to 

the companion fault of fault No. ①, and was initially formed 
during the stretching phase. 

Fault No. ③: close to the basement fault block, it belongs 
to the companion fault of Fault No. ②, and is concentrated 
in the plane at the tip of the fault block, and gradually 
disappears to both sides. Therefore, it is not fully visible in 
the uncut section. Fault No. ④: a position between two faults 
No. ①, which is earlier than fault No. 
③ in the profile, but later than fault No. ③ in the plane. 
Fault No. 5: It was formed at the latest time and is a 

companion fault of fault No. 

4.3. Experimental results  
Tectonophysical simulation experiment is to simulate the 

tectonic development of the study area based on regional 

dynamics in the laboratory environment, so as to reproduce 
the tectonic deformation process in nature and study the 
mechanism of its tectonic genesis. By conducting physical 
simulation experiments on planar and sectional sections of the 
fracture zones in the region, the formation pattern of the 
fracture zones and the activity of secondary faults are 
investigated, so as to further analyze the genesis mechanism 
of the fracture zones. 

Throughout the tectonic simulation experiment, the two 
main faults formed by the early extrusion tectonics controlled 
the evolution of the whole tectonic style. 

Afterwards, due to the influence of regional extensional 
forces and pre-existing faults, the faults are more active, and 
a large number of small multi-directional faults are developed 
between the large faults, among which the small faults above 
the pre-existing faults are the most developed, forming a 
dense zone of faults. A small number of these small faults are 
directly connected with the pre-existing faults, but the cutting 
depth is shallow, forming a "Y"-shaped tectonic pattern. In the 
final stage of stretching, the stretching intensity becomes 
smaller, the activity of the faults decreases, some of the faults 
in the previous stage are activated and continue to develop 
upward, and at the same time, smaller faults of a more 
subordinate level are also newly formed, which constitutes 
the present pattern of the fracture zone. 

 



 

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Figure 9. Complete evolutionary sequence of extrusion-stretching 

 

5. Conclusion 
(1) At the end of the deposition of a section of the 

Qingshankou Formation, it first underwent a weak east-west 
extrusion and then changed to a strong east-west stretching, 
which formed a dorsal tectonic structure, and a strike-slip 
fault zone was formed by a strong east-west stretching. 

(2) The tectonophysical simulation of the strike-slip 
fault profile in the Gulongnan area reveals that, in the 
simulation, the two main faults formed by the early extrusion 
tectonics control the evolution of the entire tectonic style, and 
a large number of multi- directional small faults are developed 
between the large faults under the influence of the regional 
extensional force, and a small number of these small faults are 
connected to the pre-existing faults directly to form a "Y-
shaped" tectonic style. "The Y-shaped tectonic pattern is 
formed by the direct connection of a few of these small faults 
with the pre-existing faults. 

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