Provenance identification and sedimentary analysis of the beach and bar systems in the Palaeogene of the Enping Sag, Pearl River Mouth Basin, South China Sea

• Indicate the types and dispersal characteristics of provenance systems quantitatively.
• Identify the facies characteristics of the beach and bar sandbodies.
• Reveal the planar dispersal patterns of beach-bar sedimentary systems and their spatial-temporal evolution.

During deposition in the Palaeogene, the Pearl River Mouth Basin (Enping Sag) was filled by sediments derived from northern and southern source regions. The northern sources are the fold belt Caledonian and Hercynian metamorphic rocks that are widely exposed along the South China block and stacked with Mesozoic igneous rocks, and the southern sources are Mesozoic igneous rocks from the southern Panyu lower uplift. We analysed the characteristics of the provenance and sediment-dispersal patterns of the beach and bar systems in the Palaeogene third-order sequence framework on the basis of detritus, thin section, zircon and the geophysical response test data. The source and deposition areas were distinguished based on their palaeogeomorphology. The sedimentary material composition of the deposition area was determined based on the characteristics of the detrital assemblage and cathode luminescence, and the characteristics of the age distribution were determined in detail using detrital zircon U–Pb dating. This study suggests that the provenance system in the Palaeogene mainly consisted of Palaeozoic metamorphic rocks and Mesozoic igneous rocks, with a supplement of Proterozoic metamorphic rocks. The transport capacity of three large fault troughs that delivered the northern provenances gradually increased from the Wenchang Formation (E2w) to the Enping Formation (E3e), whereas the southern provenances were transported by four or five incised valleys in E2w and then submerged in E3e. In the 3D seismic area, the features of the beach and bar sedimentary systems were described and interpreted based an analysis of the well-based sedimentary facies, seismic reflection characteristics and multiple attribute clustering. The results show that the beach and bar systems by the short-axis braided deltas mainly developed in the upper member of E2w and that the beach and bar systems on the subaqueous high in E3e developed during the Palaeogene. In addition, the bedrock-beach bar sedimentary system in the lower member (E3eL) was transferred to the braided delta–beach bar sedimentary system in the upper member (E3eU).