The marine strata, such as Sinian, Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Carboniferous, Permian and Lower and Middle Triassic, are widespread in South China. But, except Sichuan area, the breakthrough of petroleum exploration of these marine strata in South China has not been made till today. This is a serious problem. Failure is the mother of success. To understand the failure is the most important. On the basis of quantitative lithofacies palaeogeography of the Cambrian and Ordovician in South China, the author pointed out that the Jiangnan Basin, Yangtze Basin, North Margin Basin of Yangtze Platform, etc., are the important oil and gas generating palaeogeographical environments. If we can carry on the petroleum exploration with basic geology especially with quantitative lithofacies palaeogeography as the foundation, and with oil and gas generating palaeogeographical environments as the center or premise, we can make the breakthrough of petroleum exploration of marine strata in South China. This may be a strategic change for petroleum exploration in South China. The author hope that the authorities observe publicly, think deeply and make a best decision.

This paper presents the sedimentary facies and architecture of the Qiantangjiang and Taihu incised valleys, and the characteristics of shallow gas reservoir distribution, based on the analysis of a large number of drillings, static sounding and chemical data obtained from the present Hangzhou Bay coastal plain. The result shows that, since the last glaciation, with variations in sea level, the development of incised valleys in the Hangzhou Bay area underwent three stages: (1) deep-cutting stage; (2) rapid-filling stage; and (3) rapid-burial stage. The fall of global sea level during the last glacial maximum enhanced the fluvial gradient and river cutting, resulting in the formation of the large-scale Qiantang River and Taihu incised valleys, and were subsequently filled and rapid-buried in the post-glacial period. with the paleointerfluve being exposed to air on both flanks of the incised valley. The sediments of the incised valleys show an upward-fining succession, and can be grouped into four sedimentary facies: gravel lag-deposit of in-channel to partly over-bank deposits of a meandering river, floodplain-estuary, estuary-shallow marine, and estuary sand bar, based on lithology, paleontology, and sedimentary textures and structures. Because during the deposition of the floodplain-estuary facies, the conditions of sea level rise, tidal regime, sediment supply and accommodation space were suitable for the development of a tidal ridge system, the sand lenses associated with this facies may represent tidal ridge formation in the incised valley. For estuary-shallow marine and estuary sand bars, because the sedimentary conditions are no longer favourable, no sand ridge deposits were formed. All commercial biogenic gas is stored in the floodplain-estuary sand lenses of the incised valleys.

 Damintun sag in Liaohe depression basin is a famous high pour-point oil production basement. This paper discusses the important of the two sets of regional mudstone caprock to the accumulation of oil and gas distribution by analyzing the distribution features and sealing property of caprock. This study on the overpressure of fluid show that there are two overpressure sealing system which are corresponding to the two set of caprock. The overpressure sealing system played an important role oil and gas migration and accumulation. This sag can be divided into two petroleum system, the high wax petroleum system and normal one. These two regional systems seal the high wax system and the normal system respectively. It is just because that Damintun sag had sealing systems, the sag has abundant oil and gas accumulations.

The Yanchang Formation of the Triassic in the Ordos Basin mainly developed two sedimentary systems: northeastern and southwestern systems. It has been proved that the northeastern sedimentary system belongs to the river delta system through abundant research data. However, the southwestern system is studied little due to the limitation of the exploration. Through the latest drilling and outcrop data, it has been established that the southwestern sedimentary system in the Ordos Basin belongs to the alluvial fan—fan delta system and the alluvial fan, fan delta and lake facies or turbidite facies were developed. The alluvial fan is representative in the sections of Pingliang Kongdongshan and Ruishuihe River. The fan delta and lake facies or turbidite facies are proved by the drilling sections in the study area. The main reservoirs include intervals Chang6 to Chang8 and the strata is preserved integratedly with the relatively high drilling degree. The subaqueous distributary channel is the main type of the fan delta front while the channel mouth bar is developed locally. The turbidite sandstone is mainly thick- bedded. Fan delta front subfacies was most developed during the Chang8 subage. Three delta front sand belts are formed from southwest to northeast and they are the important areas where hydrocarbon accumulates. The turbidite system was considerably developed in the Chang7 Subage because the lake basin subsided, the periphery was uplifted strongly and the lakeshore was very steep. The fan delta was developed again because the lake regressived during the Chang6 Subage, but the scale was smaller than that of the Chang8 Subage. The fan delta front sand body is the most advantageous zone of petroleum accumulation because its great thickness, coarse grain, well sorting and good physical properties.

This paper, systematically discusses the formation and evolution of the Sihetun Basin during the sedimentary period of the Yixian Formation of Lower Cretaceous. The evolution of the basin may be divided into three stages, namely, inherited initial depression, volcanic swale, and lake basin subsidence and expansion. The following volcanism closed the basin. Corresponding to the evolution of the basin, a sedimentary facies sequence of the Yixian Formation is established as follows in asendind order: the alluvial fan and fluvial facies, volcanic-sediment facies, fluvial facies, lacustrine facies (shore-lake subfacies, shallow-lake subfacies, semi-deep-lake subfacies, shallow-lake subfacies, shore-lake subfacies, shallow-lake subfacies) and volcanic effusive facies. The paper emphasizes on the dividing indicators of sedimentary facies and their geneses and analyzes the progress and regression of lake water, as well as the characters of water body and the sedimentary environment during the dormant period of volcanic eruption.

The Badain Jaran Desert（巴丹吉林沙漠）, located in the western part of InnerMongolia, is the third largest desert in China. A variety of sediments and sedimentary rocks in the vicinity of the Badain Jaran Desert ranging from sediments of the Ruoshui River (弱水河) fan to slightly consolidated Permian shales, Cretaceous sandstones and conglomerates and ancient rocks of the Gobi Altai mountains (戈壁阿尔泰山) have been suggested to be possible sand sources for the dunes of the desert in previous years. According to a granulometric survey of aeolian sands, there is evidence for a slight but distinct aeolian fining towards the southeast within the desert which is in agreement with the SW-NE alignment of the transverse dune ridges and slope faces pointing towards the southeast. Therefore the alluvial fan of the Ruo Shui River in the northwest of the desert has to be considered as the most probable source area for the aeolian sands of the Badain Jaran Desert. In the northwestern part of the desert the aeolian bedforms cover alluvial sediments of an older ruoshui fan generation. Results of thermoluminescence dating of such sediments range between approximately 190 ka and 100 ka BP which represent maximum ages due to uncertainties related to the dating of probably incompletely bleached sediments and the estimation of the palaeo-mean water content of the sediments and due to the dating of deposits which were accumulated prior to the onset of aeolian processes in this part of the desert. Three additional datings of aeolian sands yielded ages of approximately 133, 66 and 22 ka BP respectively which represent minimum ages for the onset of aeolian processes in the related north-western part of the Badain Jaran Desert. The dunes of the desert are between 200 and 300 m high in average but attain elevations up to 450 m in the southeastern part occasionally. A steep inselberg relief which is covered by the aeolian bedforms was proposed by several authors to explain the extraordinary dimensions (Petrov 1966; Zhu et al., 1986; Yang, 1991; J kel, 1996). As a result of this study, the part of the desert under consideration was found to be underlain by a platform topography of Cretaceous fanglomerates and sandstones which rest generally more or less horizontally. This platform morphology is pronounced in the southeastern vicinity of the desert but obviously extents further to the north under the dunes of the desert. Therefore it is assumed now that the high dunes of the Badain Jaran Desert are the result of the interaction of different regional climatic and geomorphologic factors rather than covering a steep inselberg relief. The verification of the alluvial fan of the Ruoshui River as the main source area of the Badain Jaran Desert emphasizes the environmental importance of this region. During the Holocene, sand supply from the alluvial fan was probably hampered to some degree by oasis vegetation along river courses. At present, the riverine forests are greatly endangered by water withdrawal for irrigation purposes in the Hexi Corridor (河西走廊). Therefore, a threatening significant increase in sand mobilization has to be avoided by maintaining a sufficient river discharge to preserve the locally dense vegetation along the Ruoshui River acting as a natural sand trap.

Loess layers with varying thickness are distributed broadly on the terraces and piedmonts of the Dasha River and a small tributary of the lower reaches of the Yellow River.The material sources are complicated, including materials transported by northwestern current and maybe eastern Bohai Bay current and the local pluvial sediments. Based on the characters of water erosion and rock clast，the Zhangxia loess is possibally a product of aeolian-pluvial-alluvial process.The development of the Zhangxia loess accords with the climate changes during the Late Pleistocene that are documented by previous studies.

Fossil wood resembling Bischofia in the family of Euphorbiaceae is reported from the Late Pliocene sediments (Shagou Formation) of Wanpu and Hutiaotan Earth Forest of Wumao Basin in western Yuanmou Basin, Yunnan Province. The fossil wood is composed of vessels, fibers and rays. Growth rings are indistinct. The wood is diffuse porous. Pores are few cluster and solitary, and mostly in radial multiples of 2~4, sometimes up to 6. Perforation is simple. Intervessel pits are alternate and bordered. Tyloses are abundant. Parenchyma is typically absent. Fibers are separate. Rays are heterogeneous type I and II. Vessel-ray pits are scalariform and round. Based on the results of palynology, grass plants belonging to Euphorbiaceae were possibly grown in the Basin during the period of the Late Pliocene, while the fossil wood of Bischofia javanica BL. clearly indicates that there were the trees of Euphorbiaceae. Bischofia javanica BL. are the main elements of tropical and subtropical evergreen monsoon forest. The fossil wood of Bischofia javanica BL. suggests the climate of Yuanmou Basin at that time was moister than that of today.

The Honggang Member of the Buxin Formation (Early Eocene) is the main source rock in the Sanshui Basin. This work aims at assessing the sedimentary environments of these source rocks based on elemental geochemical data. The distributions of elements (Al, Fe, Mg, Ca, K, Na, P, V, Ni, Co, Cr, Cu, Zn, Sr, Ba, Cd, Li, Mn, Pb and Ti) and elemental ratios (Al/Ti, Fe/Mn, Sr/Ba, Mg/Ca, Sr/Ca, Na/Ca, V/Cr, Ni/Co and Ni/V) serve as proxies for palaeoenvironmental conditions. Elemental concentration and ratios in Lithozone A indicate higher terrigenous fluxes with relatively constant chemical composition and low-O₂-H₂Sbottom waters with higher salinity than the other lithozones. Highly saline bottom waters were probably the consequence of intermittent sea water incursions. Lithozones B and C are characterized by large variations in geochemical features, which reflect rapid fluctuations in palaeoclimate and sedimentary conditions. During humid intervals, elements that are usually enriched in terrestrial detrital minerals, such as Al and Ti, and Al/Ti ratios show high values, while endogenic elements, represented by Mg and Ca, have low concentrations. Palaeo-oxygenation indices suggest anoxic conditions developed in bottom waters, which were favourable for organic matter preservation. Consequently, higher contents of organic carbon are observed. During intervals of dry climatic conditions, characterized by reduced terrestrial input, concentration of terrigenous elements and Al/Ti ratios decreased. Increasing evaporation and salinity resulted in high values of endogenic elements and high Mg/Ca and Sr/Ba ratios. Palaeoredox proxies indicate prevailing oxic environments developed in bottom waters. Salinity indices for the uppermost part of the Honggang Member show lower values, suggesting that an increasing input of fresh waters caused freshening of the lake waters.

This paper presents systematically the principle and methods of multiple-point geostatistics, and a case study of stochastic modeling is made taking the fluvial reservoir of the Minghuazhen Formation of Neocene in a certain block of Bohai Bay Basin in China as an example. Multiple-point geostatistics is a promising discipline in stochastic reservoir modeling. This approach combines the easy conditioning of pixel-based algorithms with the ability to reproduce object geometry of object-based techniques. It overcomes the drawbacks that traditional variogram-based two-point geostatistics can not express joint variability of more than two locations at a time and reproduce crisp geometries. Through the theory and case analysis some present problems and further study suggestions are discussed such as the stationarity of training images, object continuity, integration of soft information.