Transtensional segments with braided and horsetail structures showed more complexity owing to the presence of multiple fault cores and damage zones around the main fault and its subsidiary faults. Compared with the strike-slip segments, transtensional and transpressional segments showed more complexity, with the fracture density and damage zone width of the hanging wall being greater than that of the footwall.

Each segment is further complicated by different configurations of gouge, breccia, and fracture zones along the fault dip. Strike-slip faults can be divided into transtensional, strike-slip, and transpressional segments along the fault strike, with transtensional and strike-slip segments dominant in the Jinghe Oilfield. The results showed that fault zone architecture is complicated by fault segmentation, architectural configuration, and damage zone asymmetry. We carried out fault segmentation, qualitative characterization of fault zone architecture, and quantitative characterization of the boundary between the damage zone and wall rock. We explored faults in the Jinghe Oilfield in the southern Ordos Basin by integrating outcrops, wellbore cores, well logs, and 3D seismic data. To date, very few studies have explored fault zone architecture in the southern Ordos Basin, inhibiting oil exploration and development.

The productivity of different wells, however, can vary within one strike-slip fault zone, suggesting that variability in fault zone architecture controls hydrocarbon enrichment. High hydrocarbon production within strike-slip fault zones in these basins indicates that the fault zones not only act as conduits or seals for hydrocarbon migration, but also provide space for hydrocarbon accumulation. Previous hydrocarbon exploration in the Ordos, Tarim, and Sichuan basins of China has indicated that strike-slip faults play an important role in controlling reservoir distribution.

Strike slip fault hanging wall footwall