Climate and tectonic-driven deposition of sandwiched continental shale units: New insights from petrology, geochemistry, and integrated provenance analyses (the western Sichuan subsiding Basin, Southwest China)

How the depositional setting efficiently governs the characteristic sandwiched continental shale units remains uncertain, which restricts an integrated assessment of organic-rich fluvio-lacustrine shale reservoirs, and accurate estimation of potential natural gas resources. Here, we present new results from petrological observations, element geochemical fingerprinting, and integrated analyses of heavy mineral, basinal subsidence history, and...