Arid climate disturbance and the development of salinized lacustrine oil shale in the Middle Jurassic Dameigou Formation, Qaidam Basin, northwestern China

The lacustrine Dameigou organic-rich shale of the northern Qaidam Basin is a particularly promising play for recent unconventional oil and gas exploration in China. Deposition was associated with arid intervals during the otherwise humid Middle Jurassic, but the depositional mechanism and organic matter enrichment processes are poorly understood. This study integrates high-resolution organic and inorganic geochemical proxies with detailed...