Sedimentary Facies Architectures of Third-Order Sequences from Early to Middle Triassic in Nanpanjiang Basin

There are complex and regular changes on sedimentary facies from the Early to the Middle Triassic in the Nanpanjiang basin. After the obvious drowned event of carbonate platforms in the transitional period between Permian and Triassic, carbonate platforms have evolved into the ramp type from the rimmed-shelf type. The differentiation of sedimentary facies becomes clearer in space, which are marked by the changes from an attached platform to a turbidity basin and several isolated platforms in the basin. The striking characteristics are the development of oolitic banks on isolated platforms in Nanning and Jingxi and the reef- and bank-limestones in the margin of the attached platform in the Early Triassic. Despite the difference of the time-span and the architecture of facies succession of third-order sedimentary sequences, the process of the third-order relative sea-level changes reflected by the sedimen-tary facies succession of the third-order sequences is generally synchronous. Therefore, six third-order sequences could be discerned in the strata from the Early to the Middle Triassic in the Nanpanjiang basin. Using two types of facies changing surfaces and two types of diachronisms in stratigraphic records as the key elements, the sedimentary facies architectures of the third-order sequences that represent sequence stratigraphic frameworks from the Early to the Middle Triassic in the Nanpanjiang basin could be constructed.