Abstract:Facing the energy problem today, we study the deeply buried sedimentary basins and potential reservoirs beneath the surface at least 5km in China. As density and magnetic properties of sediments are usually different from that of the crystalline basement, we apply the methods of density disturbance imaging and inversion techniques to determine location of deep sedimentary basins and potential reservoirs. The wavelet multi-scale analysis and density inversion method are used for imaging, yielding density disturbance maps at different depths in the crust, one of which is corresponding to depth between 5-9 km and can be used for locating the deeply buried basins and potential reservoirs. The results are coincide with inversion of top-depth maps of the crystalline basement produced by inversion of magnetic data and reflection seismic profiles. The density disturbance maps show that the deeply buried basins and potential reservoirs mainly distribute in Tarim, Tsaidam, Sichuan, Junggar, Odors basins and South China Sea, as well as along the rift zones in East China, whose crystalline rocks contain many cricks created by the rifting process. The potential area of the deeply buried basins may reach 1.6 million km2on land and 0.6 million km2in the marginal seas, demonstrating good prospects for gas/oil exploration.