This study reversed the developing environments of hydrocarbon-source rocksin the Ordos Basin and evaluated carbonate rocks as hydrocarbon-source rocks and their distributionson account of the fact that China''s marine carbonate rocks as hydrocarbon-source rocks arecharacterized by intensive thermal evolution and relatively low abundance of organic matter, bytaking the Lower Paleozoic of the Ordos Basin for example and in light of the calculated enrichmentcoefficients of trace elements, the REE distribution patterns, the mathematical statistics analysisof elements and carbon isotopes and their three-dimensional diagrammatization in combination withthe necessary organic parameters. As for the Ordos Basin, TOC=0.2% is an important boundary value.Studies have shown that in the strata where TOC is greater than 0.2%, Ba is highly enriched withpositive δ^(13)C_(carb) shifts and δ^(13)C_(org) less than -28per thousand, reflecting a thighpaleo-productivity, high burial amounts of organic matter, relatively good hydrocarbon-generatingpotentiality and intensive REE fractionation. All these indicated that the settlement rates are lowand the geological conditions are good for the preservation of organic matter, hence favoring thedevelopment of hydrocarbon-source rocks. The Klimory and Wulalik formations show certainregularities in those aspects and, therefore, they can be regarded as the potential effectivehydrocarbon-source rocks. In the strata where total TOC is less than 0.2%, the contents of Ba arelow, δ^(13)C_(carb) values are mostly negative, and δ^(13)C_(org) values range from -24perthousand—-28per thousand, demonstrating low burial amounts of organic matter, poor potentialitiesof hydrocarbon generation, weak REE fractionation and rapid settlement rates. These facts showedthat most of the hydrocarbon-source rocks were formed in shallow-water, high-energy oxidizingenvironments, thus un-favoring the development of hydrocarbon-source rocks. It is feasible to makeuse of the geochemical method to comprehensively asse
