Most of the large-scale oil and gas enrichment areas discovered in craton basins are related to paleo-uplifts. For example, the central and northern Tarim oil and gas enrichment areas in the Tarim Basin, the Luliang uplift oil and gas enrichment area in the Junggar Basin, and the Weiyuan-Anyue large-scale gas enrichment area in the Sichuan Basin are all developed in and around paleo- uplifts
[1⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓⇓-14]. In the Ordos Basin, the early Paleozoic has been discovered with Qingyang paleo-uplift, Central paleo-uplift, Wushenqi paleo-uplift and Yimeng paleo-uplift. The discovery and geological knowledge of these paleo-uplifts provide important evidences for understanding the formation and evolution of the Ordos Basin. So far, many discoveries have been achieved through exploration in these paleo-uplifts
[15⇓⇓⇓-19]. Typically, the Wushenqi paleo-uplift, was formed during the Huaiyuan Movement and discovered around 2020, is roughly located along Wushenqi-Jingbian. It is similar to the Qingyang paleo-uplift in early formation characteristics, but different in later evolution features
[19]. There is no consensus on the spatial distribution and evolution of the Wushenqi paleo-uplift. Wei et al.
[18] and Zhang et al.
[19] depicted significantly inconsistent planar distribution of the paleo-uplift. Bao at al.
[17] speculated that the paleo-uplift was formed in the Neoproterozoic; however, Wei et al.
[18] believed that it was developed in the Early Paleozoic. These scholars mainly demonstrated the distribution and evolution of the paleo-uplift from the perspective of sedimentology based on drilling and outcrop data, without detailed structural description. This paper used the latest 2D and 3D seismic data and drilling data, from a structural perspective, to finely delineate the denudation extent of the Wushenqi paleo-uplift and determine the spatial distribution of the paleo-uplift, and analyzed the evolution process of the paleo-uplift by using Bischke curve and equilibrium section restoration methods. Finally, the structural properties of the paleo-uplift were discussed considering the regional geological setting.