Full waveform inversion (FWI) and reverse time migration (RTM) have shown great potential in subsurface imaging, yet they remain challenged by migration artifacts and limited deep illumination. A novel PPS-DLI (progressive pseudo-label self-supervised deep learning inversion) framework is proposed that integrates deep learning with multi-scale waveform inversion and imaging. The approach introduces a progressive model-based pseudo-label self-supervised strategy that iteratively refines velocity models by leveraging predictions from previous network stages. Combined with a frequency-based multi-scale inversion scheme, the method enables robust background velocity reconstruction at low frequencies and detailed imaging at higher frequencies. Numerical experiments demonstrate that PPS-DLI significantly reduces the migration artifacts, provides additional structural information with better illumination, improves the deep layers and sub-salt imaging, and preserves amplitude fidelity for enhanced lithological interpretation. These advantages position PPS-DLI as a powerful tool for high-resolution and noise-resistant seismic imaging.

Reconstructing the thermal evolution of the eastern Qaidam Basin is important for gaining a deeper understanding of its lithospheric geodynamics and for more accurate hydrocarbon evaluation and prediction. This article presents a set of new apatite and zircon (U–Th)/He thermochronological ages. Combined with 336 vitrinite reflectance (R_o) data, the thermal history of the Ouanan Sag in the eastern Qaidam Basin has been reconstructed using inversion models. Three detrital samples from the Ounan Sag shows that the apatite (U–Th)/He ages are primarily concentrated in the range of 17.0 Ma to 76.5 Ma and that the zircon (U–Th)/He ages range from 200 Ma to 289.3 Ma. The time-temperature models demonstrate that the Ounan Sag experienced rapid subsidence and heating from the Carboniferous to late Permian, and exhumation/cooling events from the end of Permian to the Triassic. This thermal evolution was influenced by the widespread intrusion of plutons, and the collision and orogenesis caused by asthenosphere upwelling below the Qaidam arc, and slab rollback of the Southern Kunlun oceanic lithosphere, respectively. Additionally, our models depict the main exhumation/cooling stages since the Paleogene and a reheating event in the Miocene as a result of the intensifying growth of the Qinghai–Tibet Plateau and local sedimentary loading, followed by the initial India–Eurasia collision. Furthermore, the eastern Qaidam Basin experienced consistent heating during the late Paleozoic, reaching the maximum paleotemperature and geothermal gradient in the late Permian, with values of ~230 ℃ and ~43–44 ℃/km, respectively. This study suggests that the source rocks in the most upper member of upper Carboniferous Keluke (C₂k) Formations in the Ounan Sag reached the gas generation stage in the late Permian.