Authors / CoAuthors
Marignier, A. | Eakin, M. C. | Hejrani, B. | Agrawal, S.
Abstract
<div>Finding new mineral deposits hidden beneath the sedimentary cover of Australia has become a national priority, given the country’s economic dependence on natural resources and urgent demand for critical minerals for a sustainable future. A fundamental first step in finding new deposits is to characterise the depth of sedimentary cover. Excellent constraints on the sedimentary thickness can be obtained from borehole drilling or active seismic surveys. However, these approaches are expensive, impractical and with a potentially large environmental footprint in the remote regions of Australia. With over three quarters of the continent being covered in sedimentary and unconsolidated material, this poses a significant challenge to exploration.</div><div> </div><div>Recently, a method for estimating the sedimentary thickness using passive seismic data, the collection of which is relatively simple and low-cost, with a minimal environmental footprint was developed and applied to seismic stations in South Australia. The method uses receiver functions, specifically the delay time of the P -to- S converted phase generated at the interface of the sedimentary basement, relative to the direct-P arrival, to generate a first order estimate of the thickness of sedimentary cover. In this work we apply the same method to the vast array of seismic stations across Australia, using data from broadband stations in both permanent and temporary networks.</div><div> </div><div>From the new receiver function delay time results we are able to identify many features, such as the relatively young Cenozoic Eucla and Murray basins. A comparison with measurements of sedimentary thickness from local boreholes gives a straightforward predictive relationship between the delay time and the thickness, offering a simple and cheap way to characterise the sedimentary thickness in unexplored areas from passive seismic data. Abstract submitted and presented at 2023 Australian Earth Science Convention (AESC), Perth WA
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document
eCat Id
147759
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Cnr Jerrabomberra Ave and Hindmarsh Dr GPO Box 378
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Keywords
- ( Project )
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- EFTF – Exploring for the Future
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- Seismology
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- cover
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- Receiver functions
- theme.ANZRC Fields of Research.rdf
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- Seismology and seismic exploration
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- Published_External
Publication Date
2024-11-25T05:38:52
Creation Date
2023-03-02T18:00:00
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completed
Purpose
GA and ANU have signed a contract: Cover Mapping using receiver functions.As part of this contract, GA funded a postdoc position at ANU to derive a first order 'cover depth' for the Australian continent using Passive seismic methods like receiver function delay times.The postdoc started in early February 2023 and has already produced a preliminary map of the receiver function delay times for available GA's archived data.This is an abstract for a conference presentation on this preliminary result in the Australian Earth Science Convention 2023.
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geoscientificInformation
Series Information
Australian Earth Science Convention (AESC) 27-30 July 2023 Perth WA
Lineage
<div>GA's waveform database is archived on NCI. For Access contact Babak Hejrani or Alexei Gorbatov. </div><div>We use HiPerSeis functionalities to derive receiver functions from the raw waveforms. HiPerSeis is open source and well documented on GitHub: https://github.com/GeoscienceAustralia/hiperseis</div><div> </div><div>Our generated Receiver functions are stored on NCI and were used to derive a first pulse delay time for the GA archived data.</div><div>This map of delay times will be presented at the AESC conference. </div><div><br></div>
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[-54.75, -9.2402, 112.92, 159.11]
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