Product catalogue
Towards a Regolith Mineralogy Map of the Australian Continent - A Feasibility Study in the Darling-Curnamona-Delamerian Region
Bulk quantitative mineralogy of regolith is a useful indicator of lithological precursor (protolith), degree of weathering, and soil properties affecting various potential landuse decisions. To date, no national-scale maps of regolith mineralogy are available in Australia. Catchment outlet sediments collected over 80% of the continent as part of the National Geochemical Survey of Australia (NGSA) afford a unique opportunity to rapidly and cost-effectively determine regolith mineralogy using the archived sample material. This report releases mineralogical data and metadata obtained as part of a feasibility study in a selected pilot area for such a national regolith mineralogy database and atlas.
The area chosen for this study is within the Darling-Curnamona-Delamerian (DCD) region of southeastern Australia. The DCD region was selected as a ‘deep-dive’ data acquisition and analysis by the Exploration for the Future (2020-2024) federal government initiative managed at Geoscience Australia.
One hundred NGSA sites from the DCD region were prepared for X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) analysis, which consisted of qualitative mineral identification of the bulk samples (i.e., ‘major’ minerals), qualitative clay mineral identification of the <2 µm grain-size fraction, and quantitative analysis of both ‘major’ and clay minerals of the bulk sample. The identified mineral phases were quartz, plagioclase, K-feldspar, calcite, dolomite, gypsum, halite, hematite, goethite, rutile, zeolite, amphibole, talc, kaolinite, illite (including muscovite and biotite), palygorskite (including interstratified illite-smectite and vermiculite), smectite (including interstratified illite-smectite), vermiculite, and chlorite. Poorly diffracting material (PDM) was also quantified and reported as ‘amorphous’. Mineral identification relied on the EVA® software, whilst quantification was performed using Siroquant®. Resulting mineral abundances are reported with a Chi-squared goodness-of-fit between the actual diffractogram and a modelled diffractogram for each sample, as well as an estimated standard error (esd) measurement of uncertainty for each mineral phase quantified. Sensitivity down to 0.1 wt% (weight percent) was achieved, with any mineral detection below that threshold reported as ‘trace’.
Although detailed interpretation of the mineralogical data is outside the remit of the present data release, preliminary observations of mineral abundance patterns suggest a strong link to geology, including proximity to fresh bedrock, weathering during sediment transport, and robust relationships between mineralogy and geochemistry. The mineralogical data generated by this study are presented in Appendix A of this report and are downloadable as a .csv file. Mineral abundance or presence/absence maps are shown in Appendices B and C to document regional mineralogical patterns.
Simple
Identification info
- Date (Creation)
- 2021-10
- Date (Publication)
- 2021-12
- Date (Revision)
- 2021-12-16T23:40:57
- Citation identifier
- Geoscience Australia Persistent Identifier/https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/145916
- Citation identifier
- Digital Object Identifier/https://dx.doi.org/10.11636/Record.2021.035
- Cited responsible party
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Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Author de Caritat, P.
Author Troitzsch, U.
External Contact
- Name
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Record
- Issue identification
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RECORD 2021/35
- Purpose
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Document and promote a national regolith mineralogy map
- Status
- Pending
- Point of contact
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Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Point of contact Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice Point of contact Main, P.
MEG Internal Contact Resource provider Minerals, Energy and Groundwater Division
External Contact
- Spatial representation type
- Topic category
-
- Geoscientific information
Extent
Extent
))
- Maintenance and update frequency
- As needed
Resource format
- Title
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Product data repository: Various Formats
- Website
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Data Store directory containing the digital product files
Data Store directory containing one or more files, possibly in a variety of formats, accessible to Geoscience Australia staff only for internal purposes
- theme.ANZRC Fields of Research.rdf
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EARTH SCIENCES
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Mineralogy and Crystallography
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- Keywords
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Exploring for the Future
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- Keywords
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EFTF
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- Keywords
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Mineralogy
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- Keywords
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Regolith
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- Keywords
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Clay Minerals
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- Keywords
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Quantitative Mineralogy
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- Keywords
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Australia
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- Keywords
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Published_External
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Resource constraints
- Title
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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence
- Alternate title
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CC-BY
- Edition
-
4.0
- Access constraints
- License
- Use constraints
- License
Resource constraints
- Title
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Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem
- Edition date
- 2018-11-01T00:00:00
- Classification
- Unclassified
- Language
- English
- Character encoding
- UTF8
Distribution Information
- Distributor contact
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Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Distributor Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice
- OnLine resource
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Download the Record (pdf) [17.4 MB]
Download the Record (pdf) [17.4 MB]
- Distribution format
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pdf
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- OnLine resource
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Download Appendix A (csv) [15.3 KB]
Download Appendix A (csv) [15.3 KB]
- Distribution format
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csv
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Resource lineage
- Statement
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National Geochemical Survey of Australia (doi: 10.11636/Record.2011.020)
Metadata constraints
- Title
-
Australian Government Security Classification System
- Edition date
- 2018-11-01T00:00:00
- Classification
- Unclassified
Metadata
- Metadata identifier
-
urn:uuid/295df5ac-902e-40a2-8818-28d81102be5c
- Title
-
GeoNetwork UUID
- Language
- English
- Character encoding
- UTF8
- Contact
-
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Point of contact Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice Owner Main, P.
MEG Internal Contact Point of contact Main, P.
MEG Internal Contact
Type of resource
- Resource scope
- Document
- Name
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GA publication: GA Record
Alternative metadata reference
- Title
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Geoscience Australia - short identifier for metadata record with
uuid
- Citation identifier
- eCatId/145916
- Date info (Creation)
- 2019-04-08T01:55:29
- Date info (Revision)
- 2019-04-08T01:55:29
Metadata standard
- Title
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AU/NZS ISO 19115-1:2014
Metadata standard
- Title
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ISO 19115-1:2014
Metadata standard
- Title
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ISO 19115-3
- Title
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Geoscience Australia Community Metadata Profile of ISO 19115-1:2014
- Edition
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Version 2.0, September 2018
- Citation identifier
- https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/122551