Contribution Towards a Regolith Mineralogy Map of the Australian Continent A Study in South Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory
<div>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 empirical national-scale maps of regolith mineralogy are available in Australia. Satellite-derived mineralogical proxy products exist, however, they require on-the-ground validation. 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 study extending a previous pilot project for such a national regolith mineralogy database and atlas.</div><div>The area chosen for this study includes the part of South Australia not inside the pilot project, which focussed on the 2020-2024 Exploring for the Future (EFTF) Darling-Curnamona-Delamerian (DCD) region of southeastern Australia, as well as the EFTF Barkly-Isa-Georgetown (BIG) region of northern Australia. The South Australian part of the study was selected because the Geological Survey of South Australia indicated interest in expanding the pilot (DCD) project to the rest of the State. The BIG region was selected because it is a ‘deep-dive’ data acquisition and analysis area within the EFTF Australian Government initiative managed at Geoscience Australia. The whole study area essentially describes a continuous north-south trans-continental transect spanning South Australia (SA), Queensland (Qld) and the Northern Territory (NT), and is herein abbreviated as SA-Qld-NT.</div><div>Two hundred and sixty four NGSA sites from the SA-Qld-NT 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, kaolinite, plagioclase, K-feldspar, nosean (a sulfate bearing feldspathoid), calcite, dolomite, aragonite, ankerite, hornblende, gypsum, bassanite (a partially hydrated calcium sulfate), halite, hematite, goethite, magnetite, rutile, anatase, pyrite, interstratified or mixed-layer illite-smectite, smectite, muscovite, chlorite (group), talc, palygorskite, jarosite, alunite, and zeolite (group). Poorly diffracting material 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 weight percent (wt%) was achieved, with any mineral detection below that threshold reported as ‘trace.’ </div><div>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 downloadable as a .csv file from the Geoscience Australia website ( https://dx.doi.org/10.26186/147990). </div>
Simple
Identification info
- Date (Creation)
- 2023-05-28T12:00:00
- Date (Publication)
- 2023-07-25T05:23:56
- Citation identifier
- Geoscience Australia Persistent Identifier/https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/147990
- Citation identifier
- Digital Object Identifier/https://dx.doi.org/10.26186/147990
- Cited responsible party
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Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Publisher Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice Author de Caritat, P.
Internal Contact Author Petts, A.
External Contact Author Kelaart, C.
External Contact
- Name
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GA Record
- Issue identification
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GA Record 2023/15
- Purpose
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Present results of recent mineralogical investigation on NGSA samples, as part of the EFTF program
- Status
- Completed
- Point of contact
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Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Resource provider Minerals, Energy and Groundwater Division
External Contact Point of contact Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice Point of contact Main, P.
MEG Internal Contact
- Spatial representation type
- Topic category
-
- Geoscientific information
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
- Project
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EFTF – Exploring for the Future
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- Project
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Australia’s Resources Framework
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- Keywords
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Regolith
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- Keywords
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Mineralogy
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- Keywords
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X-ray diffraction
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- Keywords
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mapping
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- theme.ANZRC Fields of Research.rdf
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Mineralogy and crystallography
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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
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4.0
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Role Organisation / Individual Name Details User Any
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© Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia) 2023
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Australian Government Security Classification System
- Edition date
- 2018-11-01T00:00:00
- Classification
- Unclassified
- Classification system
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Australian Government Security Classification System
Associated resource
- Association Type
- Was informed by
- Title
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Towards a Regolith Mineralogy Map of the Australian Continent - A Feasibility Study in the Darling-Curnamona-Delamerian Region
- Citation identifier
- 145916
- Citation identifier
- 295df5ac-902e-40a2-8818-28d81102be5c
Associated resource
- Association Type
- Was derived from
- Title
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National Geochemical Survey of Australia: The Geochemical Atlas of Australia
- Citation identifier
- 71973
- Citation identifier
- a4a1ac2e-0a2c-653b-e044-00144fdd4fa6
- 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 facsimile
- OnLine resource
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Download the Record (pdf) [35.8 MB]
Download the Record (pdf) [35.8 MB]
- Distribution format
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pdf
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- OnLine resource
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Download Appendix A (csv) [44.7 KB]
Download Appendix A (csv) [44.7 KB]
- Distribution format
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xlsx
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Resource lineage
- Statement
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<div>National Geochemical Survey of Australia http://dx.doi.org/10.11636/Record.2011.020 </div><div>Towards a Regolith Mineralogy Map of the Australian Continent - A Feasibility Study http://dx.doi.org/10.11636/Record.2021.035</div>
Metadata constraints
- Title
-
Australian Government Security Classification System
- Edition date
- 2018-11-01T00:00:00
- Classification
- Unclassified
Metadata
- Metadata identifier
-
urn:uuid/9f425068-2d5e-4d54-ae29-8a382bceede8
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GeoNetwork UUID
- Language
- English
- Character encoding
- UTF8
- Contact
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Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Resource provider Resources Division
External Contact
Type of resource
- Resource scope
- Document
- Name
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GA Record
Alternative metadata reference
- Title
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Geoscience Australia - short identifier for metadata record with
uuid
- Citation identifier
- eCatId/147990
- Date info (Creation)
- 2023-07-25T05:17:23
- Date info (Revision)
- 2023-07-25T05:17:23
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
- http://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/122551