Great Artesian Basin eastern recharge area assessment – Eastern Eromanga Basin airborne electromagnetic data interpretation report.

This report presents the results of an assessment of geoscience data and tools applied in the eastern Eromanga Basin to improve the hydrogeological conceptualisations. The assessment is one component of the Australian Government funded project ‘Assessing the Status of Groundwater in the Great Artesian Basin’. The results demonstrate that the application of existing and new geoscientific data and technologies has the potential to further improve our understanding of the Great Artesian Basin (GAB) hydrogeological system thus supporting the responsible management of basin water resources.

Hydrogeological synthesis using airborne electromagnetic data, in conjunction with hydro- and chrono-stratigraphic data and well geological information, are effective at mapping the three dimensional distribution of the aquifers and aquitards. The results lead to an improved understanding of groundwater intake bed geometry, potential connectivity between aquifers, possible structural controls on groundwater flow paths, and plausible source of groundwater discharging as springs.

In the southern part of the study area, the dominantly shale-rich Evergreen Formation is electrically conductive, but is locally resistive in places due to sand-rich facies. These areas allow hydraulic connectivity between the overlying and underlying Hutton and Precipice sandstone aquifers.

Anticlinal folds and juxtaposed strata are observed on AEM traverses along the strike of the aquifer units, and includes the Hutton, Adori and Cadna-owie – Hooray sandstones. Abrupt folding and juxtaposed strata were interpreted as fault zones. Both structural features have the potential of controlling groundwater flow directions or groundwater storage compartmentalisation.

The northern limits of Precipice Sandstone and Evergreen Formation are at Blackall and south of Barcaldine towns respectively. This zone also coincides with the southern edge of the east-west trending sub-surface Barcaldine Ridge where the basal Jurassic sequence abut against. On and north of the Barcaldine Ridge, the Cadna-owie – Hooray, Adori and Hutton sandstones are present. Mapping using AEM conductivity sections affirm that the Hutton Sandstone is the major aquifer in the northern part of the study area.

The Poolowanna Formation, an age equivalent to the Evergreen Formation and Precipice Sandstone, is laterally extensive towards the northern part of the study area. This formation crops-out west of Lake Buchanan in the Great Dividing Range, but forms sub-crops elsewhere along the groundwater recharge areas.

Numerous groundwater springs and spring clusters are present along the east and west of the outcropping sandstone hills in the Great Dividing Range. In the northern parts of the study area, source of groundwater for the springs are mainly derived from the Hutton Sandstone aquifers through either gravity-feed or lateral groundwater flow process.

Polygonal faults mainly occur on conductive and fined-grained sedimentary units of the Rolling Downs Group. There is lack of observable evidence from AEM conductivity sections on the presence of polygonal faults to suggest preferential groundwater flows along these potential hydraulic conduits. Further investigation using ground based methods are needed to establish the presence of the faults and their hydraulic properties.

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Identification info

Date (Creation)
2022-12-21
Date (Publication)
2022-12-21T01:38:05
Citation identifier
Geoscience Australia Persistent Identifier/https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/146661

Citation identifier
Digital Object Identifier/http://dx.doi.org/10.11636/Record.2022.033

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Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Author

Tan, K.P.

 External Contact
Author

Rollet, N.

 MEG Internal Contact
Author

Vizy, J.

 MEG Internal Contact
Author

Kilgour, P.

 MEG Internal Contact
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Record

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RECORD: 2022/033

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This document will be published as a GA record.

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Completed
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Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

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Tan, K.

 MEG Internal Contact
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Minerals, Energy and Groundwater Division

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  • Geoscientific information

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N
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W


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As needed

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Title

Product data repository: Various Formats

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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

  • EARTH SCIENCES

Keywords

  • Great Artesian Basin

Keywords

  • Eastern Eromanga Basin

Keywords

  • airborne electromagnetic

Keywords

  • Published_External

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Title

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence

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CC-BY

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4.0

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http://creativecommons.org/licenses/

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(c) Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia) 2022

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Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem

Edition date
2018-11-01T00:00:00
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https://www.protectivesecurity.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx

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Unclassified

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Was informed by
Title

Great Artesian Basin, Queensland, Airborne Electromagnetic Survey: SkyTEM

Citation identifier
145776

Citation identifier
fed810c7-c59d-4bd5-8f0f-e5c4cb1745fe

Website

http://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/145776

Link to eCat metadata record landing page

Language
English
Character encoding
UTF8

Distribution Information

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Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

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OnLine resource

Download the Record (pdf) [8.7 MB]

Download the Record (pdf) [8.7 MB]

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  • pdf

Resource lineage

Statement

This report is one of the milestones for the 'Assessing the status of groundwater in the Great Artesian Basin' project.

Metadata constraints

Title

Australian Government Security Classification System

Edition date
2018-11-01T00:00:00
Website

https://www.protectivesecurity.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx

Classification
Unclassified

Metadata

Metadata identifier
urn:uuid/fa0e7f18-ea52-48da-9579-ba240d413369

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GeoNetwork UUID

Language
English
Character encoding
UTF8
Contact
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Point of contact

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

 Voice
Owner

Tan, K

 Internal Contact
Point of contact

Tan, K.

 MEG Internal Contact

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Document
Name

GA publication: GA Record

Alternative metadata reference

Title

Geoscience Australia - short identifier for metadata record with

uuid

Citation identifier
eCatId/146661

Metadata linkage

https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/5167d912-6784-4371-9938-3931e84ca6f1

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https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/fa0e7f18-ea52-48da-9579-ba240d413369

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Date info (Creation)
2019-04-08T01:55:29
Date info (Revision)
2019-04-08T01:55:29

Metadata standard

Title

AU/NZS ISO 19115-1:2014

Metadata standard

Title

ISO 19115-1:2014

Metadata standard

Title

ISO 19115-3

Title

Geoscience Australia Community Metadata Profile of ISO 19115-1:2014

Edition

Version 2.0, September 2018

Citation identifier
https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/122551

 
 

Spatial extent

N
S
E
W


Keywords

Eastern Eromanga Basin Great Artesian Basin airborne electromagnetic
theme.ANZRC Fields of Research.rdf
EARTH SCIENCES

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