2024
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The Layered Geology of Australia web map service is a seamless national coverage of Australia’s surface and subsurface geology. Geology concealed under younger cover units are mapped by effectively removing the overlying stratigraphy (Liu et al., 2015). This dataset is a layered product and comprises five chronostratigraphic time slices: Cenozoic, Mesozoic, Paleozoic, Neoproterozoic, and Pre-Neoproterozoic. As an example, the Mesozoic time slice (or layer) shows Mesozoic age geology that would be present if all Cenozoic units were removed. The Pre-Neoproterozoic time slice shows what would be visible if all Neoproterozoic, Paleozoic, Mesozoic, and Cenozoic units were removed. The Cenozoic time slice layer for the national dataset was extracted from Raymond et al., 2012. Surface Geology of Australia, 1:1 000 000 scale, 2012 edition. Geoscience Australia, Canberra.
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This web service delivers metadata for onshore active and passive seismic surveys conducted across the Australian continent by Geoscience Australia and its collaborative partners. For active seismic this metadata includes survey header data, line location and positional information, and the energy source type and parameters used to acquire the seismic line data. For passive seismic this metadata includes information about station name and location, start and end dates, operators and instruments. The metadata are maintained in Geoscience Australia's onshore active seismic and passive seismic database, which is being added to as new surveys are undertaken. Links to datasets, reports and other publications for the seismic surveys are provided in the metadata.
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This repository contains a static version of the data and software that accompanies the article by Stephenson et al. (2024) published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth. Note that the data and software repositories are up to date as of 07/03/2024. For more recent updates users are referred to the primary repositories on Github. Contents of zipped repository files includes four directories: 1. The manuscript directory `STEPHENSON_ET_AL_2024_JGR/` containing - The manuscript file (pre-print before final peer review and acceptance by the journal). - Supplementary text accompanying the manuscript. 2. The `SMV2rho` software package version `v1.0.1` for converting seismic velocity into density. 3. The `SeisCruST` database of global crustal thickness and velocity profiles. 4. The `global-residual-topography` database containing estimates of continental residual topography after correcting for isostatic effects of crustal thickness and density variations. Abstract for the article: Continental topography is dominantly controlled by a combination of crustal thickness and density variations. Nevertheless, it is clear that some additional topographic component is supported by the buoyancy structure of the underlying lithospheric and convecting mantle. Isolating these secondary sources is not straightforward, but provides valuable information about mantle dynamics. Here, we estimate and correct for the component of topographic elevation that is crustally supported to obtain residual topographic anomalies for the major continents, excluding Antarctica. Crustal thickness variations are identified by assembling a global inventory of 26 725 continental crustal thickness estimates from local seismological datasets (e.g. wide-angle/refraction surveys, calibrated reflection profiles, receiver functions). In order to convert crustal seismic velocity into density, we develop a parametrization that is based upon a database of 1 136 laboratory measurements of seismic velocity as a function of density and pressure. In this way, 4 120 new measurements of continental residual topography are obtained. Observed residual topography mostly varies between±1–2 km on wavelengths of 1 000–5 000 km. Our results are generally consistent with the pattern of residual depth anomalies observed throughout the oceanic realm, with long-wavelength free-air gravity anomalies, and with the distribution of upper mantle seismic velocity anomalies. They are also corroborated by spot measurements of emergent marine strata and by the global distribution of intraplate magmatism that is younger than 10 Ma. We infer that a significant component of residual topography is generated and maintained by a combination of lithospheric thickness variation and sub-plate mantle convection. Lithospheric composition could play an important secondary role, especially within cratonic regions.
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Geoscience Australia’s Exploring for the Future program provides precompetitive information to inform decision-making by government, community and industry on the sustainable development of Australia's mineral, energy and groundwater resources. By gathering, analysing and interpreting new and existing precompetitive geoscience data and knowledge, we are building a national picture of Australia’s geology and resource potential. This leads to a strong economy, resilient society and sustainable environment for the benefit of all Australians. This includes supporting Australia’s transition to net zero emissions, strong, sustainable resources and agriculture sectors, and economic opportunities and social benefits for Australia’s regional and remote communities. The Exploring for the Future program, which commenced in 2016, is an eight year, $225m investment by the Australian Government. The name ‘Birrindudu Basin’ was first introduced by Blake et al. (1975) and Sweet (1977) for a succession of clastic sedimentary rocks and carbonates, originally considered to be Paleoproterozoic to Neoproterozoic in age, and overlain by the Neoproterozoic Victoria Basin (Dunster et al., 2000), formerly known as the Victoria River Basin (see Sweet, 1977).
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Geoscience Australia has permanently deployed 40 trihedral corner reflectors in Queensland, Australia, covering an area of approximately 20,000 km2. The array of corner reflectors was constructed as part of the AuScope Australian Geophysical Observing System (AGOS) initiative to monitor crustal deformation using Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) techniques. The array includes 34 corner reflectors of 1.5m, 3 reflectors of 2.0m and 3 reflectors of 2.5m inner leg dimensions. Through the design process and the precision manufacturing techniques employed, the corner reflectors are also highly suitable for calibration and validation of satellite-borne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) instruments. Nine of the 1.5m corner reflectors in the AGOS array had their Radar Cross Section (RCS) individually characterised at the Defence Science and Technology Organisation¿s outdoor ground reflection range, prior to permanent deployment in Queensland. The RCS measurements for the corner reflectors were carried out at X and C-band frequencies for both horizontal and vertical transmit-receive polarisations, and at a range of elevation and azimuth alignments. The field performance of the AGOS corner reflectors has been studied using SAR data from a range of satellites including Sentinel-1A. This study focuses on the calibration of the Sentinel-1A satellite presenting results from exercises undertaken both at Geoscience Australia and the European Space Agency¿s Mission Performance Centre as part of the satellite commissioning and routine phases. Radiometric calibration results in conjunction with geometric calibration and validation results for Sentinel-1A products from Stripmap and Terrain Observation with Progressive Scans (TOPS) modes are presented in this paper. The current configuration for most corner reflectors in the AGOS array is set to serve calibration requirements for a broad range of SAR missions on ascending orbital passes. However, the design allows for mission-specific corner reflector alignment if needed, as in the case of the 2.5m and 2.0m reflectors which have specifically been aligned to support calibration of the L-band SAR instrument on ALOS-2. Results reported in this paper could inform the need for re-configuring one or more corner reflectors in the array to specifically support ongoing calibration of the Sentinel-1A and B satellites. The permanently deployed AGOS corner reflector infrastructure presents an opportunity for independent calibration and comparison of SAR instruments on current and future satellite missions, and is considered an important Australian contribution to the global satellite calibration and validation effort. Presented at the 2016 Living Planet Symposium (LPS16) Prague, Czech Republic
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The Australian Geoscience Data Cube (AGDC) Programme envisions a Digital Earth, composed of observations of the Earth¿s oceans, surface and subsurface taken through space and time stored in a high performance computing environment. The AGDC will allow governments, scientists and the public to monitor, analyse, and project the state of the Earth. The AGDC will also realise the full value of large Earth observation datasets by allowing rapid and repeatable continental-scale analyses of Earth properties through time and space. At its core, the AGDC is an indexing system which supports parallel processing on HPC. One of the key features of the AGDC approach is that all of the observations (pixels) in the input data are retained for analysis¿ the data are not mosaicked, binned, or filtered in any way and the source data for any pixel can be traced through the metadata. The AGDC provides a common analytical platform on which researchers can complete complex full depth analyses of the processed archive (~500TB) in a matter of hours. As with the European Space Agency¿s (ESA) GRID Processing on Demand (GPOD) system (https://gpod.eo.esa.int ), the AGDC will allow analyses to be performed on a data store. By arranging EO data spatially and temporally, the AGDC enables efficient large-scale analysis using a ¿dice and stack¿ method which sub-divides the data into spatially regular, time-stamped, band -aggregated tiles that can be traversed as a dense temporal stack. The AGDC application programming interface (API) allows users to develop custom processing tasks. The API provides access to the tiles by abstracting the low level data access. Users don¿t need to be aware of the underlying system and data specific interactions to be able to formulate and execute processing tasks. The development of precision correction methodologies to enable production of comparable observations (spatially and spectrally), as well as the attribution of quality information about the contents of those observations is key to the success of the AGDC. Quality information for each observation is represented as a series of bitwise tests which, in the case of Landsat, include: contiguity of observations between layers in the dataset¿ cloud and cloud shadow obscuration¿ and a land/sea mask. Work in currently underway to further develop the open source solution from the initial prototype deployment. Components of the evolution include advancing the system design and function to provide: improved support for additional sensors¿ improved ingestion support¿ configurable storage units¿ provide high performance data structures¿ graphic user interface implementation and expanded collaboration and engagement. This paper reviews the history of the data cube and the application areas that will be addressed by the current plan of works. This research was undertaken with the assistance of resources from the National Computational Infrastructure (NCI), which is supported by the Australian Government. Presented at the 2016 Living Planet Symposium (LPS16) Prague, Czech Republic
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Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) is a proven geodetic imaging technique that makes use of remotely sensed radar imagery to map spatial patterns of ground surface movement and their temporal evolution. One application of the InSAR technique is to monitor human interactions with the landscape, such as the extraction of resources from the crust. The increasing demand for gas in Australia has led to increased extraction of unconventional coal seam gas (CSG) reserves, particularly in the Surat Basin in south-east Queensland. Proved and Probable reserves of CSG now exceed 32,000 Petajoules, making the Surat Basin the largest onshore gas reserve in Australia. The geological target of CSG extraction in the Surat Basin is the Walloon subgroup of the Jurassic period, which is typically between 300 to 600 metres depth. Production of CSG from the Walloon subgroup began in 2006 and reserves are currently being extracted by several operators, with combined extraction exceeding 160 Petajoules in 2013-2014. Predictions of the magnitude of subsidence in the Surat Basin based on analytical poroelastic models and quoted CSG production rates indicate that total subsidence on the order of a decimetre may occur. In this contribution we will present new InSAR analysis of the Surat Basin using multi-sensor SAR imagery spanning the 2006-2015 time period. Should patterns of subsidence be detected over the producing gas fields, we will use a geophysical inversion scheme to characterise the objective function between the spatial InSAR observations and predictions of a simple analytical model. Our methodology will make use of a Monte-Carlo sampling algorithm run on High Performance Computing architecture to efficiently sample the multi-dimensional parameter space. The homogenous poroelastic model we employ has dependence on the depth and thickness of the target geological unit as well as on the unit’s rock properties (porosity, Young’s Modulus, Poisson’s Ratio and Shear Modulus). Given that limited information about these properties is generally publically available for the Surat Basin, the geophysical inversion scheme will enable a sensitivity analysis to be conducted that will allow us to understand uncertainties and what parameters have the most significant impact on the system. This in turn will enable more accurate predictions of future subsidence using the poroelastic model. In 2014, Geoscience Australia installed a regional geodetic network over a sub-region of the north-eastern Surat Basin in the vicinity of the towns of Dalby, Miles and Chinchilla in Queensland. The network covers a region of approximately 20,000 km2 and consists of 40 co-located corner reflectors and survey marks. Ongoing SAR imaging of the corner reflectors and periodic campaign GNSS surveys on the survey marks will enable InSAR analysis to be combined with ground-based geodetic measurements and as a result, refine the geodetic reference datum in this region. Preliminary analysis of the persistent scatterer response of the corner reflector network will form a part of this contribution. A dense archive of Interferometric-Wide-Swath (IWS) and Extra-Wide-Swath (EWS) Sentinel-1A images is currently being acquired over the region since the permanently deployed corner reflectors are being used as targets for ongoing geometric and radiometric calibration of the Sentinel-1A SAR sensor. InSAR analysis of this Sentinel-1A data will also form a part of this contribution. Presented at the 2016 Living Planet Symposium (LPS16) Prague, Czech Republic
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This OGC Web Map Service (WMS) contains geospatial seabed morphology and geomorphology information for Cairns Seamount within the Coral Sea Marine Park and are intended for use by marine park managers, regulators, the general public and other stakeholders. This web service uses the data product published in McNeil et al. (2023); eCat Record 147998.
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This OGC Web Feature Service (WFS) contains geospatial seabed morphology and geomorphology information for Cairns Seamount within the Coral Sea Marine Park and are intended for use by marine park managers, regulators, the general public and other stakeholders. This web service uses the data product published in McNeil et al. (2023); eCat Record 147998.
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This OGC Web Feature Service (WFS) contains geospatial seabed morphology and geomorphology information for Flinders Reefs within the Coral Sea Marine Park and are intended for use by marine park managers, regulators, the general public and other stakeholders. This web service uses the data product published in McNeil et al. (2023); eCat Record 147998.