Authors / CoAuthors
Jorgensen, D.C. | Boreham, C.J. | Borissova, I. | Grosjean, E. | Mantle, D.
Abstract
Under the Australian Government's Offshore Energy Program, Geoscience Australia conducted a marine reconnaissance survey GA2476 from October 2008 to January 2009 using the German research vessel RV Sonne. The 90-day marine reconnaissance survey acquired geological and geophysical data over poorly known areas of the Zeewyck and Houtman sub-basins (Perth Basin); the southern Exmouth Sub-basin and Bernier Platform (southern parts of the Carnarvon Basin); and the Cuvier Plateau (also referred to as the Wallaby Plateau). A total of 68 sampling operations recovered rocks during the survey, including 19 over the Zeewyck Sub-basin, 19 over the Houtman Sub-basin, 15 over the southern Exmouth Sub-basin, 13 over the Cuvier Plateau and two over the Bernier Platform. Geological sampling operations were undertaken in water depths ranging from 1,000 to 5,000 m. Fifty-one dredge, 13 grab and three benthic sled hauls as well as one box core recovered several hundred individual rock samples. These rock samples represent the first successful recovery of rock dredges from the Houtman Sub-basin and supplement previous sparsely sampled rocks from frontier Zeewyck Sub-basin, southern Exmouth Sub-basin, Bernier Platform and Cuvier Plateau. The rock hauls yielded a diverse range of rock lithologies including sandstone, claystone, siltstone, mudstones, limestone and minor basalt. Initial micropalaeontological analyses (foraminifera, nannofossils and palynology) of rock samples from the Houtman, Zeewyck and Exmouth sub-basins and the Bernier Platform have shown that most samples fall within two broad stratigraphic intervals: early Cretaceous strata and middle Paleocene to late Eocene strata. For the first time, terrestrial marine sedimentary rocks have been recovered from the southwestern escarpment of the Cuvier Plateau. At least one sample is likely to be Upper Jurassic, making it the oldest known sedimentary sample from the Cuvier Platform.
Product Type
nonGeographicDataset
eCat Id
70064
Contact for the resource
Custodian
Point of contact
Cnr Jerrabomberra Ave and Hindmarsh Dr GPO Box 378
Canberra
ACT
2601
Australia
Keywords
-
- External PublicationAbstract
- ( Theme )
-
- petroleum geology
- ( Theme )
-
- marine survey
- ( Theme )
-
- sedimentary basins
- ( Theme )
-
- palaeontology
- ( Theme )
-
- geochemistry
- ( Theme )
-
- marine
- Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)
-
- Earth Sciences
-
- Published_Internal
Publication Date
2010-01-01T00:00:00
Creation Date
Security Constraints
Legal Constraints
Status
Purpose
Maintenance Information
unknown
Topic Category
geoscientificInformation
Series Information
Lineage
Unknown
Parent Information
Extents
Reference System
Spatial Resolution
Service Information
Associations
Downloads and Links
Source Information
Source data not available.