Authors / CoAuthors
Southby, C. | Carson, C.J. | Fomin, T. | Rollet, N. | Henson, P.A. | Carr, L.K. | Doublier, M.P. | Close, D.
Abstract
Exploring for the Future (EFTF) is an ongoing multiyear initiative by the Australian Government, conducted by Geoscience Australia, in partnership with state and Northern Territory government agencies and other partner research institutes. The first phase of the EFTF program (2016-2020) aimed to improve Australia’s desirability for industry investment in resource exploration in frontier or ‘greenfield’ regions across northern Australia. As part of the program, Geoscience Australia employed a range of both established and innovative techniques to gather new precompetitive data and information to develop new insight into the energy, mineral and groundwater resource potential across northern Australia. To maximise impact and to stimulate industry exploration activity, Geoscience Australia focussed activities in greenfield areas where understanding of resource potential was limited. In order to address this overarching objective under the EFTF program, Geoscience Australia led acquisition of two deep crustal reflection seismic surveys in the South Nicholson region, an understudied area of little previous seismic data, straddling north-eastern Northern Territory and north-western Queensland. The first survey, L210 South Nicholson 2D Deep Crustal Seismic Survey acquired in 2017, consisted of five overlapping seismic lines (17GA-SN1 to SN5), totalling ~1100 line-km. Survey L210 linked directly into legacy Geoscience Australia seismic lines (06GA-M1 and 06GA-M2) in the vicinity of the world-class Pb-Zn Century Mine in Queensland. The results from survey L210 profoundly revised our geological understanding of the South Nicholson region, and led to the key discovery of an extensive sag basin, the Carrara Sub-basin, containing highly prospective late Paleoproterozoic to Mesoproterozoic rocks with strong affinities with the adjacent Mount Isa Province and Lawn Hill Platform. To complement and expand on the outstanding success of the South Nicholson survey and to continue to explore the resource potential across the underexplored and mostly undercover South Nicholson and Barkly regions, a second seismic survey was acquired in late 2019, the Barkly 2D reflection survey (L212). The Barkly seismic survey comprises five intersecting lines (19GA-B1 to B5), totalling ~813 line-km, extending from the NT-QLD border in the south-east, near Camooweal, to the highly prospective Beetaloo Sub-basin in the north-west. The survey ties into the South Nicholson survey (L210), the recently acquired Camooweal 2D reflection seismic survey by the Geological Survey of Queensland and industry 2D seismic in the Beetaloo Sub-basin, leveraging on and maximising the scientific value and impact on all surveys. The Barkly reflection seismic data images the south-western margin of the Carrara Sub-basin and identified additional previously unrecognised, structurally-disrupted basins of Proterozoic strata, bounded by broadly northeast trending basement highs. Critically, the survey demonstrates the stratigraphic continuity of highly prospective Proterozoic strata from the Beetaloo Sub-basin into these newly discovered, but as yet unevaluated, concealed basins and into the Carrara Sub-basin, further attesting to the regions outstanding potential for mineral and hydrocarbon resources. This survey, in concert with the South Nicholson seismic survey and other complementary EFTF funded regional geochemical, geochronology and geophysical data acquisition surveys, significantly improves our understanding of the geological evolution, basin architecture and the resource potential of this previously sparsely studied region.
Product Type
document
eCat Id
144698
Contact for the resource
Point of contact
Cnr Jerrabomberra Ave and Hindmarsh Dr GPO Box 378
Canberra
ACT
2601
Australia
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- Contact instructions
- MEG
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Keywords
- theme.ANZRC Fields of Research.rdf
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- OTHER EARTH SCIENCESEARTH SCIENCESGEOLOGY
- ( Project )
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- EFTF
- ( Place )
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- Barkly Tablelands
- ( Discipline )
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- Deep crustal Reflection Seismic
- ( Feature type )
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- Carrara Sub-basin
- ( Feature type )
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- Beetaloo Sub-basin
- ( Project )
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- Exploring For The Future
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- Published_External
Publication Date
2022-04-04T05:39:12
Creation Date
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Status
completed
Purpose
To provide a publicly available interpretation of the reflection seismic data collected by survey L212 in the Barkly Tablelands in 2019 (Fomin et al., 2019) at eCat 132890. A product of phase one of the EFTF program (2016-2020)
Maintenance Information
asNeeded
Topic Category
geoscientificInformation
Series Information
Record RECORD: 2022/009
Lineage
Seismic data geological interpretation, based on data collected from the 2019 Barkly deep crustal 2D reflection seismic survey (L212). The seismic data can be found at https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/132890
Parent Information
Extents
[-20.00, -17.00, 133.50, 138.00]
Reference System
Spatial Resolution
100m
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Associations
Source Information