Product catalogue
A strontium isoscape of northern Australia
<div>Strontium isotopes (87Sr/86Sr) are useful in the earth sciences (e.g. recognising geological provinces, studying geological processes) as well in archaeological (e.g. informing on past human migrations), palaeontological/ecological (e.g. investigating extinct and extant taxa’s dietary range and migrations) and forensic (e.g. validating the origin of drinks and foodstuffs) sciences. Recently, Geoscience Australia and the University of Wollongong have teamed up to determine 87Sr/86Sr ratios in fluvial sediments selected mostly from the low-density National Geochemical Survey of Australia (www.ga.gov.au/ngsa), with a few additional Northern Australia Geochemical Survey infill samples. The present study targeted the northern parts of Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland in Australia, north of 21.5 °S. The samples were taken mostly from a depth of ~60-80 cm depth in floodplain deposits at or near the outlet of large catchments (drainage basins). A coarse grain-size fraction (<2 mm) was air-dried, sieved, milled then digested (hydrofluoric acid + nitric acid followed by aqua regia) to release total strontium. Preliminary results demonstrate a wide range of strontium isotopic values (0.7048 < 87Sr/86Sr < 1.0330) over the survey area, reflecting a large diversity of source rock lithologies, geological processes and bedrock ages. Spatial distribution of 87Sr/86Sr shows coherent (multi-point anomalies and smooth gradients), large-scale (>100 km) patterns that appears to be consistent, in many places, with surface geology, regolith/soil type and/or nearby outcropping bedrock. For instance, the extensive black clay soils of the Barkly Tableland define a >500 km-long northwest-southeast-trending low anomaly (87Sr/86Sr < 0.7182). Where carbonate or mafic igneous rocks dominate, a low to moderate strontium isotope signature is observed. In proximity to the outcropping Proterozoic metamorphic provinces of the Tennant, McArthur, Murphy and Mount Isa geological regions, conversely, high 87Sr/86Sr values (> 0.7655) are observed. A potential link between mineralisation and elevated 87Sr/86Sr values in these regions needs to be investigated in greater detail. Our results to-date indicate that incorporating soil/regolith strontium isotopes in regional, exploratory geoscience investigations can help identify basement rock types under (shallow) cover, constrain surface processes (e.g. weathering, dispersion), and, potentially, recognise components of mineral systems. Furthermore, the resulting strontium isoscape and model derived therefrom can also be utilised in archaeological, paleontological and ecological studies that aim to investigate past and modern animal (including humans) dietary habits and migrations. The new spatial dataset is publicly available through the Geoscience Australia portal https://portal.ga.gov.au/.</div>
Simple
Identification info
- Date (Creation)
- 2022-11-30T09:00:00
- Date (Publication)
- 2022-12-14T03:05:17
- Citation identifier
- Geoscience Australia Persistent Identifier/https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/147473
- Citation identifier
- Digital Object Identifier/https://dx.doi.org/10.26186/147473
- Cited responsible party
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Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Publisher Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice Author de Caritat, P.
MEG Internal Contact Author Dosseto, A.
External Contact Author Dux, F.
External Contact
- Purpose
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Deliver isotopic data to EFTF Stakeholders
- 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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National Database of Archived Samples
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- Project
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Isotopic Atlas of Australia
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- Project
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Barkly-Isa-Georgetown
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- Project
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EFTF
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- Keywords
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Mineral exploration
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- Keywords
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Sr isotopes
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- Keywords
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regolith
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- theme.ANZRC Fields of Research.rdf
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Soil chemistry and soil carbon sequestration (excl. carbon sequestration science)
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Isotope geochemistry
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Exploration geochemistry
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- Keywords
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Published_External
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Resource constraints
- Addressee
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Role Organisation / Individual Name Details User Any
- Use constraints
- License
- Use constraints
- Other restrictions
- Other constraints
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© Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia) 2022
Resource constraints
- Title
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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
- Informed
- Title
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A strontium isoscape of inland southeastern Australia
- Citation identifier
- 146397
- Citation identifier
- 004c6972-4d53-4b8f-ba35-2d2469d644e9
Associated resource
- Association Type
- Was derived from
- Title
-
National Geochemical Survey of Australia: The Geochemical Atlas of Australia
- Citation identifier
- 71973
- Citation identifier
- a4a1ac2e-0a2c-653b-e044-00144fdd4fa6
Associated resource
- Association Type
- Was derived from
- Title
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Northern Australia Geochemical Survey: Data Release 2 – Total (coarse fraction), Aqua Regia (coarse and fine fraction), and Fire Assay (coarse and fine fraction) element contents
- Citation identifier
- 126296
- Citation identifier
- 631937cb-d57f-45b1-9e39-a79961db391e
- 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
- OnLine resource
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Download the data (xlsx) [42 KB]
Download the data (xlsx) [42 KB]
- Distribution format
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xlsx
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- OnLine resource
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Link to Geoscience Australia Portal
Link to Geoscience Australia Portal
- Distribution format
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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>Northern Australia Geochemical Survey ( http://dx.doi.org/10.11636/Record.2019.002)</div>
Reference System Information
- Reference system identifier
- EPSG/GDA94 / geographic 2D (EPSG: 4283)
Metadata constraints
- Title
-
Australian Government Security Classification System
- Edition date
- 2018-11-01T00:00:00
- Classification
- Unclassified
Metadata
- Metadata identifier
-
urn:uuid/f7259782-43fa-433f-8784-50098b233ec1
- Title
-
GeoNetwork UUID
- Language
- English
- Character encoding
- UTF8
- Contact
-
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Point of contact Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice Point of contact Main, P.
MEG Internal Contact
Type of resource
- Resource scope
- Dataset
Alternative metadata reference
- Title
-
Geoscience Australia - short identifier for metadata record with
uuid
- Citation identifier
- eCatId/147473
- Date info (Creation)
- 2022-11-30T01:24:28
- Date info (Revision)
- 2022-11-30T01:24:28
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
- https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/122551