Product catalogue
Revised Jurassic and Cretaceous correlations across the Great Artesian Basin: improving hydrogeological conceptualisations
The Great Artesian Basin (GAB) is the largest groundwater basin in Australia, underlying approximately one fifth of the continent, including parts of Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia and the Northern Territory. The GAB consists of three hydraulically-connected geological basins – Eromanga, Surat and Carpentaria, which contain a sedimentary assemblage deposited almost continuously from Early Jurassic to Late Cretaceous. Groundwater from the GAB is a vital resource for agricultural and extractive industries, community water supplies. It supports cultural values and sustains groundwater-dependent ecosystems such as springs and wetlands.
Knowledge of sedimentary depositional systems and stratigraphic correlations varies considerably across the GAB. Groundwater resources are continuous across the GAB and need to be mapped consistently to better assess the complex interconnected pathways across jurisdictions. The hydrogeological conceptualisations that underpin groundwater resource management approaches can be based on diverse and sometimes incompatible historic nomenclature across state and territory borders. Recent studies have shown significant spatial lithological variability within hydrostratigraphic units. Consistent and higher resolution mapping of the geological complexity at a basin-wide scale will provide an improved hydrogeological framework to underpin effective long-term management of GAB water resources.
We have compiled and standardised existing and newly interpreted biostratigraphic data, well formation picks, 2D seismic and airborne electromagnetic data in a consistent chronostratigraphic framework to better correlate geological and hydrostratigraphic units across the GAB.
Correlating the chronostratigraphy across the GAB reveals age-equivalent sediments deposited in different environments during alternating transgressive and regressive events. Comprehensive biostratigraphic control applying a unified zonation scheme helps to constrain lithological correlations. The distribution of sand/shale ratio in key wells across the GAB improves mapping of aquifer hydrogeological variability.
This novel approach generates a consistent mapping of the regional distribution and properties of aquifers and aquitards across the GAB. The refined correlation of Jurassic and Cretaceous rock units between the Surat, Eromanga and Carpentaria basins improves our understanding of hydrogeological unit geometry, lithological variation, and potential groundwater connectivity above, below and within the GAB aquifers.
The 3D hydrogeological architecture provides a model for refining hydraulic relationships between aquifers within the GAB, and enables development of more accurate system conceptualisations. This represents an important step towards the future goal of quantifying hydraulic properties and aquifer inter-connectivity to underpin more robust basin water balance estimates.
This Abstract was submitted/presented to the 2022 Central Australian Basins Symposium IV 29-30 August ( https://agentur.eventsair.com/cabsiv/).
Simple
Identification info
- Date (Creation)
- 2021-11-22T17:45:00
- Date (Publication)
- 2024-12-15T21:23:25
- Citation identifier
- Geoscience Australia Persistent Identifier/https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/146122
Identifier
- Codespace
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Digital Object Identifier
- Cited responsible party
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Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Author Rollet, N.
MEG Internal Contact Author Vizy, J.
MEG Internal Contact Author Norton, C.J.
External Contact Author Hannaford, C.
External Contact Author McPherson, A.
MEG Internal Contact Author Tan, K.
MEG Internal Contact Author Wallace, L.
MEG Internal Contact
- Name
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Central Australian Basins Symposium (CABS) IV 29-30 December 2022 Darwin NT
- Purpose
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Short abstract for submission to Central Australian Basins Symposium 2022
- Status
- Completed
- Point of contact
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Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Point of contact Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice Point of contact Rollet, N.
MEG Internal Contact Resource provider Minerals, Energy and Groundwater Division
External Contact
- Spatial representation type
- Topic category
-
- Geoscientific information
Extent
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
- theme.ANZRC Fields of Research.rdf
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EARTH SCIENCES
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- Keywords
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Great Artesian Basin - GAB
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- Keywords
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chronostratigraphy
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- Keywords
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3D hydrogeological
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- Keywords
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Published_External
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Resource constraints
- Title
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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence
- Alternate title
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CC-BY
- Edition
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4.0
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- License
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© Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia) 2022
Resource constraints
- Title
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Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem
- Edition date
- 2018-11-01T00:00:00
- Classification
- Unclassified
- 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
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Link to Conference Page
Link to Conference Page
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- OnLine resource
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Link to Conference Proceedings
Link to Conference Proceedings
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- OnLine resource
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Link to Abstract
Link to Abstract
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- OnLine resource
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Download Presentation (pdf) [12.3 MB]
Download Presentation (pdf) [12.3 MB]
- Distribution format
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pdf
- File decompression technique
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nil
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Resource lineage
- Statement
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Updated GAB geological and hydrogeological surfaces for the Great Artesian Basin project
Metadata constraints
- Title
-
Australian Government Security Classification System
- Edition date
- 2018-11-01T00:00:00
- Classification
- Unclassified
Metadata
- Metadata identifier
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urn:uuid/de36a136-dcf1-4ce1-ac3d-c81a780803a8
- Title
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GeoNetwork UUID
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- English
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- UTF8
- Contact
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Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Point of contact Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice Owner Rollet, N
Geoscience Australia Internal Contact Point of contact Rollet, N.
MEG Internal Contact
Type of resource
- Resource scope
- Document
- Name
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GA publication:
Alternative metadata reference
- Title
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Geoscience Australia - short identifier for metadata record with
uuid
- Citation identifier
- eCatId/146122
- Date info (Creation)
- 2019-04-08T01:55:29
- Date info (Revision)
- 2019-04-08T01:55:29
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