Authors / CoAuthors
Hall, L. | Hackney, R. | Johnston, S.
Abstract
The Southwest Margin is a section of the continental margin off Australia's western coast. It includes the Paleozoic to Mesozoic Southern Carnarvon, Perth and Mentelle basins, as well as the Naturaliste and Wallaby plateaus. While several smaller hydrocarbon discoveries have been made onshore, the offshore region remains under explored. Recent studies, however, indicate there is potential for new petroleum discoveries in many of these frontier areas (e.g. Nicholson et al., 2008; Borissova et al., 2010; Jones et al., 2011). Despite the new geological insights gained from these studies, depth-to-basement and basement structure and composition beneath the Southwest Margin sedimentary basins remain poorly understood. The extent of exposed basement outcrop is limited, only a few wells intersect basement and, in many areas the basement horizon cannot be resolved using seismic data. An understanding of basement is however important when conducting basin studies, as the basement of any basin provides the foundation onto which sediment fill is deposited. As tectonic stresses are applied to a region, the rheology and mechanical behaviour of the basement influences how the crust deforms. Hence variations in basement strength, composition and structure significantly influence the resulting basin geometry, patterns of sediment deposition and basement derived heat flow. All of these factors fundamentally affect the generation and preservation of hydrocarbon resources. Geoscience Australia is currently engaged in a study to improve our understanding of the basement in the Southwest Margin region, which will generate the following products: - regional gravity and magnetic datasets - a map of interpreted basement terrane distribution - maps of interpreted basement composition and structure - a depth-to-basement model. This work develops alternative technical methodologies to define the basement architecture so it can be used as a framework for predictive basin analysis where other datasets are unavailable. Although this study will primarily complement offshore petroleum exploration studies along a rifted margin; the methodologies described here are applicable to other exploration activities in many different geographic and tectonic settings.
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nonGeographicDataset
eCat Id
73420
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Cnr Jerrabomberra Ave and Hindmarsh Dr GPO Box 378
Canberra
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2601
Australia
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- GA Publication
- Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)
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- Earth Sciences
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- Published_Internal
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2012-01-01T00:00:00
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