Authors / CoAuthors
Clarke, J.D.A. | Apps, H.E. | Lawrie, K.C.
Abstract
The Ord is one of the largest rivers in northern Australia and is located in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. In this study we show that the lower Ord landscape near Kununurra in Western Australia consists of a large scale ancient landscape, possibly pre-Cambrian, being exhumed from beneath flat-lying Cambrian to Carboniferous cover rocks. Additional post-Permian landscapes are being formed by this process. The Ord Valley alluvium is of late Pleistocene to Holocene in age and consts off upward fining gravels, sands and clays infilling an inset valley profile. The Ord River initially flowed to the sea via the keep River estuary, however a major avulsion, possibly due to sedimentatain topping a low point in the surrounding valley walls, occurred possibly as recently as 1,800 years ago. As a result to mouth of the Ord shifted some 100 km to the east, to Cambridge Gulf, its course through the former alluvial plain and along the new course across the coastal plain was incised, and a scabland formed across the low point of Tararar Bar. This association of very ancient (pre-Paleozoic) landscape elements and by thin, very young weathering profiles and young sedimentary accumulations in alluvial valleys is paradoxical in the broader Australian pattern where very ancient landscape elements are associated with ancient sedimentary infill and weathering profiles.
Product Type
nonGeographicDataset
eCat Id
72995
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Custodian
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Cnr Jerrabomberra Ave and Hindmarsh Dr GPO Box 378
Canberra
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2601
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Keywords
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- External PublicationScientific Journal Paper
- ( Theme )
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- Airborne Electromagnetics
- ( Theme )
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- geomorphology
- ( Theme )
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- groundwater
- Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)
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- Earth Sciences
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- Published_Internal
Publication Date
2012-01-01T00:00:00
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geoscientificInformation
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[-15.8903, -15.3883, 128.20513, 128.993413]
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