Seabed environments and shallow geology of the Vlaming sub-basin, Western Australia: Grain size and carbonate concentrations of seabed sediment.

Authors / CoAuthors

Nicholas, W.A.

Abstract

Geoscience Australia undertook a marine survey of the Vlaming Sub-basin in March and April 2012 to provide seabed and shallow geological information to support an assessment of the CO2 storage potential of this sedimentary basin. The survey was undertaken under the Australian Government's National CO2 Infrastructure Plan (NCIP) to help identify sites suitable for the long term storage of CO2 within reasonable distances of major sources of CO2 emissions. The Vlaming Sub-basin is located offshore from Perth, Western Australia, and was previously identified by the Carbon Storage Taskforce (2009) as potentially highly suitable for CO2 storage. The principal aim of the Vlaming Sub-basin marine survey (GA survey number GA334) was to look for evidence of any past or current gas or fluid seepage at the seabed, and to determine whether these features are related to structures (e.g. faults) in the Vlaming Sub-basin that may extend up to the seabed. The survey also mapped seabed habitats and biota in the areas of interest to provide information on communities and biophysical features that may be associated with seepage. This research addresses key questions on the potential for containment of CO2 in the Early Cretaceous Gage Sandstone (the basin's proposed CO2 storage unit) and the regional integrity of the South Perth Shale (the seal unit that overlies the Gage Sandstone). This dataset comprises grain size data and carbonate concentrations of the upper ~2cm of seabed sediment.

Product Type

dataset

eCat Id

79176

Contact for the resource

Custodian

EGD

Owner

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

Custodian

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Cnr Jerrabomberra Ave and Hindmarsh Dr GPO Box 378
Canberra
ACT
2601
Australia

Keywords

Marine Data

( Theme )

marine environmental baselines

( Theme )

seabed

( Theme )

sedimentology

( Theme )

continental shelf

( Theme )

marine

Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)

Marine Geoscience

Published_External

Publication Date

2014-01-01T00:00:00

Creation Date

Security Constraints

Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem

Classification - unclassified

Legal Constraints

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence

Access - license

Use - license

Status

Purpose

Maintenance Information

asNeeded

Topic Category

oceans

Series Information

Lineage

Sediment samples were collected using either a Van Veen or Shipek grab. In the laboratory, percentages of mud, sand and gravel were obtained from standard mesh-sieves, and volumetric grainsize curves for the <2 mm fraction were determined using a Malvern Mastersizer 2000 (ATA Scientific, Sydney) laser particle size analyser. Mean grainsize and the sediment sorting parameter were derived from laser analyses using GRADISTAT software (Blott and Pye 2001). Carbonate concetrations were determined on sediment using the carbonate bomb method. Blott, S.J., and Pye, K. (2001). Gradistat: A grain size distribution and statistics package for the analysis of unconsolidated sediments. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 26, 1237-1248. Thanks to the crew of the RV Southern Supporter and Fugro for help with sample collection.

Parent Information

Extents

[-32.298055, -31.837511, 115.297386, 115.461006]

Reference System

Spatial Resolution

Service Information

Associations

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