The L210 South Nicholson 1096 km-long deep seismic reflection lines were acquired from 6 June to 14 August, 2017. The survey involved the acquisition of seismic reflection and gravity data along five traverses, 17GA-SN1 (375 km), 17GA-SN2 (213 km), 17GA-SN3 (58 km), 17GA-SN3 (98 km), and 17GA-SN5 (352 km). The South Nicholson seismic survey was undertaken in collaboration with and funded by: The energy theme in Geoscience Australia - Exploring for the Future; Northern Territory Geological Survey (NTGS); Department of Natural Resources and Mines - through the Geological Survey of Queensland (GSQ); and AuScope. Raw data for this survey are available on request from clientservices@ga.gov.au - Quote eCat# 116881

<div>Lithospheric structure and composition have direct relevance for our understanding of mineral prospectivity. Aspects of the lithosphere can be imaged using geophysical inversion or analysed from exhumed samples at the surface of the Earth, but it is a challenge to ensure consistency between competing models and datasets. The LitMod platform provides a probabilistic inversion framework that uses geology as the fabric to unify multiple geophysical techniques and incorporates a priori geochemical information. Here, we present results from the application of LitMod to the Australian continent. The rasters summarise the results and performance of a Markov-chain Monte Carlo sampling from the posterior model space. Release KY22 is developed using the primary-mode Rayleigh phase velocity grids of Yoshizawa (2014).</div><div><br></div><div>Geoscience Australia's Exploring for the Future program provides precompetitive information to inform decision-making by government, community and industry on the sustainable development of Australia's mineral, energy and groundwater resources. By gathering, analysing and interpreting new and existing precompetitive geoscience data and knowledge, we are building a national picture of Australia's geology and resource potential. This leads to a strong economy, resilient society and sustainable environment for the benefit of all Australians. This includes supporting Australia's transition to a low emissions economy, strong resources and agriculture sectors, and economic opportunities and social benefits for Australia's regional and remote communities. The Exploring for the Future program, which commenced in 2016, is an eight year, $225m investment by the Australian Government.</div>

<div>One of the key challenges in assessing earthquake hazard in Australia is understanding the attenuation of ground-motion through the stable continental crust. There are now a small number of ground-motion models (GMMs) that have been developed specifically to estimate ground-motions from Australian earthquakes. These GMMs, in addition to models developed outside Australia, are considered here for use in the updated national seismic hazard assessment of Australia. An updated and extended suite of ground-motion data from small-to-moderate Australian earthquakes are used to assess the suitability of the candidate models for use in the Australian context. Recorded spectral intensities are compared with those predicted by the GMMs. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches are considered for such comparisons. The goodness-of-fit results vary significantly among different GMMs, spectral periods and distance ranges; however, overall, the Australian-specific GMMs seem to perform reasonably well in estimating the level of ground shaking for earthquakes in Australia. This paper was presented to the 2022 Australian Earthquake Engineering Society (AEES) Conference 24-25 November (https://aees.org.au/aees-conference-2022/)

<div>The Central Australian Basins 2D Seismic Reprocessing Project is an initiative under Geoscience Australia's "Australia’s Future Energy Resources" (AFER) program, funded by the Australian Government through the "Exploring for the Future" (EFTF) program. The project aims to assess the untapped resource potential of selected underexplored onshore sedimentary basins in terms of natural gas, oil, and groundwater, while also investigating opportunities for geological storage of carbon dioxide and hydrogen. By providing pre-competitive data, the initiative seeks to stimulate investment in mineral, energy, and groundwater exploration.</div><div>&nbsp;</div><div>This project focuses on improving the understanding of the geological evolution and relationships among various Australian basins, ranging from the early Paleozoic Amadeus, Warburton and Adavale basins to the Permian-Triassic Pedirka, Simpson, northern Cooper and southern Galilee basins, and the Jurassic–Cretaceous western Eromanga Basin. To achieve this, modern seismic processing techniques were applied to 33 selected multi-vintage legacy lines with a total length of approximately 2,100 km, enhancing the resolution and image quality of the seismic lines. The dataset includes deep crustal as well as shallow lines from Queensland and South Australia. The data were collected using various acquisition sources such as Vibroseis, Geoflex, and dynamite. Six merged lines were also created to aid in interpretation.</div><div>&nbsp;</div><div>Both stacks and gather data are provided in SEG-Y format, along with navigation data, velocity, and statics. The reprocessing focused on enhancing seismic reflectors and faults, attenuating noise, and optimising frequency content for target depths. Techniques used in the reprocessing include creating a 3D static model, noise attenuation methods, minimum phasing of the Vibroseis data to match dynamite lines, surface-consistent deconvolution, and building a precise velocity model for optimising pre-stack time and depth migration.</div><div><br></div><div><strong>Processed gather data&nbsp;for this survey are also available on request from clientservices@ga.gov.au - Quote eCat# 148931</strong></div>

<div>Raster datasets of inferred magnesium number for the bulk lithospheric mantle across the Australian continent. The magnesium number is an elemental ratio, defined by Mg / (Mg + Fe), which correlates to the relative enrichment or depletion in incompatible elements. Oxide concentrations are inferred in from thermo-chemical inverse modelling of Rayleigh phase velocities, surface heat flow, geoid anomalies, and topography. The magnesium number rasters summarise the results of a Markov-chain Monte Carlo sampling of the posterior model space from an ensemble of plausible candidate models. Model release 'FR23' is developed using primary-mode Rayleigh phase velocity grids adapted from Fishwick & Rawlinson (2012; "3-D structure of the Australian lithosphere from evolving seismic datasets"). Model release 'KY22' is developed using the primary-mode Rayleigh phase velocity grids of Yoshizawa (2014; "Radially anisotropic 3-D shear wave structure of the Australian lithosphere and asthenosphere from multi-mode surface waves"). All models are products of the Exploring for the Future program.</div>

<div>The Australian Government's Data Driven Discoveries program, in collaboration with the Geological Survey of Queensland, has collected 1715 km of deep crustal seismic data across the Adavale Basin in South-Central Queensland. The L215 Adavale Basin Deep Crustal Seismic Survey was conducted between April and July 2023. The survey acquired 7 regional seismic lines, including 23GA-A1 (550 km), 23GA-A2 (196 km), 23GA-A3 (262 km), 23GA-A4 (94 km), 23GA-A5 (239 km), 23GA-A6 (161 km), and 23GA-A7 (213 km) across the basin. The acquisition of these lines occurred both during the day and night near the towns of Adavale, Charleville, Augathella, Blackall, westward towards Windorah, and north beyond Jericho.</div><div><br></div><div>The Adavale Basin Deep Crustal Seismic Survey complements previous work completed under the Data Driven Discoveries Program, including the Adavale Basin 2D Reprocessed Seismic Data Package (eCat No. 149018) and the newly defined chemostratigraphic framework for the basin (Riley et al., 2023, eCat No. 147773). The survey will deliver a significant uplift in regional shallow and deep crustal seismic information for the Adavale Basin, providing a modern, high-fold dataset that will enhance understanding of the basin's stratigraphy, hydrogeology, resource potential, and underground salt storage opportunities.</div><div><br></div><div><strong>The raw shot gather data acquired during the survey are now available from Geoscience Australia. To request this data, please email clientservices@ga.gov.au and include the reference 'eCat#149289' in your message.</strong></div>

<div>The ‘Major crustal boundaries of Australia’ data set synthesises more than 40 years of acquisition of deep seismic reflection data across Australia, where major crustal-scale breaks, often inferred to be relict sutures between different crustal blocks, have been interpreted in the seismic reflection profiles. The widespread coverage of the seismic profiles now provides the opportunity to construct a map of major crustal boundaries across Australia. Starting with the locations of the crustal breaks identified in the seismic profiles, geological (e.g. outcrop mapping, drill hole, geochronology, isotope) and geophysical (e.g. gravity, aeromagnetic, magnetotelluric, passive seismic) data are used to map the crustal boundaries, in map view, away from the seismic profiles. For some of these boundaries, a high level of confidence can be placed on the location, whereas the location of other boundaries can only be considered to have medium or low confidence. In other areas, especially in regions covered by thick sedimentary successions, the locations of some crustal boundaries are essentially unconstrained. </div><div>The ‘Major crustal boundaries of Australia’ map shows the locations of inferred ancient plate boundaries, and will provide constraints on the three dimensional architecture of Australia. It allows a better understanding of how the Australian continent was constructed from the Mesoarchean through to the Phanerozoic, and how this evolution and these boundaries have controlled metallogenesis. It is best viewed as a dynamic dataset, which will need to be refined and updated as new information, such as new seismic reflection data, becomes available.</div><div><br></div>

In recent years there has been a considerable expansion of deployments of portable seismic stations across Australia, which have been analysed by receiver function or autocorrelation methods to extract estimates of Moho depth. An ongoing program of full-crustal reflection profiles has now provided more than 25,000 km of reflection transects that have been interpreted for Moho structure. The Moho dataset is further augmented by extensive marine reflection results. These new data sources have been combined with earlier refraction and receiver function results to provide full continental coverage, though some desert areas remain with limited sampling. The dense sampling of the Moho indicates the presence of rapid changes in Moho depth and so the Moho surface has been constructed using an approach that allows different weighting and spatial influence depending on the nature of the estimate. The inclusion of Moho results from gravity inversion with low weighting helps to resolve the continent-ocean transition and to provide additional control in the least sampled zones. The refined distribution indicates the presence of widespread smaller-scale variations in Moho structure. Strong lateral contrasts in crustal thickness remain, but some have become more subdued with improved sampling of critical areas. The main differences from earlier results lie in previously poorly sampled regions around the Lake Eyre Basin, where additional passive seismic results indicate somewhat thicker crust though still witha strong contrast in crustal thickness to the cratonic zone to the west. Appeared in Geophysical Journal International, January 2023

<div>The architecture of the lithosphere controls the distribution of thermal, compositional and rheological interfaces. It therefore plays a fundamental role in modulating key ore-forming processes including the generation, transport, fractionation, and contamination of melts.&nbsp;Recognition of its importance has led to renewed efforts in recent years to incorporate constraints on lithospheric structure into the targeting of prospective regions for mineral exploration. One example is a suggested relationship between the genesis of porphyry copper deposits – known to be associated with evolved, silica-rich magmas – and the thickness of the crust.&nbsp;Here, using a new compilation of spot measurements, we explore the utility of crustal thickness as an exploration tool for porphyry copper deposits.</div> This Abstract was submitted & presented at the 2022 American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting 12-16 December (https://www.agu.org/Fall-Meeting-2022)

Interpretation of 2014–2015 deep crustal seismic reflection and magnetotelluric data has revised the architecture and geodynamic framework of western Queensland, with implications for the assembly and dispersal of the supercontinents Nuna, Rodinia and Gondwana. In the Mount Isa Province, crustal-scale boundaries of the Leichhardt River Domain, Kalkadoon-Leichhardt Domain and Eastern Subprovince are mapped in the third dimension. The Leichhardt River and Kalkadoon-Leichhardt domains have similar Nd isotopic T 2DM model ages to provinces to the west, indicating they were part of ancestral North Australian Craton (NAC); the Eastern Subprovince is a separate terrane, with the Pilgrim Fault a collisional suture. The Gidyea Suture Zone separates the Mount Isa Province from the subsurface Numil Seismic Province. To the east, the west-dipping Yappar Fault separates east-dipping structures in the west from west-dipping structures in the east, forming a classic doubly vergent orogen within the upper plate of a convergent margin. The northwestern boundary of the Bernfels Seismic Province, the Kynuna Fault, truncates the Gidyea Suture Zone, implying this seismic province was welded to the NAC prior to initial deposition of the Etheridge Province. The Cork Fault truncates the north-south grain of the Mount Isa Province; the easternmost part of the NAC has been excised, presumably during breakup of Nuna. The subsurface Brighton Downs Seismic Province, formerly part of the northern Thomson Orogen, is a discrete seismic province, located between the NAC and the Thomson Orogen, and welded to the NAC during the accretion of Rodinia. Basement to the Thomson Orogen is a collage of microplates, accreted to the Brighton Downs Seismic Province during the assembly of Gondwana. By 530 Ma, eastern Australia faced an open Pacific Ocean, with the Thomson Orogen in a backarc setting. Thus, northeastern Australia contains a record of repeated continental accretion and breakup over at least three supercontinent cycles. <b>Citation: </b>Russell J. Korsch, Michael P. Doublier, Dominic D. Brown, Janelle M. Simpson, Andrew J. Cross, Ross D. Costelloe, Wenping Jiang, Crustal architecture and tectonic development of western Queensland, Australia, based on deep seismic reflection profiling: Implications for Proterozoic continental assembly and dispersal, <i>Tectonophysics</i>, Volume 878, 2024, 230302, ISSN 0040-1951, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tecto.2024.230302.