Product catalogue
Mapping the cover in northern Australia: towards a unified national 3D geological model
To meet the increasing demand for natural resources globally, industry faces the challenge of exploring new frontier areas that lie deeper undercover. Here, we present an approach to, and initial results of, modelling the depth of four key chronostratigraphic packages that obscure or host mineral, energy and groundwater resources. Our models are underpinned by the compilation and integration of ~200 000 estimates of the depth of these interfaces. Estimates are derived from interpretations of newly acquired airborne electromagnetic and seismic reflection data, along with boreholes, surface and solid geology, and depth to magnetic source investigations. Our curated estimates are stored in a consistent subsurface data repository. We use interpolation and machine learning algorithms to predict the distribution of these four packages away from the control points. Specifically, we focus on modelling the distribution of the base of Cenozoic-, Mesozoic-, Paleozoic- and Neoproterozoic-age stratigraphic units across an area of ~1.5 million km2 spanning the Queensland and Northern Territory border. Our repeatable and updatable approach to mapping these surfaces, together with the underlying datasets and resulting models, provides a semi-national geometric framework for resource assessment and exploration.
<b>Citation:</b> Bonnardot, M.-A., Wilford, J., Rollet, N., Moushall, B., Czarnota, K., Wong, S.C.T. and Nicoll, M.G., 2020. Mapping the cover in northern Australia: towards a unified national 3D geological model. In: Czarnota, K., Roach, I., Abbott, S., Haynes, M., Kositcin, N., Ray, A. and Slatter, E. (eds.) Exploring for the Future: Extended Abstracts, Geoscience Australia, Canberra, 1–4.
Simple
Identification info
- Date (Creation)
- 2020-06-30
- Date (Publication)
- 2020-06-30T02:44:52
- Citation identifier
- Geoscience Australia Persistent Identifier/https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/134507
- Citation identifier
- Digital Object Identifier/http://dx.doi.org/10.11636/134507
- Cited responsible party
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Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Author Bonnardot, M.
Author Wilford, J.
Author Rollet, N.
Author Moushall, B.
Author Czarnota, K.
Author Wong, S.C.T.
Author Nicoll, M.G.
- Purpose
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EFTF Extended Abstract
- 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.
Resource provider Minerals, Energy and Groundwater Division
- 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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Cover thickness
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- Keywords
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Depth to basement
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- Keywords
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North Australian Craton
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- Keywords
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Northern Territory
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- Keywords
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Queensland
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- Keywords
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Cenozoic
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- Keywords
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Mesozoic
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- Keywords
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Paleozoic
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- Keywords
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Neoproterozoic
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- Keywords
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Exploring for the Future
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- Keywords
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EftF
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- Keywords
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AusAEM1 survey
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- Keywords
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UncoverML
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- Keywords
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Basins
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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
- Access constraints
- License
- Use constraints
- License
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
- OnLine resource
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Extended Abstract for download (pdf) [8.4 MB]
Extended Abstract for download (pdf) [8.4 MB]
- Distribution format
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pdf
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Resource lineage
- Statement
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The cover model provides depth estimates to chronostratigraphic layers, including: Base Cenozoic, Base Mesozoic, Base Paleozoic and Base Neoproterozoic. The depth estimates are based on the interpretation, compilation and integration of multiple sources: 1) horizon interpretation of open file AusAEM1 airborne electromagnetic (Wong et al., 2020), 2) South Nicholson seismic reflection surveys (Carr et al., 2020) acquired as part of the Exploring for the Future (EFTF) program, 3) boreholes markers interpretation extracted from well completion reports, 4) outcropping geology extracted from the GA’s 1:1M scale surface geology (Raymond et al., 2012) and 5) depth to magnetic source estimates with inferred chronostratigraphic surface attributes derived from solid geology maps (Meixner et al., 2016; Stewart et al., 2020). All depth estimates are consistently stored as points in the Estimates of Geophysical and Geological Surfaces (EGGS) database (Matthews et al., 2020).
The data points used to compile the cover model were extracted from the EGGS database. Preferred depth estimates were selected to ensure regional data consistency and aid the gridding. Two sets of cover depth surfaces (Bonnardot et al., 2020) were generated using different approaches to map megasequence boundaries associated with the Era unconformities:
1) standard interpolation using a cell size of 4000 m and a minimum-curvature algorithm and
2) machine learning approach (Uncover ML, Wilford et al., 2020) that allows to learn relationship between datasets and therefore, can provide a better depth estimates in areas of sparse data points distribution and assess uncertainties.
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/50c176a0-e1c6-4223-9d85-a90d8179e487
- Title
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GeoNetwork UUID
- Language
- English
- Character encoding
- UTF8
- Contact
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Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Point of contact Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice Point of contact Rollet, N.
Type of resource
- Resource scope
- Document
- Name
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GA publication: Extended Abstract
Alternative metadata reference
- Title
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Geoscience Australia - short identifier for metadata record with
uuid
- Citation identifier
- eCatId/134507
- 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