The Early Permian East Australian Rift System  

Authors / CoAuthors

Korsch, R.J. | Totterdell, J.M. | Cathro, D.L.

Abstract

The Early Permian to Middle Triassic Bowen and Gunnedah basins in eastern Australia developed in response to a series of interplate and intraplate tectonic events located to the east of the basin system. The initial event was extensional and stretched the continental crust to form part of the major Early Permian East Australian Rift System that stretched at least from far north Queensland to southern New South Wales. The most commercially important of the rift-related features are a series of half graben that form the Denison Trough, now the site of several producing gas fields. The eastern part of the rift system commenced at about 305 Ma and was volcanic dominated. In contrast, the half graben in, and to the west of, the Bowen Basin were non-volcanic, and appear to have initiated at about 285 Ma. These half graben are essentially north-south in length with an extension direction of approximately east-northeast. Mechanical extension appears to have ceased at about 280 Ma, when subsidence became driven by thermal relaxation. The extension occurred in a backarc setting, in response to far field stresses that propagated from the west-dipping subduction system at the convergent plate margin of East Gondwana that was located to the east of the East Australian Rift System.

Product Type

nonGeographicDataset

eCat Id

64760

Contact for the resource

Keywords

• External PublicationScientific Journal Paper

( Theme )

• geology

( Theme )

• sedimentary basins

( Theme )

• structural geology

• AU-NSWAU-QLD

Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)

• Earth Sciences

• Published_Internal

Publication Date

2007-01-01T00:00:00

Creation Date

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Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem    

Classification - unclassified

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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence    

Access - restricted

Use - license

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Purpose

Maintenance Information

unknown

Topic Category

geoscientificInformation

Series Information

Lineage

Unknown

Parent Information

Extents

[-35.0, -10.0, 147.0, 154.0]

Reference System

Spatial Resolution

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