Exploring for the Future—Architecture of the deep Ti Tree Basin (Report 1) Northern Territory
This report presents key results from the Ti Tree Basin project completed as part of Exploring for the Future (EFTF)—an eight year, $225 million Australian Government funded geoscience data and information acquisition program focused on better understanding the potential mineral, energy and groundwater resources across Australia.
The Ti Tree Basin is one of four Northern Territory water management areas in the Southern Stuart Corridor (SSC) area, part of Geoscience Australia’s Exploring for the Future project. The Ti Tree Basin is approximately 150–200 kilometres north of Alice Springs. The intracratonic basin is infilled Cenozoic alluvial and lacustrine sediments. Since the 1960s the basin has been the focus of many government investigations and policies into its groundwater potential. Most have concentrated on the relatively shallow Cenozoic aquifers less than 100 metres below surface. Wischusen et al. (2012) identified the potential of the deeper aquifers (at depths of greater than 100 m) to expand the potential water resources of the Ti Tree Basin.
This report uses three sets of AEM data, two acquired by Geoscience Australia and one from historic mineral exploration, to map the depth to basement in the Ti Tree Basin. We confirm the prediction of Wischusen et al. (2012) that there is significant potential for a much thicker Cenozoic succession in the Basin and show that up to 500 m of sediments are present in fault bounded structures. We demonstrate that these sediments occur in two successions, one of probably Eocene age within narrow, fault-bounded troughs and the other of probable Miocene to Pliocene age occurring across a wider area. The two successions are separated by a low angle unconformity. We interpret the lower succession as forming during strike-slip opening of the basin, and the upper succession as being deposited by passive basin infill. The faults forming the deep basin show are mostly congruent with basement structures previously interpreted from aeromagnetic data. Most of the lower succession has not been fully penetrated by earlier drilling.
The interpreted AEM data shows that the deep Ti Tree Basin may contain extensive sandy aquifer units whose potential are completely unexplored. We recommend further investigations, including further stratigraphic drilling, mapping of the uniformity surface, and installation of monitoring bores, to more fully explore the potential of the deep Ti Tree Basin.
Simple
Identification info
- Date (Creation)
- 2021-10-01
- Date (Publication)
- 2021-10-12T22:04:12
- Citation identifier
- Geoscience Australia Persistent Identifier/https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/132442
- Citation identifier
- Digital Object Identifier/http://dx.doi.org/10.11636/Record.2021.011
- Cited responsible party
-
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Author Burton, C.
PSCD Internal Contact Author Clarke, J.D.A.
External Contact
- Name
-
Record
- Issue identification
-
RECORD 2021/011
- Purpose
-
This is the first of three reports presenting key results of the Ti Tree Basin study completed as part of Exploring for the Future (EFTF). The purpose of this report is to present a revised understanding of the 3D architecture of deeper parts of the Ti Tree Basin in the NT where most of the lower succession has not been fully penetrated by prior drilling.
- Status
- On going
- Point of contact
-
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Point of contact Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice Point of contact Cathro, D.
MEG Internal Contact Resource provider Minerals, Energy and Groundwater Division
External Contact
- Spatial representation type
- Topic category
-
- Geoscientific information
Extent
Extent
))
- Maintenance and update frequency
- As needed
Resource format
- Title
-
Product data repository: Various Formats
- Website
-
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
-
-
EARTH SCIENCES
-
- Keywords
-
-
Exploring for the Future
-
- Keywords
-
-
EFTF
-
- Keywords
-
-
Ti Tree Basin
-
- Keywords
-
-
Groundwater
-
- Keywords
-
-
Structure
-
- Keywords
-
-
AEM
-
- Keywords
-
-
Published_External
-
Resource constraints
- Title
-
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence
- Alternate title
-
CC-BY
- Edition
-
4.0
- Access constraints
- License
- Use constraints
- License
Resource constraints
- Title
-
Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem
- Edition date
- 2018-11-01T00:00:00
- Classification
- Unclassified
- Language
- English
- Character encoding
- UTF8
Distribution Information
- Distributor contact
-
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Distributor Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice
- OnLine resource
-
Download the Record (pdf) [3.6 MB]
Download the Record (pdf) [3.6 MB]
- Distribution format
-
-
pdf
-
Resource lineage
- Statement
-
This report documents the use of three airborne electromagnetic (AEM) datasets, two acquired by Geoscience Australia and one from historic mineral exploration, to map the depth to basement in the
Ti Tree Basin, NT.
Metadata constraints
- Title
-
Australian Government Security Classification System
- Edition date
- 2018-11-01T00:00:00
- Classification
- Unclassified
Metadata
- Metadata identifier
-
urn:uuid/addbb787-e85f-4847-90ec-891b3cca9ebe
- Title
-
GeoNetwork UUID
- Language
- English
- Character encoding
- UTF8
- Contact
-
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Point of contact Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice Point of contact Cathro, D.
MEG Internal Contact
Type of resource
- Resource scope
- Document
- Name
-
GA publication: GA Record
Alternative metadata reference
- Title
-
Geoscience Australia - short identifier for metadata record with
uuid
- Citation identifier
- eCatId/132442
- Date info (Creation)
- 2019-04-08T01:55:29
- Date info (Revision)
- 2019-04-08T01:55:29
Metadata standard
- Title
-
AU/NZS ISO 19115-1:2014
Metadata standard
- Title
-
ISO 19115-1:2014
Metadata standard
- Title
-
ISO 19115-3
- Title
-
Geoscience Australia Community Metadata Profile of ISO 19115-1:2014
- Edition
-
Version 2.0, September 2018
- Citation identifier
- https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/122551