Product catalogue
Potential recharge to groundwater estimation, grid dataset, Nulla Basalt Province
This grid dataset is an estimation of the relative surface potential for recharge within the Nulla Basalt Province. This process combined numerous factors together as to highlight the areas likely to have higher potential for recharge to occur. Soil permeability and surface geology are the primary inputs. Vegetation and slope were excluded from consideration, as these were considered to add too much complexity. Furthermore, this model does not include rainfall intensity – although this is known to vary spatially through average rainfall grids, this model is a depiction of the ground ability for recharge to occur should a significant rainfall event occur in each location.
The relative surface potential recharge presented is estimated through a combination of soil and geological factors, weighting regions that are considered likely to have greater potential for recharge (e.g. younger basalts, vent-proximal facies, and highly permeable soils).
Near-surface permeability of soil layers has been considered as a quantified input to the ability for water to infiltrate soil strata.
It was hypothesised that locations proximal to volcanic vents would be preferential recharge sites, due to deeply penetrative columnar jointing. This suggestion is based on observations in South Iceland, where fully-penetrating columnar joint sets are more prevalent in proximal facies compared to distal facies in South Iceland (Bergh & Sigvaldson 1991). To incorporate this concept, preferential recharge sites are assumed to be within the polygons of vent-proximal facies as derived from detailed geological mapping datasets.
Remaining geology has been categorised to provide higher potential recharge through younger lava flows. As such, a ranking between geological units has been used to provide the variation in potential recharge estimates.
<b>Reference</b>
Bergh, S. G., & Sigvaldason, G. E. (1991). Pleistocene mass-flow deposits of basaltic hyaloclastite on a shallow submarine shelf, South Iceland. Bulletin of Volcanology, 53(8), 597-611. doi:10.1007/bf00493688
Simple
Identification info
- Date (Creation)
- 2020-01-31
- Date (Publication)
- 2020-04-14T04:51:04
- Citation identifier
- Geoscience Australia Persistent Identifier/https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/133849
- Citation identifier
- Digital Object Identifier/https://dx.doi.org/10.26186/133849
- Cited responsible party
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Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Publisher Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice Author Kilgour, P.L.
Author Ransley, T.
Author Lai, E.C.S.
Author Cook, S.
- Purpose
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The relative surface potential recharge is depicted as a grid. This model is a depiction of the ground ability for recharge to occur should a significant rainfall event occur in each location, and so does not include the spatial variability of rainfall intensity or amounts. The purpose of this grid is to depict areas within the Nulla Basalt Province that are more or less likely to provide recharge to the groundwater system.
- Status
- Point of contact
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Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Point of contact Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice Point of contact Kilgour, P.L.
Resource provider Minerals, Energy and Groundwater Division
- Spatial representation type
- Topic category
-
- Geoscientific information
Extent
))
- Maintenance and update frequency
- As needed
Resource format
- Title
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Product data repository: Various Formats
- Protocol
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FILE:DATA-DIRECTORY
- Name of the resource
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Data Store directory containing the digital product files
- Description
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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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- Project
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EFTF
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Exploring For The Future
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- Keywords
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Australia
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Queensland
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QLD
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Web Service
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Upper Burdekin
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UB
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Nulla Basalt
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Volcanic Province
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Permeability
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Potential Recharge
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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
Associated resource
- Association Type
- Operated on by
- Title
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Upper Burdekin Groundwater Raster Products WMS
- Citation identifier
- 140099
- Citation identifier
- 4cf6c456-bd1d-4205-9395-9d08588e7290
Associated resource
- Association Type
- Operated on by
- Title
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Upper Burdekin Groundwater Raster Products WMTS
- Citation identifier
- 140100
- Citation identifier
- e92e6349-4a71-487d-a429-5cc3678ad598
Associated resource
- Association Type
- Operated on by
- Title
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Upper Burdekin Groundwater Raster Products WCS
- Citation identifier
- 140101
- Citation identifier
- 0850f5e3-3bed-46d6-b3cb-a1e50de18e13
- 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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Download the data (tif) [913 KB]
Download the data (tif) [913 KB]
- Distribution format
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tif
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- OnLine resource
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Upper Burdekin Groundwater Raster Products WMS
Upper Burdekin Groundwater Raster Products WMS
- Distribution format
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OGC:WMS
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- OnLine resource
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Upper Burdekin Groundwater Raster Products WMTS
Upper Burdekin Groundwater Raster Products WMTS
- Distribution format
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OGC:WMTS
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- OnLine resource
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Upper Burdekin Groundwater Raster Products WCS
Upper Burdekin Groundwater Raster Products WCS
- Distribution format
-
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OGC:WCS
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Resource lineage
- Statement
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The input datasets are soil layers and surface geological units.
Soil data acquired from ASRIS provided soil permeability information. The near-surface permeability was used as this is the first layer through which water would travel. It was classified into discrete classes, based on the ASRIS handbook (CSIRO 2012, p51), and then scores assigned.
Ks1 range Score Description
30-300 8 highly permeable (10 is level above which isn’t here)
3-30 6 moderately permeable
0.3-3 3 low permeable
0.03 -0.3 1 very low permeable
<0.03 0 blank (remove?) as impermeable
Surface geology, based on the Queensland Detailed surface geology polygons, was considered in several stages. Firstly a mask was used to exclude areas outside the Nulla Basalt Province, namely the areas of outcropping Palaeozoic basement rocks.
It was hypothesised that locations proximal to volcanic vents would be preferential recharge sites, due to deeply penetrative columnar jointing. This suggestion is based on observations in South Iceland, where fully-penetrating columnar joint sets are more prevalent in proximal facies compared to distal facies in South Iceland (Bergh & Sigvaldson 1991). To incorporate this concept, it was decided that polygons mapped as having vent-proximal facies (i.e. “/v” in the mapping code) would be provided a weighting score of 7.
The remaining geology was incorporated with the thought that recent lava flows retain blocky structures, while weathering has smoothed out the surfaces of the oldest lava flows to begin soil development. As such, older basalts have lower weighting scores compared to the youngest. Within this rating, sedimentary units have been considered: alluvium is weighted higher than most, while lacustrine clays and silts are weighted lower. However most sedimentary units are given a moderate score, with a reliance on the soil Ks values to discriminate units. Standing surface water bodies have been deemed a score of 0, as these are sites of water without geological units mapped; standing water is likely a location of discharge as opposed to recharge.
This results in the following geological scoring table:
Unit Score Notes
Toomba Basalt 10 Most permeable unit as this is the youngest and blockiest lava flow
Alluvium (clay, silt, sand/gravel) 7 Assumed to be relatively permeable
Yates Creek Basalt 6 Relatively young basalt
Colluvium (clay, silt, gravel); Black soil (mix – let Ks sort out) 5 Mixed sediments, using Ks values to discriminate
Birdbush Basalt; Sturgeon Basalt; Anabranch Basalt
Campaspe Fm 4 Moderate score for other basalts.
Campaspe Formation is mixed.
Qbn, TQbn, Allensleigh Basalt
Lake deposits (clay,silt) 3 Relatively low scores for undifferentiated lavas and old Allensleigh Basalt
Lake deposits have low score
Tbn 2 Oldest lava flows have diminished score
Vents 0 (7) 0 in the general phase
7 in the separate layer
Vents are considered in the separate layer
Outcropping Palaeozoic units; water bodies 0 Exclusion
Apart from the exclusion areas (which were masked out by using a zero multiplier), the various factors were added together for the Nulla. This produced a relative high and low across all the considered factors. There is no unit to this overall score, so there cannot be a direct calculation of the recharge rates. It was considered inappropriate to perform this without sufficient field validation.
<b>Reference</b>
Bergh, S. G., & Sigvaldason, G. E. (1991). Pleistocene mass-flow deposits of basaltic hyaloclastite on a shallow submarine shelf, South Iceland. Bulletin of Volcanology, 53(8), 597-611. doi:10.1007/bf00493688
Reference System Information
- Reference system identifier
- EPSG/GDA94 / MGA zone 55 (EPSG:28355)
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/f9216730-a66c-433b-adb0-3608b2a0af0b
- 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 Kilgour, P.L.
Type of resource
- Resource scope
- Dataset
Alternative metadata reference
- Title
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Geoscience Australia - short identifier for metadata record with uuid
- Citation identifier
- eCatId/133849
- Date info (Creation)
- 2025-03-12T05:59:18.836Z
- Date info (Creation)
- 2020-01-29T04:15:42
- Date info (Revision)
- 2025-03-12T05:59:56.004Z
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/133849