Product catalogue
Great Artesian Basin eastern recharge area assessment – Eastern Eromanga Basin airborne electromagnetic data interpretation report.
This report presents the results of an assessment of geoscience data and tools applied in the eastern Eromanga Basin to improve the hydrogeological conceptualisations. The assessment is one component of the Australian Government funded project ‘Assessing the Status of Groundwater in the Great Artesian Basin’. The results demonstrate that the application of existing and new geoscientific data and technologies has the potential to further improve our understanding of the Great Artesian Basin (GAB) hydrogeological system thus supporting the responsible management of basin water resources.
Hydrogeological synthesis using airborne electromagnetic data, in conjunction with hydro- and chrono-stratigraphic data and well geological information, are effective at mapping the three dimensional distribution of the aquifers and aquitards. The results lead to an improved understanding of groundwater intake bed geometry, potential connectivity between aquifers, possible structural controls on groundwater flow paths, and plausible source of groundwater discharging as springs.
In the southern part of the study area, the dominantly shale-rich Evergreen Formation is electrically conductive, but is locally resistive in places due to sand-rich facies. These areas allow hydraulic connectivity between the overlying and underlying Hutton and Precipice sandstone aquifers.
Anticlinal folds and juxtaposed strata are observed on AEM traverses along the strike of the aquifer units, and includes the Hutton, Adori and Cadna-owie – Hooray sandstones. Abrupt folding and juxtaposed strata were interpreted as fault zones. Both structural features have the potential of controlling groundwater flow directions or groundwater storage compartmentalisation.
The northern limits of Precipice Sandstone and Evergreen Formation are at Blackall and south of Barcaldine towns respectively. This zone also coincides with the southern edge of the east-west trending sub-surface Barcaldine Ridge where the basal Jurassic sequence abut against. On and north of the Barcaldine Ridge, the Cadna-owie – Hooray, Adori and Hutton sandstones are present. Mapping using AEM conductivity sections affirm that the Hutton Sandstone is the major aquifer in the northern part of the study area.
The Poolowanna Formation, an age equivalent to the Evergreen Formation and Precipice Sandstone, is laterally extensive towards the northern part of the study area. This formation crops-out west of Lake Buchanan in the Great Dividing Range, but forms sub-crops elsewhere along the groundwater recharge areas.
Numerous groundwater springs and spring clusters are present along the east and west of the outcropping sandstone hills in the Great Dividing Range. In the northern parts of the study area, source of groundwater for the springs are mainly derived from the Hutton Sandstone aquifers through either gravity-feed or lateral groundwater flow process.
Polygonal faults mainly occur on conductive and fined-grained sedimentary units of the Rolling Downs Group. There is lack of observable evidence from AEM conductivity sections on the presence of polygonal faults to suggest preferential groundwater flows along these potential hydraulic conduits. Further investigation using ground based methods are needed to establish the presence of the faults and their hydraulic properties.
Simple
Identification info
- Date (Creation)
- 2022-12-21
- Date (Publication)
- 2022-12-21T01:38:05
- Citation identifier
- Geoscience Australia Persistent Identifier/https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/146661
- Citation identifier
- Digital Object Identifier/http://dx.doi.org/10.11636/Record.2022.033
- Cited responsible party
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Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Author Tan, K.P.
External Contact Author Rollet, N.
MEG Internal Contact Author Vizy, J.
MEG Internal Contact Author Kilgour, P.
MEG Internal Contact
- Name
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Record
- Issue identification
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RECORD: 2022/033
- Purpose
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This document will be published as a GA record.
- 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 Tan, K.
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
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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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Great Artesian Basin
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- Keywords
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Eastern Eromanga Basin
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- Keywords
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airborne electromagnetic
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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
- Other constraints
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(c) Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia) 2022
Resource constraints
- Title
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Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem
- Edition date
- 2018-11-01T00:00:00
- Classification
- Unclassified
Associated resource
- Association Type
- Was informed by
- Title
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Great Artesian Basin, Queensland, Airborne Electromagnetic Survey: SkyTEM
- Citation identifier
- 145776
- Citation identifier
- fed810c7-c59d-4bd5-8f0f-e5c4cb1745fe
- 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 Record (pdf) [8.7 MB]
Download the Record (pdf) [8.7 MB]
- Distribution format
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pdf
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Resource lineage
- Statement
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This report is one of the milestones for the 'Assessing the status of groundwater in the Great Artesian Basin' project.
Metadata constraints
- Title
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Australian Government Security Classification System
- Edition date
- 2018-11-01T00:00:00
- Classification
- Unclassified
Metadata
- Metadata identifier
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urn:uuid/fa0e7f18-ea52-48da-9579-ba240d413369
- Title
-
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 Owner Tan, K
Internal Contact Point of contact Tan, K.
MEG Internal Contact
Type of resource
- Resource scope
- Document
- Name
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GA publication: GA Record
Alternative metadata reference
- Title
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Geoscience Australia - short identifier for metadata record with
uuid
- Citation identifier
- eCatId/146661
- 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