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Geological history of the outer North West Shelf of Australia: a synthesis

This paper uses information contained in other papers in this issue of the AGSO Journal together with the scientific literature to produce a synthesis of the geological development of the outer continental margin of northwest Australia, and the adjacent plateaus and abyssal plains, with special emphasis on the northern Exmouth Plateau and Rowley Terrace. In the Palaeozoic, the outer North West Shelf formed part of the continental crust of East Gondwana. The region was stretched in the Late Palaeozoic, and subsequently subsided to form the Westralian Superbasin on the southern margin of Tethys. The superbasin filled with thick Triassic sediments, and variable thicknesses of Jurassic sediments, before progressive breakup in Callovian-Valanginian time. The Late Triassic was dominated by fluvio-deltaic sedimentation but, on what ultimately became the outer shelf, carbonates were deposited. These included reefal buildups on what is now the northern Exmouth Plateau and Rowley Terrace. Rift volcanics were erupted in areas of future breakup, in the latest Triassic and earliest Jurassic. The Early Jurassic saw a similar sedimentary situation to the Late Triassic, with mixed siliciclastic and carbonate deposition. Restricted circulation allowed organic-rich, potential petroleum source-rocks to form in local depressions throughout the Jurassic. In the Middle Jurassic, shallow-marine conditions predominated and siliciclastic sedimentation was ubiquitous ; coaly sequences were laid down in swamps on parts of what is now the northern Exmouth Plateau and outer Rowley Terrace. The late Middle Jurassic saw thermal uplift and erosion prior to breakup of Gondwana in the north, and a major period of faulting and rift volcanism. Callovian breakup led to the genesis of the Argo Abyssal Plain by seafloor spreading, but there was very little sedimentation on the plain until the Early Cretaceous. Late Jurassic and earliest Cretaceous sedimentation was shallow marine and siliciclastic. The remainder of East Gondwana broke up in the Valanginian, and the Gascoyne, Cuvier and Perth Abyssal Plains were initiated as seafloor spreading began. The present-day physiography started to take shape. Volcanic buildups of the Wallaby Plateau and Joey Rise formed in the Early Cretaceous on oceanic crust. In the Neocomian, rift-style volcanics were erupted on the Scott Plateau, 30 m.y. after breakup in that area, and volcanic ash was a major source of sediment on and near the northern Exmouth Plateau. The Early Cretaceous was a period of transgression with siliciclastic shelf sedimentation on the subsiding continental crust gradually giving way to marls. In the Santonian, deposition of shelf carbonates became established, and thenceforth shelf and bathyal carbonate deposition characterised the margin. On the Argo Abyssal Plain, there was a steady rain of pelagic clay, and major influxes of carbonate turbidites and debris flows in the Early Cretaceous and the Mio-Pliocene. A tilt to the south developed in the Early Miocene, presumably as the fore-bulge south of the Java Trench affected the plain as it moved northward with the Australian Plate.

Simple

Identification info

Date (Publication)
1994-01-01T00:00:00
Citation identifier
Geoscience Australia Persistent Identifier/https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/81390

Cited responsible party
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Publisher

Australian Geological Survey Organisation

Canberra
Author

Exon, N.F.

1
Author

Colwell, J.B.

2
Name

AGSO Journal of Australian Geology and Geophysics

Issue identification

15:1:177-190

Point of contact
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Custodian

Corp

Owner

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

Custodian

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

Voice
Topic category
  • Geoscientific information

Extent

N
S
E
W


Maintenance and update frequency
Unknown

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

Keywords
  • GA Publication

  • Journal

Theme
  • marine

Keywords
  • WA

Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)
  • Earth Sciences

Keywords
  • Published_External

Resource constraints

Title

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence

Alternate title

CC-BY

Edition

4.0

Website

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/

Access constraints
License
Use constraints
License

Resource constraints

Title

Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem

Edition date
2018-11-01T00:00:00
Website

https://www.protectivesecurity.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx

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

Journal article (pdf)

Journal article (pdf)

Distribution format
  • pdf

Resource lineage

Statement

Unknown

Hierarchy level
Non geographic dataset
Other

GA Publication

Description

Source data not available.

Metadata constraints

Title

Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem

Edition date
2018-11-01T00:00:00
Website

https://www.protectivesecurity.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx

Classification
Unclassified

Metadata

Metadata identifier
urn:uuid/fae9173a-714b-71e4-e044-00144fdd4fa6

Title

GeoNetwork UUID

Language
English
Character encoding
UTF8
Contact
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Point of contact

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

Voice

Type of resource

Resource scope
Document
Name

AGSO BMR Journal

Alternative metadata reference

Title

Geoscience Australia - short identifier for metadata record with

uuid

Citation identifier
eCatId/81390

Metadata linkage

https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/fae9173a-714b-71e4-e044-00144fdd4fa6

Date info (Revision)
2018-04-20T06:07:38
Date info (Creation)
2014-06-03T00:00:00

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

 
 

Spatial extent

N
S
E
W


Keywords

marine

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