This web service delivers metadata for onshore active and passive seismic surveys conducted across the Australian continent by Geoscience Australia and its collaborative partners. For active seismic this metadata includes survey header data, line location and positional information, and the energy source type and parameters used to acquire the seismic line data. For passive seismic this metadata includes information about station name and location, start and end dates, operators and instruments. The metadata are maintained in Geoscience Australia's onshore active seismic and passive seismic database, which is being added to as new surveys are undertaken. Links to datasets, reports and other publications for the seismic surveys are provided in the metadata.

The Australian Passive Seismic Array Project (AusArray) program was developed from a long history of passive seismic imaging in Australia involving many contributors. Building on this history, the Australian Government and academia have united around AusArray. The objective is a standardised and quality controlled national passive seismic data coverage and an updatable national seismic velocity model framework that can be used as a background for higher-resolution studies. This document details the field activities and equipment preparation for temporary passive seismic station deployment, service and retrieval. Equipment cleaning and testing and database details are also described. The standard operating procedures applied during these activities were established during the deployment of two temporary passive seismograph arrays under the Australian Government’s Exploring for the Future (EFTF) program. These arrays consisted of 120–130 stations deployed in the Northern Territory and Queensland for over a year in a grid pattern with a lateral spacing of half a degree (~55 km). The temporary passive seismograph stations comprised Nanometrics Trillium Compact 120S broadband seismic sensors connected to a Güralp minimus digitiser. Batteries charged by a solar panel powered both instruments. Each station in the array was serviced, i.e. repairs if required and interim data was retrieved, at least once during the deployment.

For more than half a century, seismic tomography has been used to map the volumetric structure of Earth’s interior, but only recent advances in computation have enabled the application of this technique at scale. Estimates of surface waves that travel between two seismic stations can be reconstructed from a stack of cross-correlations of continuous data recorded by seismometers. Here, we use data from the Exploring for the Future program AusArray deployment to extract this ambient noise signal of Rayleigh waves and use it to image mid- to upper-crustal structure between Tennant Creek and Mount Isa. Our aim was to establish a repeatable, semi-automatic workflow that can be extended to the entire Australian continent and beyond. Shear wave velocity models at 4, 6, 8 and 10 s periods are presented. A strong low-velocity anomaly (2.5 km/s) at a period of 4 s (~2–4 km depth) delineates the outline of the newly discovered, and prospective for hydrocarbons, Carrara Sub-basin. A near-vertical high-velocity anomaly (3.5 km/s) north of Mount Isa extends from the near surface down to ~12 km and merges with northeast-trending anomalies. These elongate features are likely to reflect compositional variations within the mid-crust associated with major structures inferred to be associated with base metal deposits. These outcomes demonstrate the utility of the ambient noise tomography method of imaging first-order features, which feed into resource potential assessments. <b>Citation: </b>Hejrani, B., Hassan, R., Gorbatov, A., Sambridge, M. Hawkins, R., Valentine, A., Czarnota, K. and Zhao, J., 2020. Ambient noise tomography of Australia: application to AusArray deployment. In: Czarnota, K., Roach, I., Abbott, S., Haynes, M., Kositcin, N., Ray, A. and Slatter, E. (eds.) Exploring for the Future: Extended Abstracts, Geoscience Australia, Canberra, 1–4. <b>See eCat record <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.26186/148676">#148676</a> for the updated version of the model package.</b>

<div><strong>Output Type: </strong>Exploring for the Future Extended Abstract</div><div><br></div><div><strong>Short Abstract:</strong> Under the Exploring for the Future (EFTF) program, Geoscience Australia staff and collaborators engaged with land-connected stakeholders that managed or had an interest in land comprising 56% of the total land mass area of Australia. From 2020 to 2023, staff planning ground-based and airborne geophysical and geological data acquisition projects consulted farmers, National Park rangers and managers, Native Title holders, cultural heritage custodians and other land-connected people to obtain land access and cultural heritage clearances for surveys proposed on over 122,000 parcels of land. Engagement did not always result in field activities proceeding. To support communication with this diverse audience, animations, comic-style factsheets, and physical models, were created to help explain field techniques. While the tools created have been useful, the most effective method of communication was found to be a combination of these tools and open two-way discussions.</div><div><br></div><div><strong>Citation: </strong>Sweeney, M., Kuoni, J., Iffland, D. &amp; Soroka, L., 2024. Improving how we engage with land-connected people about geoscience. In: Czarnota, K. (ed.) Exploring for the Future: Extended Abstracts. Geoscience Australia, Canberra. https://doi.org/10.26186/148760</div>

Data accompanying the GA Record Regional geology and mineral systems of the Stavely region, western Victoria. Data release 6 - Pre-drilling geophysics. Prior to stratigraphic drilling, existing airborne magnetic data were analysed and new refraction seismic, reflection seismic and gravity data were acquired as part of a pre-drilling geophysical acquisition program. The aim of this geophysical program was to provide cover thickness estimates at the drill site locations prior to the drilling program commencing, in order to reduce the geological and financial risk. Passive seismic data were acquired post-drilling for benchmarking with the other methods against the completed drilling in order to assess a potential tool kit of geophysical methods for the explorer to predict reliably the cover thickness at the tenement scale. This is the first study where multiple geophysical methods are applied to the same site and where full drill core, downhole wireline logging and hyperspectral (HyLogger) data are freely available.

<div><strong>Output type: </strong>Exploring for the Future Extended Abstract</div><div><br></div><div><strong>Short Abstract: </strong>Seismic tomography has been used for more than 50 years to map the seismic velocity structure of Earth’s interior. Here, we use data from the Exploring for the Future program, AusArray 2o deployment, to perform ambient noise tomography of the Australian continent. In this approach, stacks of cross-correlations of background seismic noise recorded by pairs of seismometers are employed to extract an approximation to the surface wave trains travelling between the seismometers. We have developed a semi-automatic approach to estimate dispersion properties of surface waves as a function of frequency at 0.01 – 1 Hz and deployed the largest ever network of broadband seismometers across the country to image the continental crust of Australia. In this study, we present an ambient noise tomography map of the Australian continent at 0.4 Hz (2.5 seconds), which is sensitive to the top 3 km of the Earth’s crust. Our model shows improved resolution across the country, for example, we observed a large low-velocity anomaly (~2.5 km/s) which delineates the shape of the entire Caning basin in Western Australia. This basin has never been imaged at this detail before, as previous tomographic studies do not measure surface wave velocity up to 0.4 Hz and do not have stations deployed in this area. The outcome demonstrates the utility of the ambient noise tomography method of imaging first-order features, that could be built upon for resource potential assessments.</div><div><br></div><div><strong>Citation: </strong>Hejrani B., Hassan R., Gorbatov A. & Zhao J., 2024. Towards continental-scale ambient noise tomography of Australia: a preliminary result from AusArray data. In: Czarnota, K. (ed.) Exploring for the Future: Extended Abstracts, Geoscience Australia, Canberra, https://doi.org/10.26186/149637</div>

The AusArray program aims to install small temporary passive seismic stations every 200 km across Australia. The seismic stations will passively measure small natural vibrations that travel through the Earth to help scientists understand the distribution and composition of rocks beneath the ground. Seismometers are sensitive instruments used to measure small natural vibrations that travel through the Earth caused by earthquakes, waves breaking on the shore and even wind. The data collected are analysed to create a three-dimensional model of the Earth’s subsurface. Passive seismic data can be used to model the Earth‘s structure, which is used to infer the geological history and assess the resource potential and natural hazards of the region.

This web service delivers metadata for onshore active and passive seismic surveys conducted across the Australian continent by Geoscience Australia and its collaborative partners. For active seismic this metadata includes survey header data, line location and positional information, and the energy source type and parameters used to acquire the seismic line data. For passive seismic this metadata includes information about station name and location, start and end dates, operators and instruments. The metadata are maintained in Geoscience Australia's onshore active seismic and passive seismic database, which is being added to as new surveys are undertaken. Links to datasets, reports and other publications for the seismic surveys are provided in the metadata.

<div><strong>Output type: </strong>Exploring for the Future Extended Abstract</div><div><br></div><div><strong>Short abstract: </strong>Passive seismic methods serve as versatile tools for probing Earth structure and facilitating new geological and geodynamic insight across vast areas. Tomographic velocity models derived from continental scale passive seismic data are becoming increasingly important in guiding resource exploration into prospective regions. While Australia has been leading this field our existing data coverage and quality is insufficient resulting in large uncertainties in continental scale models. With the aim of robustly constraining Australia’s lithospheric architecture the Exploring for the Future (EFTF) program began collection of a 2° (~220 km spaced) AusArray passive seismic data coverage. There are over 150 broad-band seismometer stations simultaneously deployed across Australia for a period of up to two years - a pioneering effort on a continental scale. The quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) analysis and deployment approaches, refined during previous 0.5° (~55 km spaced) campaigns, were rigorously applied to prevent data errors or data loss. Advanced standard operating procedures and stakeholder engagement materials were developed and openly shared with broader professional communities to support similar activities, fostering the continued advancement of passive seismic methods in both industry and research. The resulting data will be shared via the eCat system in raw format, accompanied by a StationXML file that holds the QA/QC information. This file can be used to apply QA/QC results to raw waveforms, enabling their use in subsequent analysis and modelling endeavors. Insights from this survey will guide future higher resolution AusArray deployments. &nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div><strong>Citation: </strong>Gorbatov, A., Hejrani, B., Holzschuh, J., Zhao, J., Hassan, R., Cathro, D., Czarnota, K., Kuoni, J., Sweeney, M., Glowacki, J., Murdie, R., O'Donnel, J.P. & Haydon, S.J., 2024. AusArray continent-scale deployment. In: Czarnota, K. (ed.) Exploring for the Future: Extended Abstracts, Geoscience Australia, Canberra, https://doi.org/10.26186/149640 </div>