A Pre-curser Extensive Miocene Reef System to the Rowley Shoals, Western Australia: Evidence for Natural Hydrocarbon Seepage or Structural Control of Reef Growth?  

Authors / CoAuthors

Ryan, G.J. | Bernardel, G. | Kennard, J.M. | Jones, A.T. | Logan, G.A.

Abstract

Numerous Miocene reefs and build-ups have been identified in the Rowley Shoals region of the central North West Shelf, offshore Western Australia. The reefs form part of an extensive Miocene reef tract over 1600 km long, which extended northward into the Timor Sea and southwards to North West Cape. Growth of the vast majority of these Miocene reefs failed to keep pace with relative sea-level changes in the latest Miocene, whereas reef growth continued on the central North West Shelf to form the three present-day atolls of the Rowley Shoals (Mermaid, Clerke and Imperieuse Reefs). Widespread buildups and atoll reefs developed in the Rowley Shoals region in the Middle Miocene, and their internal stacking geometries indicate successive aggradational, progradational and back-stepping growth phases that are correlated with eustatic sea-level fluctuations. Growth of the majority of the Miocene reefs ceased at a major sea-level fall in the late Late Miocene, and only the reefs of the present-day Rowley Shoals continued to grow after this event. The Rowley Shoals reefs continued to keep pace with Pliocene-Pleistocene sea level changes, whereas the surrounding shelf subsided to depths of 230-440 m. Contrary to previous hypotheses, we find no direct evidence that active, or palaeo, hydrocarbon seepage triggered or controlled growth of the Rowley Shoals reefs or their buried Miocene predecessors. Rather we conclude that initial reef growth was controlled by transpressional reactivation and structuring of the Mermaid Fault Zone during the early stage of collision between the Australia and Asian plates.

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nonGeographicDataset

eCat Id

68544

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Keywords

• External PublicationConference Paper

( Theme )

• geology

( Theme )

• hydrocarbons

( Theme )

• marine survey

( Theme )

• palaeogeography

( Theme )

• sedimentary basins

( Theme )

• marine

• AU-WA

Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)

• Earth Sciences

• Published_Internal

Publication Date

2009-01-01T00:00:00

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Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem    

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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence    

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geoscientificInformation

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[-22.0, -12.0, 114.0, 124.0]

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