This service provides Estimates of Geological and Geophysical Surfaces (EGGS). The data comes from cover thickness models based on magnetic, airborne electromagnetic and borehole measurements of the depth of stratigraphic and chronostratigraphic surfaces and boundaries.

<div>This report brings together data and information relevant to understanding the regional geology, hydrogeology, and groundwater systems of the South Nicholson – Georgina (SNG) region in the Northern Territory and Queensland. This integrated, basin-scale hydrogeological assessment is part of Geoscience Australia’s National Groundwater Systems project in the Exploring for the Future program. While the northern Georgina Basin has been at the centre of recent investigations as part of studies into the underlying Beetaloo Sub-basin, no regional groundwater assessments have focused on central and southern parts of the Georgina Basin since the 1970s. Similarly, there has been no regional-scale hydrogeological investigation of the deeper South Nicholson Basin, although the paucity of groundwater data limited detailed assessment of the hydrogeology of this basin. This comprehensive desktop study has integrated numerous geoscience and hydrogeological datasets to develop a new whole-of-basin conceptualisation of groundwater flow systems and recharge and discharge processes within the regional unconfined aquifers of the Georgina Basin.</div><div><br></div><div>Key outputs arising from this study include: (1) the development of a hydrostratigraphic framework for the region, incorporating improved aquifer attribution for over 5,000 bores; and (2) publicly available basin-scale groundwater GIS data layers and maps, including a regional watertable map for the whole Georgina Basin. This regional assessment provides new insights into the hydrogeological characteristics and groundwater flow dynamics within the Georgina Basin, which can aid in the sustainable management of groundwater for current and future users reliant on this critical water resource.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div>

<div>As part of the Data Driven Discoveries program, Geoscience Australia and the Geological Survey of Queensland collaborated to re-examine legacy well cuttings for a chemostratigraphic study. The aim was to identify opportunities for resource discovery in the Devonian-aged Adavale Basin in south-central Queensland by conducting a chemostratigraphic study to define regional stratigraphic correlations in a structurally complex basin with limited well penetrations. A total of 1,489 cutting samples were analysed for whole-rock geochemistry, as well as subsets of samples for whole-rock mineralogy and/or carbonate carbon and oxygen isotopes, from a whole-rock sample. The purpose was to establish new chemostratigraphic correlations across the basin independently, using data from 10 wells that sampled the Adavale Basin.</div>

The document summarises new seismic interpretation metadata for two key horizons from Base Jurassic to mid-Cretaceous strata across the western and central Eromanga Basin, and the underlying Top pre-Permian unconformity. New seismic interpretations were completed during a collaborative study between the National Groundwater Systems (NGS) and Australian Future Energy Resources (AFER) projects. The NGS and AFER projects are part of Exploring for the Future (EFTF)—an eight year, $225 million Australian Government funded geoscience data and precompetitive information acquisition program to inform decision-making by government, community and industry on the sustainable development of Australia's mineral, energy and groundwater resources. By gathering, analysing and interpreting new and existing precompetitive geoscience data and knowledge, we are building a national picture of Australia’s geology and resource potential. This will help support a strong economy, resilient society and sustainable environment for the benefit of all Australians. The EFTF program is supporting Australia’s transition to a low emissions economy, industry and agriculture sectors, as well as economic opportunities and social benefits for Australia’s regional and remote communities. Further details are available at http://www.ga.gov.au/eftf. The seismic interpretations build on previous work undertaken as part of the ‘Assessing the Status of Groundwater in the Great Artesian Basin’ (GAB) Project, commissioned by the Australian Government through the National Water Infrastructure Fund – Expansion (Norton & Rollet, 2022; Vizy & Rollet, 2022; Rollet et al., 2022; Rollet et al., in press.), the NGS Project (Norton & Rollet, 2023; Rollet et al., 2023; Vizy & Rollet, 2023) and the AFER Project (Bradshaw et al., 2022 and in press, Bernecker et al., 2022, Iwanec et al., 2023; Iwanec et al., in press). The recent iteration of revisions to the GAB geological and hydrogeological surfaces (Vizy & Rollet, 2022) provides a framework to interpret various data sets consistently (e.g., boreholes, airborne electromagnetic, seismic data) and in a 3D domain, to improve our understanding of the aquifer geometry, and the lateral variation and connectivity in hydrostratigraphic units across the GAB (Rollet et al., 2022). Vizy and Rollet (2022) highlighted some areas with low confidence in the interpretation of the GAB where further data acquisition or interpretation may reduce uncertainty in the mapping. One of these areas was in the western and central Eromanga Basin. New seismic interpretations are being used in the western Eromanga, Pedirka and Simpson basins to produce time structure and isochore maps in support of play-based energy resource assessment under the AFER Project, as well as to update the geometry of key aquifers and aquitards and the GAB 3D model for future groundwater management under the NGS Project. These new seismic interpretations fill in some data and knowledge gaps necessary to update the geometry and depth of key geological and hydrogeological surfaces defined in a chronostratigraphic framework (Hannaford et al., 2022; Bradshaw et al., 2022 and in press; Hannaford & Rollet, 2023). The seismic interpretations are based on a compilation of newly reprocessed seismic data (Geoscience Australia, 2022), as part of the EFTF program, and legacy seismic surveys from various vintages brought together in a common project with matching parameters (tying, balancing, datum correcting, etc.). This dataset has contributed to a consolidated national data coverage to further delineate groundwater and energy systems, in common data standards and to be used further in integrated workflows of mineral, energy and groundwater assessment. The datasets associated with the product provides value added seismic interpretation in the form of seismic horizon point data for two horizons that will be used to improve correlation to existing studies in the region. The product also provides users with an efficient means to rapidly access a list of core data used from numerous sources in a consistent and cleaned format, all in a single package. The following datasets are provided with this product: 1) Seismic interpretation in a digital format (Appendix A), in two-way-time, on key horizons with publically accessible information, including seismic interpretation on newly reprocessed data: Top Cadna-owie; Base Jurassic; Top pre-Permian; 2) List of surveys compiled and standardised for a consistent interpretation across the study area (Appendix B). 3) Isochore points between Top Cadna-owie and Base Jurassic (CC10-LU00) surfaces (Appendix C). 4) Geographical layer for the seismic lines compiled across Queensland, South Australia and the Northern Territory (Appendix D). These new interpretations will be used to refine the GAB geological and hydrogeological surfaces in this region and to support play-based energy resource assessments in the western Eromanga, Pedirka and Simpson basins.

<div>This study investigates the feasibility of mapping potential groundwater dependent vegetation (GDV) at a regional scale using remote sensing data. Specifically, the Digital Earth Australia (DEA) Tasseled Cap Percentiles products, integrated with the coefficient of greenness and/or wetness, are applied in three case study regions in Australia to identify and characterise potential terrestrial and aquatic groundwater dependent ecosystems (GDE). The identified high potential GDE are consistent with existing GDE mapping, providing confidence in the methodology developed. The approach provides a consistent and rapid first-pass approach for identifying and assessing GDEs, especially in remote areas of Australia lacking detailed GDE and vegetation information.</div>

This report, completed as part of Geoscience Australia’s Exploring for the Future Program National Groundwater Systems (NGS) Project, presents results of the second iteration of 3D geological and hydrogeological surfaces across eastern Australian basins. The NGS project is part of the Exploring for the Future (EFTF) program—an eight-year, $225 million Australian Government funded geoscience data and precompetitive information acquisition program. The program seeks to inform decision-making by government, community, and industry on the sustainable development of Australia's mineral, energy, and groundwater resources, including those to support the effective long-term management of GAB water resources. This work builds on the first iteration completed as part of the Great Artesian Basin Groundwater project. The datasets incorporate infills of data and knowledge gaps in the Great Artesian Basin (GAB), Lake Eyre Basin (LEB), Upper Darling Floodplain (UDF) and existing data in additional basins in eastern Australia. The study area extends from the offshore Gulf of Carpentaria in the north to the offshore Bight, Otway, and Gippsland basins in the South and from the western edge of the GAB in the west to the eastern Australian coastline to the east. The revisions are an update to the surface extents and thicknesses for 18 region-wide hydrogeological units produced by Vizy & Rollet, 2022. The second iteration of the 3D model surfaces further unifies geology across borders and provides the basis for a consistent hydrogeological framework at a basin-wide, and towards a national-wide, scale. The stratigraphic nomenclature used follows geological unit subdivisions applied: (1) in the Surat Cumulative Management Area (OGIA - Office of Groundwater Impact Assessment, 2019) to correlate time equivalent regional hydrogeological units in the GAB and other Jurassic and Cretaceous time equivalent basins in the study area and (2) in the LEB to correlate Cenozoic time equivalents in the study area. Triassic to Permian and older basins distribution and thicknesses are provided without any geological and hydrogeological unit sub-division. Such work helps to (1) reconcile legacy and contemporary regional studies under a common stratigraphic framework, (2) support the effective management of groundwater resources, and (3) provide a regional geological context for integrated resource assessments. The 18 hydrogeological units were constructed using legacy borehole data, 2D seismic and airborne electromagnetic (AEM) data that were compiled for the first iteration of the geological and hydrogeological surfaces under the GAB groundwater project (Vizy & Rollet, 2022a) with the addition of: • New data collected and QC’d from boreholes (including petroleum, CSG [Coal Seam Gas], stratigraphic, mineral and water boreholes) across Australia (Vizy & Rollet, 2023a) since the first iteration, including revised stratigraphic correlations filling data and knowledge gaps in the GAB, LEB, UDF region (Norton & Rollet, 2023) with revised palynological constraints (Hannaford & Rollet 2023), • Additional AEM interpretation since the first iteration in the GAB, particularly in the northern Surat (McPherson et al., 2022b), as well as in the LEB (Evans et al., in prep), in the southern Eromanga Basin (Wong et al., 2023) and in the UDF region (McPherson et al., 2022c), and • Additional 2D seismic interpretation in the Gulf of Carpentaria (Vizy & Rollet, 2023b) and in the western and central Eromanga Basin (Szczepaniak et al., 2023). These datasets were then analysed and interpreted in a common 3D domain using a consistent chronostratigraphic framework tied to the geological timescale of 2020, as defined by Hannaford et al. (2022). Confidence maps were also produced to highlight areas that need further investigation due to data gaps, in areas where better seismic depth conversion or improved well formation picks are required. New interpretations from the second iteration of the 18 surfaces include (1) new consistent and regionally continuous surfaces of Cenozoic down to Permian and older sediments beyond the extent of the GAB across eastern Australia, (2) revised extents and thicknesses of Jurassic and Cretaceous units in the GAB, including those based on distributed thickness, (3) revised extents and thicknesses of Cenozoic LEB units constrained by the underlying GAB 3D model surfaces geometry. These data constraints were not used in the model surfaces generated for the LEB detailed inventory (Evans et al., 2023), and (4) refinements of surfaces due to additional seismic and AEM interpretation used to infill data and knowledge gaps. Significant revisions include: • The use of additional seismic data to better constrain the base of the Poolowanna-Evergreen formations and equivalents and the top of Cadna-owie Formation and equivalents in the western and central Eromanga Basin, and the extent and thicknesses of the GAB units and Cenozoic Karumba Basin in the Gulf of Carpentaria, • The use of AEM interpretations to refine the geometry of outcropping units in the northern Surat Basin and the basement surface underneath the UDF region, and • A continuous 3D geological surface of base Cenozoic sediments across eastern Australia including additional constraints for the Lake Eyre Basin (borehole stratigraphy review), Murray Basin (AEM interpretation) and Karumba Basin (seismic interpretation). These revisions to the 18 geological and hydrogeological surfaces will help improve our understanding on the 3D spatial distribution of aquifers and aquitards across eastern Australia, from the groundwater recharge areas to the deep confined aquifers. These data compilations and information brought to a common national standard help improve hydrogeological conceptualisation of groundwater systems across multiple jurisdictions to assist water managers to support responsible groundwater management and secure groundwater into the future. These 3D geological and hydrogeological modelled surfaces also provide a tool for consistent data integration from multiple datasets. These modelled surfaces bring together variable data quality and coverage from different databases across state and territory jurisdictions. Data integration at various scale is important to assess potential impact of different water users and climate change. The 3D modelled surfaces can be used as a consistent framework to map current groundwater knowledge at a national scale and help highlight critical groundwater areas for long-term monitoring of potential impacts on local communities and Groundwater Dependant Ecosystems. The distribution and confidence on data points used in the current iteration of the modelled surfaces highlight where data poor areas may need further data acquisition or additional interpretation to increase confidence in the aquifers and aquitards geometry. The second iteration of surfaces highlights where further improvements can be made, notably for areas in the offshore Gulf of Carpentaria with further seismic interpretation to better constrain the base of the Aptian marine incursion (to better constrain the shape and offshore extent of the main aquifers). Inclusion of more recent studies in the offshore southern and eastern margins of Australia will improve the resolution and confidence of the surfaces, up to the edge of the Australian continental shelf. Revision of the borehole stratigraphy will need to continue where more recent data and understanding exist to improve confidence in the aquifer and aquitard geometry and provide better constraints for AEM and seismic interpretation, such as in the onshore Carpentaria, Clarence-Moreton, Sydney, Murray-Darling basins. Similarly adding new seismic and AEM interpretation recently acquired and reprocessed, such as in the eastern Eromanga Basin over the Galilee Basin, would improve confidence in the surfaces in this area. Also, additional age constraints in formations that span large periods of time would help provide greater confidence to formation sub-divisions that are time equivalent to known geological units that correlate to major aquifers and aquitards in adjacent basins, such as within the Late Jurassic‒Early Cretaceous in the Eromanga and Carpentaria basins. Finally, incorporating major faults and structures would provide greater definition of the geological and hydrogeological surfaces to inform with greater confidence fluid flow pathways in the study area. This report is associated with a data package including (Appendix A – Supplementary material): • Nineteen geological and hydrogeological surfaces from the Base Permo-Carboniferous, Top Permian, Base Jurassic, Base Cenozoic to the surface (Table 1.1), • Twenty-one geological and hydrogeological unit thickness maps from the top crystalline basement to the surface (Figure 3.1 to Figure 3.21), • The formation picks and constraining data points (i.e., from boreholes, seismic, AEM and outcrops) compiled and used for gridding each surface (Table 2.7). Detailed explanation of methodology and processing is described in the associated report (Vizy & Rollet, 2023).

Geoscience Australia is leading a regional evaluation of potential mineral, energy and groundwater resources through the Exploring for the Future (EFTF) program. This stratigraphic assessment is part of the Onshore Basin Inventories project, and was undertaken to understand Devonian-aged depositional systems and stratigraphy in Queensland’s Adavale Basin. Such data are fundamental for any exploration activities. Maximising the use of existing well data can lead to valuable insights into the regional prospectivity of sedimentary basins. Data from 53 Adavale Basin wells have been used to evaluate subsurface stratigraphy, depositional environments and hydrocarbon shows across the basin. Stratigraphic data from 26 representative wells, where the well intersected at least three Devonian stratigraphic units, are used to generate chronostratigraphic time-space charts and two-dimensional well correlations within, and between, different (northern, north central, central, west central, east central and southern) parts of the basin. The primary objectives of the study are: • stratigraphic gap analysis to identify geological uncertainties and data deficiencies in the areas of interest, • integrate the well data with Geoscience Australia’s databases (i.e., Australian Stratigraphic Units, Time Scale, Geochronology, STRATDAT, RESFACS),the Geological Survey of Queensland’s Datasets and publicly available (published and unpublished) research data and information, • determine the lithostratigraphic unit tops, log and lithology characterisations, depositional facies, boundary criteria, spatial and temporal distribution and regional correlations, • integrate key biostratigraphic zones and markers with geochronological absolute age dates to generate a chronostratigraphic Time-Space Diagram of the basin. This work improves the understanding of the chronostratigraphic relationships across the Adavale Basin. The age of the sedimentary successions of the basin have been refined using geochronology, biostratigraphy and lithostratigraphic correlation. The chronostratigraphic and biozonation chart of the Adavale Basin has been updated and the stratigraphic, biostratigraphic and hydrocarbon shows datasets will be available for viewing and download via the Geoscience Australia Portal (https://portal.ga.gov.au/restore/15808dee-efcd-428e-ba5b-59b0106a83e3).

<div>This Queensland Geological Record presents ten new Sensitive High Resolution Ion MicroProbe (SHRIMP) U–Pb zircon and monazite results obtained under the auspices of the Geological Survey of Queensland–Geoscience Australia (GSQ–GA) National Collaborative Framework (NCF) geochronology project between July 2017 and June 2018. These data were collected in support of ongoing regional mapping and geoscientific programs led by the GSQ in the Mount Isa region.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><strong>Bibliographic reference:</strong></div><div>Kositcin, N., Lewis, C. J. Withnall, I. W., Slade, A. P., Sargent, S. and Hutton, L. J. 2023. Summary of results. Joint GSQ–GA Geochronology Project: Mount Isa region, 2017–2018. GSQ Record 2023/03. Geoscience Australia, Canberra. Record 2023/32, Geological Survey of Queensland. http://dx.doi.org/10.26186/147793</div>

<div>New Sensitive High Resolution Ion Microprobe (SHRIMP) U–Pb geochronological results for fifteen Proterozoic and late Paleozoic samples, thirteen from the Georgetown Region and two from the adjacent Cairns Region, are presented in this Record. Eleven of the samples are from cores of basement units intersected in drillholes that penetrated overlying rocks of the Karumba (Cenozoic) and Carpentaria (Mesozoic) basins. Three of these are gneisses from the undercover extension of the Yambo Subprovince (Etheridge Province) in the northeastern part of the Georgetown Region, four are of Mesoproterozoic granites from the Forsayth Subprovince (Etheridge Province) and Croydon Province farther south, and the remaining eight are from units forming part of the Carboniferous–Permian Kennedy Igneous Association, including two from surface outcrops in the Georgetown Region and two from surface outcrops in the adjacent Cairns Region.</div><div><br></div>

<p>Dataset "Detailed surface geology – Upper Burdekin basalt provinces", downloaded from the Queensland Spatial Catalogue in April 2017 and clipped to the Upper Burdekin basalt provinces. <p>The polygons in this dataset are a digital representation of the distribution or extent of geological units within the area. Polygons have a range of attributes including unit name, age, lithological description and an abbreviated symbol for use in labelling the polygons. These have been extracted from the Rock Units Table held in Department of Natural Resources and Mines MERLIN Database. <p>© State of Queensland (Department of Natural Resources and Mines) 2017 Creative Commons Attribution