This second edition, coming after the first one published in 1990, has been entirely revised in order to show a clear distinction between sedimentary, volcanic extrusive, and endogenous dated formations. The geology of the oceans has been also updated according to the most recent magnetic and satellite-gravimetric data. Positions of the main volcanoes and meteoritic craters were added to the map. The new cartographic conception of the map allows a rapid visual reconstruction of the main plates and sub-plates of the global tectonics. This geological wall map is the only one existing today that presents the world geological setting at a glance. There is a clearly distinguishable contrast between the continents - whose rocks may attain an age up to nearly 4 billion years&endash; and the oceanic crust - whose age does not exceed 200 million years.

The satellite images below show the dramatic effect on the land of recent heavy rain, causing floodwaters to inundate south-west Queensland. This area is known as the Channel Country and has an extensive braided river system which includes the Georgina River, the Diamantina River and Cooper Creek. Excess water from this area generally feeds into the Lake Eyre system which is a vast drainage basin in Australia's arid interior. Flooding of the magnitude visible on the satellite images can cause Lake Eyre to fill up - something which occurs very rarely.

Product no longer exists, please refer to GeoCat #30413 for the data

Product no longer exists, please refer to GeoCat #30413 for the data

Product no longer exists, please refer to GeoCat #30413 for the data

Product no longer exists, please refer to GeoCat #30413 for the data

Product no longer exists, please refer to GeoCat #30413 for the data

Product no longer exists, please refer to GeoCat #30413 for the data

Swath-mapping of the seabed started soon after the Second World War, with small towed sidescan sonars providing images and built-in multi beam sonars providing bathymetry contour maps. Since then, variants of both systems have developed enormously to cover all water depths, and many of them can produce both acoustic imagery and contours. Today, swath widths of up to seven times the water depth allow rapid and accurate mapping. Swath-mapping has largely replaced the far less efficient single-beam profiling as a mapping tool. Several deepwater systems have been used on the Australian margin, and this paper concentrates on their use. At this stage, less than 5% of Australias offshore jurisdiction (larger than our onshore jurisdiction) has been mapped. HMAS Cook was brought into service in the 1960s with a very early SeaBeam multibeam system. Its most notable scientific successes were in 1989, when it was used in conjunction with the long-range towed GLORIA sidescan sonar system. Geologically important results were obtained off the Great Barrier Reef, south of Sydney, and west of Robe in South Australia. Since then, a number of transits through Australian waters, using modern SeaBeam systems, have been carried out by US institutions. In 1997, AGSO used R.V. Melville to map a large area off eastern Tasmania and in Bass Strait. Spectacular sidescan sonar images (with far higher resolution than those from GLORIA) and associated bathymetry have been obtained in the back-arc basins of Papua New Guinea by the SeaMarc II and HMR1 systems. The first major HMR1 survey in Australian waters was carried out in 1994 on the Macquarie Ridge with AGSO providing R.V. Rig Seismic as the platform. In 1994, AGSO used the French R.V. L Atalante with the Simrad EM12D multibeam system for mapping off Tasmania. The magnificent contour maps and images have revolutionised our geological understanding of an area three times that of Tasmania, and have enabled us to target seabed sampling programs for a greatly improved understanding of geological evolution and petroleum potential. These maps have been of substantial benefit to fishermen and biological and fisheries researchers, as have the Melville maps from eastern Tasmania. Several transit surveys using L Atalante have provided useful maps elsewhere off Australia. Government is considering how to develop our knowledge base to allow effective management of our vast offshore jurisdictional area: a 200 nautical mile Exclusive Economic Zone; and, beyond that, an extension of the legal Continental Shelf, which AGSO has been directed to map by 2004, to allow a maximum claim under the UN Law of the Sea provisions. A key element in management activities is adequate maps, which require methodical mapping of the seabed, using swath-mapping techniques. The RAN Hydrographic Service is acquiring vessels and systems capable of mapping the continental shelf. A national program, to map the entire Australian jurisdiction of 10 million km" beyond the continental shelf, but excluding the Australian Antarctic Territory, would take about 12 years and cost about $ 150 million, including all facets from acquisition to processing and storage, interpretation, and provision of digital data to the public. Such a program has strong multidisciplinary scientific, industrial and bureaucratic support, and would provide the information to properly manage our jurisdiction.

Australia has progressed from a continent considered to have little potential for petroleum resources in 1950 to a middle-order oil and gas producer on a worldwide scale in the late 1990s. The Petroleum Search Subsidy Act (1957) encouraged exploration that resulted in discoveries in the Gippsland, Carnarvon, Amadeus, Cooper, Bowen and Surat Basins. Together with the Bonaparte and Eromanga Basins, these basins are now Australias main petroleum producing regions. Subsequently, the Petroleum (Submerged Lands) Act (1967) and various State Acts were passed to manage exploration and production. In Australia, about 7750 million barrels of crude oil and condensate (1230 gigalitres) and 96 trillion cubic feet of gas (2720 billion cubic metres) had been identified to the end of 1996. The Bureau of Resource Sciences (BRS) assessed that between 1320 million barrels (95% probability) and 3440 million barrels (5%) of crude oil remain to be discovered, and between 18 trillion cubic feet (95% probability) and 58 trillion cubic feet (5% probability) of sales gas remain to be discovered. Australias most prospective crude oil basins, ranked in order, are assessed as the Carnarvon, Bonaparte, Gippsland, Browse, Perth, Otway and Eromanga, with speculative potential in the Perth Basin, Otway Basin and other basins. The most prospective basins for sales gas are ranked as Carnarvon, Browse, Otway, Bonaparte, Cooper, Gippsland and Perth Basins. Australias likely ultimate crude oil resource was assessed as being about 52% depleted and sales gas resource as about 10% depleted at mid-1997 (BRS 1998). However, because of the relatively low level of exploration in Australia it is impossible to estimate how long the petroleum resource will last. Approximately 94% of crude oil production and 75% of gas production are from offshore. New production is likely to come mainly from already-known basins with contributions from deepwater areas and possibly the Exclusive Economic Zone.