Product catalogue
Investigating Australia's Under Cover Geology Using the World's Largest Airborne Electomagnetic Survey
The AusAEM survey is the world's largest airborne electromagnetic (AEM) survey flown to date, extending across an area exceeding 3.5 million km2 over Western Australia, the Northern Territory, Queensland, New South Wales Victoria and South Australia. Airborne electromagnetics is a geophysical method at the forefront in addressing the challenge of exploration under cover. In collaboration with the state and territory geological surveys, Geoscience Australia has led a national initiative whose goal is to acquire AEM data at a nominal line spacing of 20 km across Australia. The interpreted AEM conductivity sections were inverted using Geoscience Australia's open source Layered Earth Inversion Sample-By-Sample Time Domain Electromagnetics (GALEISBSTDEM) inversion. Horizontal along-flight line resolution is 12.5 m, and the vertical resolution varies exponentially with depth. Inversion cell sizes increase from 4.0 m at the surface to ~55 m in the bottom cell of the conductivity sections, ~500 m below surface. Consequently, the ability to resolve fine detail varies with depth.
Using this dataset, we interpret the depth to chronostratigraphic surfaces, assembled stratigraphic relationship information, and delineated structural and electrically conductive features. Our results improved understanding of upper-crustal geology, led to 3D mapping of palaeovalleys, prompted further investigation of electrical conductors and their relationship to structural features and mineralisation, and helped us continuously connect correlative outcropping units separated by up to hundreds of kilometres. Our interpretation is designed to improve targeting and outcomes for mineral, energy and groundwater exploration, and contributes to our understanding of the chronostratigraphic, structural and upper-crustal evolution of northern Australia. Almost 200,000 regional depth measurements have been collected, each attributed with detailed geological information, are an important step towards a national geological framework, and offer a regional context for more detailed, smaller-scale AEM surveys.
The AusAEM programme delivers much more than just reliable depth-to-cover estimates and the location of paleochannels. It can reveal basin architecture and regionally map structures, making it a crucial layer of data for mineral, energy and groundwater and exploration. It has become an essential part of data-driven decision making for conservation and environmental management.
Simple
Identification info
- Date (Creation)
- 2021-06-16T00:00:00
- Date (Publication)
- 2024-05-13T08:07:43
- Citation identifier
- Geoscience Australia Persistent Identifier/https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/148791
- Citation identifier
- Digital Object Identifier/https://dx.doi.org/10.26186/148791
- Cited responsible party
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Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Publisher Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice Author Wong, S.
MEG Internal Contact Author LeyCooper, Y.
MEG Internal Contact
- Name
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Wednesday Seminar
- Purpose
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To promote the scientific achievements of Geoscience Australia.
- Status
- Completed
- Point of contact
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Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Point of contact Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice Point of contact Wong, S.
External Contact Resource provider Minerals, Energy and Groundwater Division
External Contact
- Spatial representation type
- Topic category
-
- Geoscientific information
Extent
Extent
))
- Maintenance and update frequency
- As needed
Resource format
- Title
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Product data repository: Various Formats
- Protocol
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FILE:DATA-DIRECTORY
- Name of the resource
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Data Store directory containing the digital product files
- Description
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Data Store directory containing one or more files, possibly in a variety of formats, accessible to Geoscience Australia staff only for internal purposes
- theme.ANZRC Fields of Research.rdf
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EARTH SCIENCES
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- Keywords
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Wednesday Seminar
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- Keywords
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magnetic methods
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- Keywords
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airborne methods
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- Keywords
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Published_External
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Resource constraints
- Title
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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence
- Alternate title
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CC-BY
- Edition
-
4.0
- Access constraints
- License
- Use constraints
- License
- Other constraints
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(c) Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia) 2023
Resource constraints
- Title
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Australian Government Security Classification System
- Edition date
- 2018-11-01T00:00:00
- Classification
- Unclassified
- Language
- English
- Character encoding
- UTF8
Distribution Information
- Distributor contact
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Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Distributor Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice facsimile
- OnLine resource
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Link to YouTube video
Link to YouTube video
- Distribution format
-
Resource lineage
- Statement
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Seminar recording as part of the Geoscience Australia public talks programs
Metadata constraints
- Title
-
Australian Government Security Classification System
- Edition date
- 2018-11-01T00:00:00
- Classification
- Unclassified
Metadata
- Metadata identifier
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urn:uuid/ea33d6a3-d2f6-4c82-88ff-f2e38eff56bb
- Title
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GeoNetwork UUID
- Language
- English
- Character encoding
- UTF8
- Contact
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Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Point of contact Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice Owner Sedgmen, L.
Corporate Division Internal Contact Point of contact Wong, S.
External Contact
Type of resource
- Resource scope
- Document
- Name
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Presentation
Alternative metadata reference
- Title
-
Geoscience Australia - short identifier for metadata record with
uuid
- Citation identifier
- eCatId/148791
- Date info (Creation)
- 2019-04-08T01:55:29
- Date info (Revision)
- 2019-04-08T01:55:29
Metadata standard
- Title
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AU/NZS ISO 19115-1:2014
Metadata standard
- Title
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ISO 19115-1:2014
Metadata standard
- Title
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ISO 19115-3
- Title
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Geoscience Australia Community Metadata Profile of ISO 19115-1:2014
- Edition
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Version 2.0, September 2018
- Citation identifier
- https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/122551