The crustal structure of the Gulf of Papua and northwest Coral Sea

Interpretation of seismic refraction data from the southwestern coast of the Papuan Peninsula and the northwest Coral Sea gives consistent results using several inversion techniques. Sediments over the Papuan Plateau are 5 km thick; to the west and northwest they thicken to 10 km along the axes of the Moresby and southern Aure Troughs. Farther out into the Coral Sea, over the Eastern Plateau, they are 1 to 2 km thick. Beneath the sediments, a layer with a P-wave velocity of 6.07 km s^-1 was inferred over the region. It is underlain along the southern coastline of the peninsula by a lower crustal layer with a velocity of 6.9 km s^-1, which is probably also present under the Eastern Plateau. We cannot say whether the lower crustal layer also occurs offshore under the Moresby Trough, but it is not present under the Aure Trough in the north. Intervals where the velocity increases with depth are likely in the lower crust (> 17 km) under the peninsula, but we have insufficient data to say if they are present offshore. The Moho is 27 to 29 km deep along the southwestern coast of the peninsula. It shallows to 19 km under the Moresby Trough and deepens to 25 km under the Eastern Plateau. The crust is therefore continental under the Papuan Peninsula and Eastern Plateau and, excluding the sediments, oceanic under the Moresby Trough. We have examined several tectonic models for the region that imply different stress patterns at the time of formation of the Moresby Trough. We favour one in which northern Australia, the Eastern and Papuan Plateaus and the Papuan Peninsula once formed a continuous, continental crust. With the opening of the Coral Sea Basin, crustal thinning extended northwards along the axis of the Moresby Trough, probably into the Aure Trough. This model implies a regional tensional stress pattern at the time of formation.

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Identification info

Date (Publication)
1979-01-01T00:00:00
Citation identifier
Geoscience Australia Persistent Identifier/https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/81012

Cited responsible party
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Publisher

Bureau of Mineral Resources, Geology and Geophysics

 Canberra
Author

Drummond, B.J.

 1
Author

Collins, C.D.N.

 2
Author

Gibson, G.

 3
Name

BMR Journal of Australian Geology and Geophysics

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4:4:341-351

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Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
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Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

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  • Geoscientific information

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E
W


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Unknown

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Product data repository: Various Formats

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Data Store directory containing the digital product files

Data Store directory containing one or more files, possibly in a variety of formats, accessible to Geoscience Australia staff only for internal purposes

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  • GA Publication

  • Journal

Theme

  • marine

Keywords

  • AUS

  • PNG

Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)

  • Earth Sciences

Keywords

  • Published_External

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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence

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CC-BY

Edition

4.0

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http://creativecommons.org/licenses/

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License

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Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem

Edition date
2018-11-01T00:00:00
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https://www.protectivesecurity.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx

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Unclassified
Language
English
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UTF8

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Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

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OnLine resource

Journal article (pdf)

Journal article (pdf)

Distribution format

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Non geographic dataset
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GA Publication

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Metadata constraints

Title

Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem

Edition date
2018-11-01T00:00:00
Website

https://www.protectivesecurity.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx

Classification
Unclassified

Metadata

Metadata identifier
urn:uuid/fae9173a-6fd1-71e4-e044-00144fdd4fa6

Title

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Language
English
Character encoding
UTF8
Contact
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Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

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Type of resource

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Document
Name

AGSO BMR Journal

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Geoscience Australia - short identifier for metadata record with

uuid

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eCatId/81012

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https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/fae9173a-6fd1-71e4-e044-00144fdd4fa6

Date info (Revision)
2018-04-20T06:08:34
Date info (Creation)
2014-06-03T00:00:00

Metadata standard

Title

AU/NZS ISO 19115-1:2014

Metadata standard

Title

ISO 19115-1:2014

Metadata standard

Title

ISO 19115-3

Title

Geoscience Australia Community Metadata Profile of ISO 19115-1:2014

Edition

Version 2.0, September 2018

Citation identifier
https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/122551

 
 

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S
E
W


Keywords

marine

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