This map is part of a series which comprises 50 maps which covers the whole of Australia at a scale of 1:1 000 000 (1cm on a map represents 10km on the ground). Each standard map covers an area of 6 degrees longitude by 4 degrees latitude or about 590 kilometres east to west and about 440 kilometres from north to south. These maps depict natural and constructed features including transport infrastructure (roads, railway airports), hydrography, contours, hypsometric and bathymetric layers, localities and some administrative boundaries, making this a useful general reference map.

This abstract describes the context and methodology of the Northern Territory energy assessment. The Northern Territory energy assessment aims to assess the potential for uranium and geothermal systems within the southern Northern Territory.

The Georgina Basin is a Neoproterozoic to Lower Devonian sedimentary basin covering 325,000 km2 of western Queensland and the Northern Territory. It is a northwest-southeast-trending extensional basin, with prospective conventional and unconventional hydrocarbon targets within Cambrian and Ordovician carbonate and siliciclastic rock units. The unconventional gas and oil potential of the basin has led to considerable recent exploration interest, although the basin has been relatively underexplored in the past. At the southern end of the basin, depocentres contain up to 2.2 km of Cambrian to Devonian sedimentary rocks, overlying Neoproterozoic sedimentary rocks over 1.5 km thick. The basin succession thins toward the north, where Cambrian sediments overlie the McArthur Basin sediments in the Beetaloo Sub-basin. Biostratigraphic interpretations of the prospective southern, central and eastern regions of the basin have been revised to reflect the 2012 Geological Time Scale (Gradstein et al. 2012), resulting in an updated chronostratigraphic framework for the basin. The revised biostratigraphic interpretations have implications for important hydrocarbon source rocks. For example, the limestone unit in the southern parts of the basin, generally regarded as the Thorntonia Limestone, is of a different age to the type section for this unit, located in the Undilla Sub-basin. Additionally, the basal 'hot shale' of the Arthur Creek Formation is diachronous across the Dulcie and Toko synclines, which may have ramifications for hydrocarbon exploration. This revised chronostratigraphic framework for the Georgina Basin provides a baseline for the first basin-wide assessment of the unconventional hydrocarbon potential of the basin, by Geoscience Australia.

Hydrogeology of East Timor Poster (IGC 2012)

Aquifer characterisation and groundwater resources of Dili, East Timor

Coastal aquifer vulnerability to seawater intrusion.

Collaboration between Geoscience Australia and the Attorney Generals Department. The map series depicts local government areas in SA eligible for NDRRA assistance following natural disasters.

Development of python-FALL3D: a modified procedure for modelling volcanic ash dispersal in the Asia-Pacific region

A geological assessment of the offshore northern Perth Basin, Western Australia, has been completed as part of the Australian Government's Offshore Energy Security Program. The study provides new insights into the petroleum prospectivity of the basin and enhances the potential for new oil and gas discoveries through reducing exploration risk. New sequence stratigraphic and geochemical studies of key offshore wells, in conjunction with revised biostratigraphy, have shown that the Late Permian-Early Triassic Hovea Member (Kockatea Shale) source interval, responsible for previous discoveries onshore and nearshore, is regionally extensive offshore and has good to excellent source-rock potential for generating oil. This is supported by fluid inclusion data that identified widespread palaeo-oil columns in Permian reservoirs below the regional Kockatea Shale seal. Petroleum systems modelling suggests oil derived from the Hovea Member in these palaeo-oil columns was generated either locally in the Abrolhos Sub-basin, or from the adjacent Houtman Sub-basin. A major exploration risk in the offshore northern Perth Basin is loss of petroleum accumulations due to trap breach. Stratigraphic plays, which can accumulate and preserve hydrocarbons away from faults, were identified to address this risk. A potential, large upper Permian stratigraphic play occurs within the Abrolhos depocentre. The interpreted clastic lowstand basin fan complex comprises a thick basinal succession and is overlain by the Kockatea Shale regional seal. 2D basin modelling indicates this potential reservoir was well positioned to receive lateral charge from the overlying Hovea Member.

The Japanese Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflectance Radiometer (ASTER) data has 14 bands spanning: the visible and near-infrared (VNIR, 15 m pixel resolution); shortwave-infrared (SWIR, 30 m pixel resolution); and thermal infrared (TIR, 90 m pixel resolution). This wavelength range allows measurement of diagnostic spectral features for mineral groups significant for the characterisation of primary geology, metamorphic, metasomatic alteration and weathering effects. Each band in the 1-12?m region has been positioned over a diagnostic mineral group spectral feature, for example Al-clays, iron oxides, carbonates and silica (Cudahy et al., 2012). These features have been used to process ASTER scenes covering the whole of Australia into a suite of geoscience products. Continental-Scale Mineralogical Patterns The AlOH Group Composition map for South Australia (Figure 1) is a good example of how these maps can be used to characterise the surface on a large scale. In this case there is a very distinctive change from Al-smectite soils (green and red colours) in the East to the kaolinite-rich soils (blue) in the West. Most of the soils consist of Quaternary Dunes and therefore, the change in soil type probably represents a change in source material over time. Prospect-Scale Uranium Mineral System The Arkaroola region, located in the Northern Flinders Ranges, South Australia (Figure 2) provides an excellent opportunity to explore the ASTER geoscience products because the Cenozoic plains to the East and North of the escarpment contain the majority of Australia's known resources of sandstone-hosted uranium mineralisation (Skirrow, 2009) but the extent of the mineral system is unknown. The mineral system consists of the uranium-rich Proterozoic basement of the Finders Ranges as the source, oxidised uranium-bearing meteoric water travelling by gravitational energy as the pathway and reducing environments as the mechanism for uranium precipitation (Skirrow, 2009). Whilst most of the mineral system operates below the surface, there are some components that can be identified within the ASTER products, which provide information on the surface of the Earth and may indicate the presence of an underlying system. The Ferric Oxide Composition Map shows goethite-rich sediment (in blue) in contrast to hematite-rich sediment (reds to yellows) and is particularly useful in mapping transported material including paleochannels and paleovalleys (Cudahy, 2012). This product was studied in combination with a regional scale Airborne Electromagnetic (AEM) survey that was undertaken in the region by Geoscience Australia and the Geological Survey of South Australia as part of the Australian Government's Onshore Energy Security Program (OESP) in 2010. A number of palaeovalleys were identified using the data collected and one of these areas is highlighted by the black box in Figure 3. This area contains paleogene sands of medium conductivity (yellow) meeting the Pooraka Formation of low conductivity (blue). In this case the paleogene sands are the remanet valleys. Figure 3 also shows that the Ferric Oxide Composition product can distinguish these paleovalleys, as they are more hematite rich (light green) than the surrounding Pooraka Formation (blue). Therefore, this product can be used to help locate valleys in other locations.