Structural and stratigraphic architecture of Australia’s frontier onshore sedimentary basins: the Western Officer and Southern Carnarvon basins, Western Australia
L. Carr A , R. Korsch A , A. Mory B , R. Hocking B , S. Marshall A , R. Costelloe A , J. Holzschuh A and J. Maher AA Geoscience Australia.
B Geological Survey of Western Australia.
The APPEA Journal 52(2) 670-670 https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ11084
Published: 2012
Abstract
During the past five years, the Onshore Energy Security Program, funded by the Australian Government and conducted by Geoscience Australia, in conjunction with state and territory geological surveys, has acquired deep seismic reflection data across several frontier sedimentary basins to stimulate petroleum exploration in onshore Australia.
This extended abstract presents data from two seismic lines collected in Western Australia in 2011. The 487 km long Yilgarn-Officer-Musgrave (YOM) seismic line crossed the western Officer Basin in Western Australia, and the 259 km long, Southern Carnarvon Seismic line crossed the Byro Sub-basin of the Southern Carnarvon Basin.
The YOM survey imaged the Neoproterozoic to Devonian western Officer Basin, one of Australia’s underexplored sedimentary basins with hydrocarbon potential. The survey data will also provide geoscientific knowledge on the architecture of Australia’s crust and the relationship between the eastern Yilgarn Craton and the Musgrave Province.
The Southern Carnarvon survey imaged the onshore section of the Ordovician to Permian Carnarvon Basin, which offshore is one of Australia’s premier petroleum-producing provinces.
The Byro Sub-basin is an underexplored depocentre with the potential for both hydrocarbon and geothermal energy. Where the seismic traverse crossed the Byro Sub-basin it imaged two relatively thick half graben, on west dipping bounding faults. Structural and sequence stratigraphic interpretations of the two seismic lines are presented in this extended abstract.
Lidena Carr is a geologist in the Onshore Petroleum Project in the energy division at Geoscience Australia. In 2004, she graduated from ANU with a BA/BSc (geology and human ecology) (hons), then she began working as a technical officer at the Research School of Earth Sciences (ANU). In 2007, she joined Geoscience Australia before moving to her present position in early 2009. Member: PESA, GSA. |
Russell Korsch is a group leader in the minerals and natural hazards division at Geoscience Australia. He is responsible for the onshore petroleum and energy geodynamics components of the Australian Government’s Onshore Energy Security Program. He has a BSc (hons), a PhD, and a DipEd from UNE. He is on the executive of the editorial board of Australian Journal of Earth Sciences. Member: GSAm, GSA, PESA. |
Arthur is a senior geologist with GSWA, where he has worked since 1980, mainly on the state’s onshore Phanerozoic succession. |
Roger Hocking completed a BSc (hons), an MSc, and a DipEd at UNE. He joined GSWA in late 1974, gradually rising to his present position of chief geoscientist. He has worked as a sedimentologist and stratigrapher on siliciclastic and carbonate rocks ranging in age from Holocene to Paleoproterozoic, with a brief excursion into the Archean, in undeformed to moderately deformed basins and orogens across WA, in both minerals and petroleum-oriented terranes. His career has focused on putting together broad geological frameworks that give context to later workers and taking a holistic view of where to draw the boundaries of a project. |
Sarah completed a BSc (geology and geophysics) (hons)—studying the Eastern Ghats in India—from the University of Adelaide. In 2011, she joined Geoscience Australia’s graduate program before joining the groundwater group in the environmental division. |
Ross Costelloe works at Geoscience Australia in the seismic acquisition and processing project. He has extensive experience in geophysical data acquisition and processing and interpretation. He has previously worked for GSI, Halliburton Geophysical Services, Geoterrex-Dighem, and CSIRO in various roles. His career has included data acquisition and processing projects in Australia, Indonesia, Turkey, India, and Botswana, working with seismic, gravity, aem, and airborne magnetics, and radiometrics data. He has a BSc (applied mathematics) from the University of Sydney and an MSc (Earth physics) from ANU. |
Josef Holzschuh has been a seismic processor with Geoscience Australia since 2007 and he has processed numerous onshore deep crustal seismic data from different parts of Australia, including seismic line 08GA-A1. He graduated with a BSc (geology and geophysics) (hons) from the University of Sydney in 1995 and with a PhD (geophysics) from UWA in 2000. |
Jenny Maher is a member of the Geoscience and engineering team of the newly formed National Offshore Petroleum Titles Administrator (NOPTA), a branch of the Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism. Prior to transferring to NOPTA in February 2012, she was leader of the Seismic Acquisition and Processing (SAP) Project of the onshore energy and minerals division at Geoscience Australia—she coordinated the seismic acquisition surveys for the Onshore Energy Security program. She joined Geoscience Australia, known then as BMR, in 1985 after graduating from the University of Canberra. Prior to leading the SAP Project, she worked in many different areas within GA, including managing the acreage release and petroleum promotion project, coordinating petroleum databases, and managing the digital seismic data collected within the Petroleum Submerged Land Act (PSLA). |
References
Ghori, K.A.R., 1998—Petroleum source-rock potential and thermal history of the Officer Basin. Western Australia: Western Australia Geological Survey, Record 1998/3, 52p.Ghori, K.A.R., 1999—Silurian-Devonian petroleum source-rock potential and thermal history, Carnarvon Basin. Western Australia: Western Australia Geological Survey, Report 72, 88p.
Iasky, R.P., Mory, A.J., and Blundell, K.A., 2001—The geophysical interpretation of the Woodleigh impact structure, Southern Carnarvon Basin. Western Australia: Western Australia Geological Survey, Report 79, 41p.
Mory, A.J., Iasky, R.P., and Ghori, K.A.R., 2003—A summary of the geological evolution and petroleum potential of the Southern Carnarvon Basin. Western Australia: Western Australia Geological Survey, Report 86, 26p.
Simeonova, A.P., and Iasky, R.P., 2005—Seismic mapping, salt deformation, and hydrocarbon potential of the central western Officer Basin. Western Australia: Western Australia Geological Survey, Report 98, 51p.
