FLUVIAL ARCHITECTURE AND THE TECTONIC CONTROL ON DEPOSITION OF ONSHORE EUMERALLA FORMATION, OTWAY RANGES, VICTORIA: IMPLICATIONS FOR EXPLORATION IN THE EARLY CRETACEOUS OTWAY BASIN

Abstract

Spectacular outcrops of the terrestrial Aptian-Albian Eumeralla Formation are exposed in the Skenes Creek– Wongarra region, located on the eastern margin of the Otway Ranges, Victoria. The succession comprises mudstone-dominated floodplain and lacustrine successions and fluvially-derived sandstones. Lithofacies observed in the study area comprise intraformational and exotically derived conglomerate, massive and planar laminated sandstone, trough and tabular cross-bedded sandstone, ripple laminated sandstone, interbedded sandstone and mudstone, massive to laminated mudstone and thin coal seams. Architectural analysis of the fluvial system reveals these lithofacies are arranged into architectural elements that include channel elements, sandy bedforms, downstream and lateral accretion elements, laminated sand sheets and overbank fines elements.

The fluvial system is characterised by low-sinuousity, braided river channels with high width to depth ratios. Palaeocurrent data indicates that the generally westward palaeoflow is interpreted to have been diverted into local axial-through drainage patterns by active northeast trending normal faults. One of these, the Skenes Creek Fault, is also likely to have structurally isolated floodplain and lacustrine successions from the main channel belt, leading to the deposition of an anomalously thick coal measure sequence in the hanging wall of the fault. The local study therefore provides insight into regional lithofacies and potential source rock distributions, and the associated tectonostratigraphic evolution of the Eumeralla Formation in the eastern Otway Basin. While the nature of the Eumeralla Formation sandstone does not lend itself to good reservoir properties, the geometry and internal structure of the sands provide an excellent model for other fluvial sandstone reservoir reconstructions.