Revisions to the chronostratigraphic framework of the Upper Jurassic Walloon Coal Measures of the Surat Basin, Australia
Carmine Wainman A B and Peter McCabe AA Australian School of Petroleum, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, 5005, Australia.
B Corresponding author. Email: carmine.wainman@adelaide.edu.au
The APPEA Journal 59(2) 965-967 https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ18067
Accepted: 28 March 2019 Published: 17 June 2019
Abstract
The Upper Jurassic Walloon Coal Measures (WCM) in the Surat Basin host the largest coal seam gas (CSG) resource in Australia. Despite this, a poorly defined lithostratigraphic framework hinders the development of reservoir models and groundwater flow simulations. Correlations in the WCM are challenging, owing to the complex arrangement of facies over short distances and the absence of a reliable regional stratigraphic datum. To better correlate the strata, 26 tuff beds were dated using the U–Pb chemical abrasion thermal ionisation mass spectrometry methodology across the Surat Basin CSG fairway. This initially suggested that coal-bearing strata in the basin were diachronous. However, the acquisition of a new date from the Surat Basin has identified a five million year time gap between dated tuffs ~20 m apart. This suggests the presence of an unconformity and that there were two independent episodes of coal accumulation in the basin. Above the unconformity, there are incised valleys with a sedimentary infill that transitions from fluvial- to tidal-influenced facies, as indicated by dinoflagellate cysts and tidal sedimentary structures, including double mud drapes. The cause of the unconformity is likely to be tectonic, as eustatic sea-level was rising during the Kimmeridigian. The marine incursion into the basin is the consequence of a highstand of sea-level during the early Tithonian. The application of the new chronostratigraphic framework should elucidate the evolution of fluviolacustrine systems in the basin and aid in resource prediction. Further dating of tuffs in the basin could refine the stratigraphic framework.
Keywords: CA-TIMS, chronostratigraphy, U–Pb dating.
Carmine Wainman is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Adelaide in Australia. He completed his PhD in 2018 at the same university and received his MSc (integrated) degree in Geology from the University of Southampton, United Kingdom, in 2012. Before commencing his PhD, he worked for the RSK Group and Woodside Energy. His research focuses on Middle–Upper Jurassic coal-bearing strata in eastern Australia and the evolution of Upper Cretaceous strata in the Bight Basin on Australia's southern margin in collaboration with the International Ocean Discovery Program. |
Peter McCabe obtained his PhD in Geology at the University of Keele in the UK in 1975. After graduating, he moved to North America where he worked for various organisations, including Exxon Production Research Co. in Houston and the Alberta Research Council in Edmonton. He worked for 20 years with the US Geological Survey and headed up the Asia Pacific part of their World Energy Assessment that was released in 2000. In 2007, he moved to Australia and worked with the CSIRO where he headed up their Oil and Gas Exploration Team. He joined the Australian School of Petroleum at the University of Adelaide in 2014 as the State Chair in Petroleum Geology and became Head of School in February 2016. His research interests are in unconventional petroleum resources, stratigraphy and resource assessments. |
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