Register      Login
Australian Energy Producers Journal Australian Energy Producers Journal Society
Journal of Australian Energy Producers
 

Concurrent 23. Oral Presentation for: The distribution and morphology of Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous igneous intrusions in the Northern Carnarvon Basin

Michael Curtis A *
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia.

* Correspondence to: michael.curtis@adelaide.edu.au

The APPEA Journal 63 - https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ22380
Published: 2 June 2023

Abstract

Presented on Wednesday 17 May: Session 23

The Northern Carnarvon Basin (NCB) contains extensive networks of igneous intrusions emplaced during Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous rifting that led to the breakup of the Greater India from Australia. We present the first basin-wide study of the distribution and morphology of these igneous intrusions through the interpretation of regionally extensive 3D and closely spaced 2D seismic data across the Exmouth Plateau and Exmouth Sub-basin. We observe three dominant intrusion morphologies: (1) Saucer-shaped intrusions up to ~20 × 40 km, but commonly much smaller, present in Jurassic strata of the southern Exmouth Plateau and central Exmouth Sub-basin; (2) Large, stacked, strata parallel, sheet intrusions, often >100 km in length, dominant in Triassic strata in the Exmouth Plateau and southern Exmouth Sub-basin; and (3) Variably sized, predominantly strata parallel and occasionally fault hosted intrusions (ranging in dimension from ~5 × 8 to ~35 × 65 km) present in Jurassic rocks in the Exmouth Sub-basin, and uppermost Triassic rocks in the Exmouth Plateau. We suggest that the morphologies of intrusions in the NCB are predominantly controlled the mechanical properties of their host rocks.

To access the Oral Presentation click the link on the right. To read the full paper click here

Keywords: 3D seismic, Exmouth Plateau, Exmouth Sub‐basin, intrusion mapping, intrusion morphology, intrusions, magma emplacement, Northern Carnarvon Basin, petroleum exploration, sills.

Michael Curtis is currently completing his PhD on the impact of magmatism on Carnarvon Basin petroleum systems at the Australian School of Petroleum and Energy Resources in Adelaide, whilst working full-time with Santos in the Operations Geomechanics team based in Brisbane.