High resolution seismic reflection experiments in regions of precambrian sediments

Abstract

The thick sedimentary sequence that forms the Adelaide Geosyncline in South Australia accumulated in a subsiding trough east of the Gawler Craton, which is part of the Australian Precambrian shield. Between the mobile Torrens Hinge Zone on the western edge of this trough and the crystalline basement of the Gawler Craton, a gently dipping shelf facies was deposited over an irregular and gently undulating basement surface. This stable shelf zone is known as the Stuart Stable Shelf (see Fig. 1) and it has become an area of intensive exploration for base metals since the discovery of the Cattle Grid orebody at Mount Gunson in 1972 and the Olympic Dam copper-uranium orebody in 1975.