New insights on Upper Cretaceous stratigraphy and sedimentology of the Bight Basin, Australia from IODP Site U1512
Carmine Wainman A C , Peter McCabe A , Simon Holford A and the IODP Expedition 369 Scientific PartyBA Australian School of Petroleum, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, 5005, Australia.
B Expedition 369 Scientists, International Ocean Discovery Program.
C Corresponding author. Email: carmine.wainman@adelaide.edu.au
The APPEA Journal 59(2) 968-970 https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ18136
Accepted: 28 March 2019 Published: 17 June 2019
Abstract
The Bight Basin, on Australia’s southern margin, is one of the world's most prospective deepwater frontier basins. The 10 offshore wells drilled in the basin had limited success or yielded disappointing results. There has been a strong dependence on seismic data to interpret stratal ages and the regional depositional history because of the limited number of wells, which are all in the more proximal region. In October 2017, the International Ocean Discovery Program Expedition 369 drilled a hole at Site U1512 that straddled the Australian Geological Survey Organisation Survey s065 line 06 on the continental slope, ~67 km south-east of the Jerboa 1 well. The recovered core is the most extensive lithological dataset acquired from the basin and consists of a 10 m thick Pleistocene ooze overlying a 690 m succession of Turonian–Santonian strata. The Cretaceous strata consist of silty claystone with a few thin beds of glauconitic and sideritic sandstone (< 32 cm thick). The Tiger Supersequence is substantially thicker than had been anticipated. Preliminary palynofacies analysis indicates a prevailing dysoxic marine environment, with the assemblage dominated by phytoclasts (40–90% of the assemblage). This may have been a consequence of high rates of freshwater runoff into the restricted basin. Rapid sedimentation rates (up to 260 m/Myr), the silt content (2–25%) and the palynofacies suggest the strata were deposited primarily by hyperpycnal and hypopycnal flows. These new datasets will provide a means to re-evaluate the palaeogeography of the basin and its resource potential.
Keywords: palynology, Tiger Supersequence, Turonian–Santonian strata.
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 IODP. |
Peter McCabe obtained his PhD in Geology at the University of Keele in the UK in 1975. After graduating, Peter 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 was Head of School 2016–2019. His research interests are in unconventional petroleum resources, stratigraphy and resource assessments. |
Simon Holford is an Associate Professor of Petroleum Geoscience at the Australian School of Petroleum. Prior to commencing an academic role at the University of Adelaide, Simon was an ARC Australian Postdoctoral Fellow. With Ros King, he jointly leads the Stress, Structure and Seismic Research Group. Simon has published over 80 papers on various aspects of sedimentary basin tectonics and petroleum geoscience. He is a past president of the SA/NT branch of the Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia. |
The IODP Expedition 369 participants consists of scientists, laboratory technicians and outreach officers. Research undertaken on Expedition 369 focussed on the palaeoceanography and tectonics of the Naturaliste Plateau and Mentelle Basin off south-west Australia from the Mesozoic to the present day. Additional details on the Expedition 369 Scientific Participants can be found on https://iodp.tamu.edu/scienceops/precruise/swaustralia/participants.html. |
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