Great Artesian Basin Vshale modelling, Version 2.0 ‒ Data package of Vshale modelling based on the Eastern Australia 3D geological and hydrogeological surfaces update, Version 2.0

This data package, completed as part of Geoscience Australia’s National Groundwater Systems (NGS) Project, presents results of the second iteration of the 3D Great Artesian Basin (GAB) and Lake Eyre Basin (LEB) (Figure 1) geological and hydrogeological models (Vizy &amp; Rollet, 2023) populated with volume of shale (Vshale) values calculated on 2,310 wells in the Surat, Eromanga, Carpentaria and Lake Eyre basins (Norton &amp; Rollet, 2023). This provides a refined architecture of aquifer and aquitard geometry that can be used as a proxy for internal, lateral, and vertical, variability of rock properties within each of the 18 GAB-LEB hydrogeological units (Figure 2). These data compilations and information are brought to a common national standard to help improve hydrogeological conceptualisation of groundwater systems across multiple jurisdictions.  This information will assist water managers to support responsible groundwater management and secure groundwater into the future. This 3D Vshale model of the GAB provides a common framework for further data integration with other disciplines, industry, academics and the public and helps assess the impact of water use and climate change. It aids in mapping current groundwater knowledge at a GAB-wide scale and identifying critical groundwater areas for long-term monitoring.

The NGS project is part of the Exploring for the Future (EFTF) program—an eight-year, $225 million Australian Government funded geoscience data and precompetitive information acquisition program. The program seeks to inform decision-making by government, community, and industry on the sustainable development of Australia's mineral, energy, and groundwater resources, including those to support the effective long-term management of GAB water resources.

This work builds on the first iteration completed as part of the Great Artesian Basin Groundwater project (Vizy &amp; Rollet, 2022; Rollet et al., 2022), and infills previous data and knowledge gaps in the GAB and LEB with additional borehole, airborne electromagnetic and seismic interpretation. The Vshale values calculated on additional wells in the southern Surat and southern Eromanga basins and in the whole of Carpentaria and Lake Eyre basins provide higher resolution facies variability estimates from the distribution of generalised sand-shale ratio across the 18 GAB-LEB hydrogeological units. 

The data reveals a complex mixture of sedimentary environments in the GAB, and highlights sand body development and hydraulic characteristics within aquifers and aquitards. Understanding the regional extents of these sand-rich areas provides insights into potential preferential flow paths, within and between the GAB and LEB, and aquifer compartmentalisation. However, there are limitations that require further study, including data gaps and the need to integrate petrophysics and hydrogeological data. Incorporating major faults and other structures would also enhance our understanding of fluid flow pathways.

The revised Vshale model, incorporating additional boreholes to a total of 2,310 boreholes, contributes to our understanding of groundwater flow and connectivity in the region, from the recharge beds to discharge at springs, and Groundwater Dependant Ecosystems (GDEs). It also facilitates interbasinal connectivity analysis. This 3D Vshale model offers a consistent framework for integrating data from various sources, allowing for the assessment of water use impacts and climate change at different scales. It can be used to map groundwater knowledge across the GAB and identify areas that require long-term monitoring. Additionally, the distribution of boreholes with gamma ray logs used for the Vshale work in each GAB and LEB units (Norton &amp; Rollet, 2022; 2023) is used to highlight areas where additional data acquisition or interpretation is needed in data-poor areas within the GAB and LEB units.

The second iteration of surfaces with additional Vshale calculation data points provides more confidence in the distribution of sand bodies at the whole GAB scale. The current model highlights that the main Precipice, Hutton, Adori-Springbok and Cadna-owie‒Hooray aquifers are relatively well connected within their respective extents, particularly the Precipice and Hutton Sandstone aquifers and equivalents. The Bungil Formation, the Mooga Sandstone and the Gubberamunda Sandstone are partial and regional aquifers, which are restricted to the Surat Basin. These are time equivalents to the Cadna-owie–Hooray major aquifer system that extends across the Eromanga Basin, as well as the Gilbert River Formation and Eulo Queen Group which are important aquifers onshore in the Carpentaria Basin. The current iteration of the Vshale model confirms that the Cadna-owie–Hooray and time equivalent units form a major aquifer system that spreads across the whole GAB. It consists of sand bodies within multiple channel belts that have varying degrees of connectivity' i.e. being a channelised system some of the sands will be encased within overbank deposits and isolated, while others will be stacked, cross-cutting systems that provide vertical connectivity. The channelised systemtransitions vertically and laterally into a shallow marine environment (Rollet et al., 2022). Sand-rich areas are also mapped within the main Poolowanna, Brikhead-Walloon and Westbourne interbasinal aquitards, as well as the regional Rolling Downs aquitard that may provide some potential pathways for upward leakage of groundwater to the shallow Winton-Mackunda aquifer and overlying Lake Eyre Basin. Further integration with hydrochemical data may help groundtruth some of these observations.

This metadata document is associated with a data package including:
•   Seventeen surfaces with Vshale property (Table 1),
•   Seventeen surfaces with less than 40% Vshale property (Table 2),
•   Twenty isochore with average Vshale property (Table 3),
•   Twenty isochore with less than 40% Vshale property (Table 4), 
•   Sixteen Average Vshale intersections of less than 40% Vshale property delineating potential connectivity between isochore (Table 5),
•   Sixteen Average Vshale intersections of less than 40% Vshale property delineating potential connectivity with isochore above and below (Table 6),
•   Seventeen upscaled Vshale log intersection locations (Table 7),
•   Six regional sections showing geology and Vshale property (Table 8),
•   Three datasets with location of boreholes, sections, and area of interest (Table 9).

Tags: 3D hydrostratigraphic modelling, Basins, Carpentaria Basin, Cenozoic, Clarence-Moreton Basin, EARTH SCIENCES, EFTF, Eromanga Basin, Exploring For The Future, GAB, Great Artesian Basin, Groundwater, Lake Eyre Basin, Laura Basin, Mesozoic, NGS, National Groundwater Systems, New South Wales, Northern Territory, Paleozoic, Published_External, Queensland, South Australia, Surat Basin, Upper Darling Flood Plain, VShale calculation, Vshale Modelling, lithology variability, porosity and permeability
Organization: Australian Ocean Data Network