AndreaBozzo/ceres-open-data-index huggingface dataset:
The late Cainozoic sequence of southeast South Australia and Pleistocene sea-level changes

A recent drilling program in southeast South Australia has provided new insight into the late Cainozoic sequence of that area. Uplift of the region occurred during the Pleistocene, related in part to volcanic activity in the Mount Gambier-Mount Burr area. This, together with eustatic sea-level changes, resulted in the development of a regressive sequence, which over a period of 690 000 years or less, led to a 100 km seaward progradation of the shore-line between Naracoorte and Robe. The sequence is made up of a ridge-forming sandy facies comprising beach and very shallow marine sands at the base, and aeolian sands at the top. These sediments are separated by a fine-grained interdunal facies deposited initially under bay or estuarine conditions, grading into lagoonal and finally saline lacustrine conditions at the top. The sequence between Naracoorte and Robe holds great promise as a location for establishing Pleistocene sea-level changes. The current program suggests at least 20 major high sea-level stands during the past 690 000 years.

Tags: Earth Sciences, GA Publication, Journal, Published_External, SA
Organization: Geoscience Australia Data
Hydrocarbon Families of the NW Shelf: A Regional Synthesis of the Molecular and Isotopic Composition of Oils and Gases

Petroleum accumulations have been discovered in the Bonaparte, Browse and Carnarvon basins over the last fifty years. However, a regional synthesis of the geochemistry of these North West Shelf hydrocarbons has not been published. To address this, we document the biomarker and isotopic analyses of ~300 North West Shelf oils/condensate samples that have been statistically characterised into genetically related families. Additionally, carbon and hydrogen isotopic signatures of ~50 gas samples, together with existing molecular data for ~1000 gas samples, show regional trends in wetness and abundance of non-combustible gases.

These petroleum accumulations can be attributed to source rocks of Early Carboniferous, Permian, Triassic, Jurassic, and Early Cretaceous age; however, most economic oil and gas accumulations are sourced from Mesozoic (Triassic–Jurassic) sediments. The oils produced from the Bonaparte (Vulcan Sub-basin, northern Bonaparte) and Carnarvon (Dampier, Barrow and Exmouth sub-basins) basins are geochemically similar, being sourced from Late Jurassic marine rift-fill sediments (lower Vulcan Formation/Dingo Claystone) that contain variable amounts of terrigenous (particularly gymnosperm-derived) organic matter. Variations in their biomarker signatures can be explained by maturity differences, multiple charging and secondary alteration processes. Gas produced from the northern Rankin Platform is predominantly sourced from Triassic–Jurassic fluvio-deltaic sediments. Proven and potential supergiant and giant gas accumulations occur in the deepwater areas of the North West Shelf. Case studies focussing on the geochemistry of the outer Browse (Scott Reef trend) and Carnarvon (deepwater Exmouth Plateau and Rankin Platform) gas accumulations will be presented with emphasis on their &delta;13C  and &delta;2H isotopic signatures.

Presented at the 2006 AAPG International Conference and Exhibition

Tags: Bonaparte Basin, Browse Basin, EARTH SCIENCES, Northern Carnarvon Basin, Published_External, Timor Leste, biomarker, hydrocarbon, isotopes, oils and gases
Organization: Geoscience Australia Data
Hydrocarbon and Geothermal Prospectivity of Sedimentary Basins in Central Australia; Warburton, Cooper, Pedirka, Galilee, Simpson and Eromanga Basins

Within the Central Australian region, nominally constrained by 22.5oS 134oE and 31.5oS 144oE for this study, lie several systems of stacked basins beneath the extensive Mesozoic Eromanga Basin.  Remnants of Proterozoic basins are largely inferred from gravity, unexplored, and are not everywhere differentiated from an extensive cover of the lower Palaeozoic Warburton Formation.  This sequence is the central link between the contiguous Amadeus, Officer and Georgina Basins, and the Thomson Fold Belt. 

Since the Carboniferous, the region has largely experienced intracratonic sag and has accumulated continental sediments, including thick coal measures, with intermittent tectonism and uplift. In late Early Cretaceous, marine conditions briefly invaded this subsiding region, but continental sedimentation resumed in the Late Cretaceous. Tectonism occurred in the Tertiary with basin inversion and subsequent formation of the Great Artesian Basin. In the Cainozoic, the region is again in subsidence and accommodating fluvial and aeolian sediment slowly into the Eyre Basin. The preserved depocentres of the Carboniferous-Permian-Triassic Cooper, Pedirka-Simpson, and Galilee Basins are spatially separate, although all contain comparable, largely organically-mature continental coal measure sequences.

Tags: AU-QLD, Earth Sciences, GA Publication, Published_External, Record, geothermal, hydrocarbons, sedimentary basins
Organization: Geoscience Australia Data
Devonian fish remains from Billiluna, eastern Canning Basin, Western Australia

Fragmentary remains of Devonian fishes are described from the Knobby Sandstone, a thick non-marine clastic formation in the eastern Canning Basin, which is a potential petroleum reservoir in subsurface fault-bounded sequences overlain by marine carbonates.  The fauna includes a new species of the antiarch Bothriolepis, a few dermal plates of an asterolepidoid antiarch, various coarsely ornamented placoderm fragments probably belonging to a much larger antiarch, and some isolated rhipidistian teeth and scales. The fragmentary preservation  suggests a high-energy depositional environment. Associated are plant remains, including Leptophloeum australe (MCoy). All fossils are preserved as moulds in a coarse sandstone. The fauna is probably Late Devonian (Famennian) in age, but better material is required for detailed correlation with other Late Devonian vertebrate assemblages in the Canning Basin and elsewhere.

Tags: Earth Sciences, GA Publication, Journal, Published_External, WA
Organization: Geoscience Australia Data
Mesozoic sedimentary and volcaniclastic rocks dredged from the northern Exmouth Plateau and Rowley Terrace, offshore northwest Australia

An extensive program of dredging was undertaken by AGSO in 1990 on the northern Exmouth Plateau and Rowley Terrace margin, mainly to provide geological control for seismic interpretations. Forty-two major Mesozoic lithofacies types were recovered. The rocks indicate that: 1. During the Late Triassic (Norian-Rhaetian), the Rowley Terrace margin was, like the adjacent northern Exmouth Plateau, host to shelf carbonates, including reef and peri-reefal deposits. Volcanics were emplaced along the margin (particularly in the north) during the Late Triassic-Mid Jurassic, probably as a result of the commencement of rifting between Australia and Greater India.  The volcanics were laid down partly or reworked into shallow water , producing hyaloclastites and tuffaceous mudstones with marine microfossils.  By the Early Jurassic, carbonate deposition was restricted to relatively small areas with most of the outer Rowley Terrace being covered by thick, fluvial - paralic siliciclastics with marine interbeds. These deposits continued to be deposited until the early Late Jurassic. They were subjected in the ?Late Jurassic to subaerial exposure under arid conditions resulting in cementation by Fe-oxides. With the early Late Jurassic (Oxfordian- Callovian) breakup and formation of the Argo Abyssal Plain, the margin started to subside and thin, shallow-marine, Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous sediments were deposited.  These were followed, with continuing margin subsidence, by progressively deeper-water deposits, including Cretaceous and younger hemipclagic-eupelagic claystones, chalks, and marls.  2. Reefs grew in the area of the outer part of the Rowley Terrace during the Late Triassic. The potential therefore exists for Upper Triassic, reefal petroleum reservoirs to be present within the main part of the Rowley Sub-basin to the east, if reefs in that area were not prevented from growing by sand influx from rivers.  Similarly, Lower Jurassic shallow-water platform carbonates, which are present on Triassic horst blocks beneath the central northern part of the Exmouth Plateau, could act as petroleum reservoirs if porosity is preserved.  3. During the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic there is a clear similarity between the facies and associated foraminiferal and ostracod microfaunas of the northern Exmouth Plateau/ Rowley Terrace area and thos e of other southern Tethyan margins, including the Northern Calcareous Alps. This indicates that broadly similar depositional conditions existed along much of Neo-Tethys at that time.

Tags: Earth Sciences, GA Publication, Journal, Published_External, WA, marine
Organization: Geoscience Australia Data
Lord Howe Rise: Project Flyer - 2018 Version

The Lord Howe Rise Project is a collaborative research project between Geoscience Australia and the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) that aims to better understand the geology, tectonics and paleoenvironment of the central Lord Howe Rise (northern Zealandia).

Tags: EARTH SCIENCES, International Ocean Discovery Program, Lord Howe Rise, stratigraphic drilling
Organization: Geoscience Australia Data
SI 1018 Great North East Channel (South-West), Torres Strait, QLD (HIPP) Bathymetry Acquisition (20220010S)

The Great North East Channel (South-West), Torres Strait bathymetry survey was acquired for the Australian Hydrographic Office (AHO) onboard the MV Sea Ranger and the SMB Independence during the period 26 Jan 2022 – 13 Apr 2022. This was a contracted survey conducted for the Australian Hydrographic Office by EGS Survey Pty. Ltd. as part of the Hydroscheme Industry Partnership Program. The survey area encompases an area in Torres Strait, Queensland. Bathymetry data was acquired using a Kongsberg EM2040C and a Kongsberg EM2040P, and processed using QPS Qimera processing software. The dataset was then exported as a 30m resolution, 32 bit floating point GeoTIFF grid of the survey area.

This dataset is not to be used for navigational purposes.

Tags: AusSeabed, EARTH SCIENCES, Earth Science | Oceans | Bathymetry/Seafloor Topography | Bathymetry, HVC_144641, Oceans, Published External, Published_External, bathymetric grids, bathymetry, marine, multibeam
Organization: Geoscience Australia Data
Predicting Seabed Mud Content across the Australian Margin: Comparison of Statistical and Mathematical Techniques Using a Simulation Experiment

In this study, we conducted a simulation experiment to identify robust spatial interpolation methods using samples of seabed mud content in the Geoscience Australian Marine Samples database. Due to data noise associated with the samples, criteria are developed and applied for data quality control. Five factors that affect the accuracy of spatial interpolation were considered: 
1) regions; 
2) statistical methods; 
3) sample densities; 
4) searching neighbourhoods; and 
5) sample stratification. 
Bathymetry, distance-to-coast and slope were used as secondary variables. Ten-fold cross-validation was used to assess the prediction accuracy measured using mean absolute error, root mean square error, relative mean absolute error (RMAE) and relative root mean square error. The effects of these factors on the prediction accuracy were analysed using generalised linear models. The prediction accuracy depends on the methods, sample density, sample stratification, search window size, data variation and the study region. No single method performed always superior in all scenarios. Three sub-methods were more accurate than the control (inverse distance squared) in the north and northeast regions respectively; and 12 sub-methods in the southwest region. A combined method, random forest and ordinary kriging (RKrf), is the most robust method based on the accuracy and the visual examination of prediction maps. This method is novel, with a relative mean absolute error (RMAE) up to 17% less than that of the control. The RMAE of the best method is 15% lower in two regions and 30% lower in the remaining region than that of the best methods in the previously published studies, further highlighting the robustness of the methods developed. The outcomes of this study can be applied to the modelling of a wide range of physical properties for improved marine biodiversity prediction. The limitations of this study are discussed. A number of suggestions are provided for further studies.

Tags: AU-EEZ, Earth Sciences, GA Publication, GIS, Published_External, Record, environmental, geoscience, marine, model, numerical modelling
Organization: Geoscience Australia Data
A geochemical characterisation of deep-sea floor sediments of the northern Lord Howe Rise

This study presents new information on the regional geochemical characteristics of deep-sea floor sediments (1300 - 2423 m water depth) on the Lord Howe Rise (deep-sea plateau) and Gifford Guyot (seamount/tablemount), remote areas off eastern Australia. The aim was to provide a coherent synthesis for a suite of geochemical data that can be used to make habitat inferences and to develop surrogates of biodiversity. Sediment characteristics analysed were mineralogy, organic carbon and nitrogen concentrations and isotopic compositions, and concentrations of major and trace elements. We also measured parameters that convey information about the reactivity of organic matter and on the bio-availability of bioactive trace elements (e.g. chlorin indices and acid-extractable elements). Surface sediments from the region were calcareous oozes that were carbon-lean (0.26Â±0.1%) and had moderate to high chlorin indices (0.62 - 0.97)..

Tags: AU-NSW, Earth Sciences, External Publication, Published_External, Scientific Journal Paper, geochemistry, habitat, marine, marine biodiversity, marine survey
Organization: Geoscience Australia Data
National Gravity Compilation 2019 (CSCBA 1VD grid)

Gravity data measure small changes in gravity due to changes in the density of rocks beneath the Earth's surface. The data collected are processed via standard methods to ensure the response recorded is that due only to the rocks in the ground. The results produce datasets that can be interpreted to reveal the geological structure of the sub-surface. The processed data is checked for quality by GA geophysicists to ensure that the final data released by GA are fit-for-purpose.
This National Gravity Compilation 2019 (CSCBA 1VD grid) is the first vertical derivative of the complete spherical cap Bouguer anomaly grid for the 2019 Australian National Gravity Grids A series. This gravity survey was acquired under the project No. 202008. The grid has a cell size of 0.00417 degrees (approximately 435m). A Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) process was applied to the original grid to calculate the first vertical derivative grid.

Tags: 1VD, Australia, Bouguer, EARTH SCIENCES, Earth sciences, GADDS2.0, NCI, None, Published_External, complete, first vertical derivative, geophysical survey, geophysics, grav, gravity, grid, ground digital data, raster, spherical cap, survey 202008
Organization: Geoscience Australia Data
Mount Isa area airborne radiometric survey, Queensland 1960

A radiometric survey, using a Cessna aircraft, was conducted by the Bureau of Mineral Resources in the Mt. Isa area of North Queensland from August to October 1960. Eight hundred and thirty square miles were surveyed and eight anomalies were recorded.

Tags: AU-QLD, Earth Sciences, GA Publication, Published_External, Record, gamma spectroscopy, geophysics
Organization: Geoscience Australia Data
Outer Darwin Harbour Marine Survey 2015: p-rock (probability of rock) grid

This resource contains probability of rocky/hard seabed (multibeam angular backscatter response derived product) grid for Outer Darwin Harbour collected by Geoscience Australia (GA), the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) and the Northern Territory Government (Department of Land Resource Management) during the period from 28 May and 23 June 2015 on the RV Solander (survey SOL6187/GA0351). This project was made possible through offset funds provided by INPEX-led Ichthys LNG Project to Northern Territory Government Department of Land Resource Management, and co-investment from Geoscience Australia and Australian Institute of Marine Science. The intent of this four year (2014-2018) program is to improve knowledge of the marine environments in the Darwin and Bynoe Harbour regions by collating and collecting baseline data that enable the creation of thematic habitat maps that underpin marine resource management decisions. The specific objectives of the survey were to: 1. Obtain high resolution geophysical (bathymetry) data for outer Darwin Harbour, including Shoal Bay; 2. Characterise substrates (acoustic backscatter properties, grainsize, sediment chemistry) for outer Darwin Harbour, including Shoal Bay; and 3. Collect tidal data for the survey area. Data acquired during the survey included: multibeam sonar bathymetry and acoustic backscatter; physical samples of seabed sediments, underwater photography and video of grab sample locations and oceanographic information including tidal data and sound velocity profiles. This dataset comprises  probability of rocky/hard seabed (multibeam angular backscatter response derived product) grid. A detailed account of the survey is provided in: Siwabessy, P.J.W., Smit, N., Atkinson, I., Dando, N., Harries, S., Howard, F.J.F., Li, J., Nicholas, W.A., Potter, A., Radke, L.C., Tran, M., Williams, D. and Whiteway, T., 2015. Outer Darwin Harbour Marine Survey 2015: GA0351/SOL6187 Post-survey report. Record 2016/008. Geoscience Australia, Canberra. http://dx.doi.org/10.11636/Record.2016.008.

Tags: Earth Sciences, Published_External
Organization: Geoscience Australia Data
Geomorphological Evolution of Lord Howe Island and Carbonate Production at the Latitudinal Limit to Reef Growth

Lord Howe Island is a volcanic island, rising to over 800 m, draped with Late Quaternary submarine and subaerial carbonate sediments. The island and neighbouring islets lie within a chain of seamounts and is presently at or close to the latitudinal limit to coral reef growth. Lord Howe Island and adjacent Balls Pyramid, composed of the basalts erupted around 6 million years ago, sit near the middle of broad shelves on separate peaks of one major volcanic edifice. The central part of the Lord Howe Island is covered by calcarenite that was deposited primarily as dunes (eolianite), but with isolated beach units. Uranium-series, amino acid racemisation, and thermoluminescence dating indicate that many of these were deposited during marine oxygen isotope stage 5. Eolianite units stratigraphically below the beach deposits are of penultimate interglacial, or in places perhaps older, age. Different suites of erosional landforms are associated with different lithologies. Towering plunging cliffs characterise the resistant Mount Lidgbird Basalt, in some cases fringed with large talus slopes. On less resistant lithologies or where nearshore topography means greater wave force as a result of waves breaking, there are shore platforms. Slumping cliffs abut broad erosional platforms on the poorly lithified calcarenite. A fringing reef on the western side of Lord Howe Island, the southernmost coral reef in the Pacific, is dominated by coral and coralline algae.Carbonate sediments veneering the shelf around the islands contain a more temperate biota. Located at the southern limit of reef-forming seas, but apparently having undergone erosion for much of its history outside of reef seas, Lord Howe Island provides insights into marine planation of volcanic islands close to what has been termed the Darwin Point.  It represents the initial stages of fringing reef development on a volcanic island.

Tags: AU-NSW, Earth Sciences, External Publication, Published_External, Scientific Journal Paper, marine, marine survey
Organization: Geoscience Australia Data
Australian petroleum accumulations report. Canning Basin, Western Australia

As at January 1993, nineteen hydrocarbon accumulations, six of which are commercial, have been discovered in the Canning Basin. The commercial accumulations occur in Permian to Devonian reservoirs on an area of relatively shallow basement (Lennard Shelf) flanking the northern margin of the Fitzroy Trough. Oil is produced from Famennian reefs, associated drape structures, and four-way dip closures in Permo-carboniferous, Grant Group and Anderson Formation sandstones. The most likely sources of these hydrocarbons are Late Devonian and Carboniferous marine shales in the Fitzroy Trough kitchen area. 

The small size of the accumulations in the Canning basin (less than 0.5 million barrels of recoverable oil) precludes the development of large infrastructure projects. Oil is trucked to the storage and shiploading facilities at Broome and then shipped to the Kwinana oil refinery in Western Australia.

On the southern margin of the Fitzroy Trough, oil and gas have been recovered from a transgressive Ordovician sequence of sandstones shales and carbonates. Although the Ordovician has yet to yield a commercial discovery, Devonian reef plays in the overlying section may enhance the attractiveness of Ordovician objectives in this area.

To date, exploration effort in the basin has been largely directed to the northern, onshore Canning Basin. The offshore Canning and the Kidson Sub-basin remain underexplored.  Higher risk plays in these areas have yet to be adequately tested.

Tags: AU-WA, Earth Sciences, GA Publication, Published_External, Report, petroleum exploration, petroleum geology
Organization: Geoscience Australia Data
The hydrogeochemistry of groundwater in fractured bedrock aquifers beneath dryland salinity occurrences at Yass, NSW

Fresh to brackish groundwaters in the range of 250 to 2250 mglL occur in fractured bedrock aquifers beneath dryland salinity sites at Yass in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales. The fractured bedrock in these catchments comprises marine, early Paleozoic slates, shales and sandstones in Dicks Creek and Williams Creek catchments, and porphyritic dacite and rhyodacite in Spring Creek catchment. The groundwaters are known to originate from recent meteoric waters. The waters represent various hydrochemical types, generated by chemical processes through water-rock interactions along their flow paths.  The present chemical composition of major cations and anions in groundwaters from these catchments is derived from the following processes: 1. water-rock interaction in recharge zones where dissolution of minerals and oxidation processes occur, 2. ion-exchange and reverse ion exchange reactions with clay where it is present in fractures and veins in the bedrock, and 3. microbially mediated reactions with organic matter which produce very low redox potentials.

Tags: Earth Sciences, GA Publication, Journal, NSW, Published_External
Organization: Geoscience Australia Data