AndreaBozzo/ceres-open-data-index huggingface dataset:
The search for new oil and CO2 storage resources: residual oil zones in Australia

Residual oil zones (ROZs) could present a new, potentially large and commercially viable oil resource for Australia and provide an avenue for geological storage of carbon dioxide (CO2) through CO2 enhanced oil recovery (CO2-EOR). These reservoirs, which can contain a moderate amount of residual oil and resemble water-flooded oil fields, can be associated with conventional fields (brownfields) or occur with no associated main pay zone (greenfields). Both types of ROZ are currently produced commercially through CO2-EOR in the Permian Basin, USA, and are of growing interest internationally, but our understanding of the occurrence and economic viability of oil production from ROZs in Australia is limited. We are employing geological and petrophysical methods to identify, map and quantify the potential oil resources of ROZs, initially in central Australian basins. Complementing this, we are conducting a series of CO2 core-flooding experiments combined with reservoir modelling to investigate the techno-economic feasibility of producing oil and storing CO2 in these formations. We aim to establish and test a workflow for characterising and evaluating ROZs in Australia. ROZs could prove to be good targets for CO2-EOR+, potentially even producing carbon-neutral or carbon-negative oil by using CO2 from anthropogenic sources, such as from blue hydrogen production.
Citation: Kalinowski Aleksandra, Tenthorey Eric, Seyyedi Mojtaba, Clennell Michael Ben (2022) The search for new oil and CO2 storage resources: residual oil zones in Australia. The APPEA Journal 62, 281-293. https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ21077

Tags: CO2-EOR, Cooper Basin, EARTH SCIENCES, Exploring for the Future - EFTF, GEOLOGY, Published_External, carbon capture utilisation and storage - CCUS,, core‐flooding experiments, enhanced oil recovery, petrophysics, residual oil zone - ROZ, subsurface characterisation.
Organization: Geoscience Australia Data
New insights into the deep-water Otway Basin - Part 3: Petroleum system modelling

The Otway Basin is a broadly northwest-southeast trending basin and forms part of a rift system that developed along Australia’s southern margin. It represents an established hydrocarbon province with mostly onshore and shallow-water offshore discoveries. However, the outboard deep-water Otway Basin, with water depths up to 6300 m, is comparatively underexplored and can be considered a frontier area. Following the completion of a basin-wide seismic depth-imaging program (Part 1; Lee et al 2021) and insights from the revised seismic interpretation (Part 2; Karvelas et al. 2021), we have developed a comprehensive petroleum system modelling (PSM) study by integrating these data and findings (Part 3). Together the studies have resulted in an improved understanding of the hydrocarbon prospectivity of the deep-water areas of the basin. Given the sparsity of data outboard, almost all legacy petroleum system modelling studies have been focused either on the onshore or shallow-water areas of the basin and primarily on their thick Lower Cretaceous depocentres. The limitations of legacy seismic datasets resulted in a high degree of uncertainty in the derivative interpretations used as input into PSM studies. In addition, the paucity and poor quality of data in the deep-water area reduced confidence in the understanding of the basin evolution and spatial distribution of depositional environments through time. The newly acquired 2D seismic survey and reprocessed legacy data, with calibration via several wells across the basin, has improved confidence in our understanding of the tectonostratigraphic evolution of the basin (Part 2; Karvelas et al. 2021). The study presented herein integrates products from the work in Part 2 into a petroleum system model with the primary objective being to better understand the petroleum systems across the deep-water Otway Basin.

Tags: Austral Supersystem, EARTH SCIENCES, Otway Basin, Petroleum system modelling, Published_External, Thermal history, hydrocarbon prospectivity
Organization: Geoscience Australia Data
Application of random forest, generalised linear model and their hybrid methods with geostatistical techniques to count data: Predicting sponge species richness

Spatial distribution of sponge species richness (SSR) and its relationship with environment are important for marine ecosystem management, but they are either unavailable or unknown. Hence we applied random forest (RF), generalised linear model (GLM) and their hybrid methods with geostatistical techniques to SSR data by addressing relevant issues with variable selection and model selection. It was found that: 1) of five variable selection methods, one is suitable for selecting optimal RF predictive models; 2) traditional model selection methods are unsuitable for identifying GLM predictive models and joint application of RF and AIC can select accuracy-improved models; 3) highly correlated predictors may improve RF predictive accuracy; 4) hybrid methods for RF can accurately predict count data; and 5) effects of model averaging are method-dependent. This study depicted the non-linear relationships of SSR and predictors, generated spatial distribution of SSR with high accuracy and revealed the association of high SSR with hard seabed features.
Citation: Jin Li, Belinda Alvarez, Justy Siwabessy, Maggie Tran, Zhi Huang, Rachel Przeslawski, Lynda Radke, Floyd Howard, Scott Nichol, Application of random forest, generalised linear model and their hybrid methods with geostatistical techniques to count data: Predicting sponge species richness, Environmental Modelling &amp; Software, Volume 97, 2017, Pages 112-129, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2017.07.016

Tags: EARTH SCIENCES, Published_External, feature selection, machine learning - ML, model selection, predictive accuracy, spatial prediction, spatial predictive model
Organization: Geoscience Australia Data
A strontium isoscape of northern Australia (Article)

Strontium isotopes (87Sr/86Sr) are useful to trace processes in the Earth sciences as well as in forensic, archaeological, palaeontological, and ecological sciences. As very few large-scale Sr isoscapes exist in Australia, we have identified an opportunity to determine 87Sr/86Sr ratios on archived fluvial sediment samples from the low-density National Geochemical Survey of Australia (www.ga.gov.au/ngsa; last access: 15 December 2022). The present study targeted the northern parts of Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland, north of 21.5 °S. The samples were taken mostly from a depth of ~60-80 cm in floodplain deposits at or near the outlet of large catchments (drainage basins). A coarse (< 2 mm) grain-size fraction was air-dried, sieved, milled then digested (hydrofluoric acid + nitric acid followed by aqua regia) to release total Sr. The Sr was then separated by chromatography and the 87Sr/86Sr ratio determined by multicollector-inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Results demonstrate a wide range of Sr isotopic values (0.7048 to 1.0330) over the survey area, reflecting a large diversity of source rock lithologies, geological processes and bedrock ages. Spatial distribution of 87Sr/86Sr shows coherent (multi-point anomalies and smooth gradients), large-scale (> 100 km) patterns that appear to be broadly consistent with surface geology, regolith/soil type, and/or nearby outcropping bedrock. For instance, the extensive black clay soils of the Barkly Tableland define a > 500 km-long northwest-southeast-trending unradiogenic anomaly (87Sr/86Sr  0.7655) are observed. A potential correlation between mineralisation and elevated 87Sr/86Sr values in these regions needs to be investigated in greater detail. Our results to-date indicate that incorporating soil/regolith Sr isotopes in regional, exploratory geoscience investigations can help identify basement rock types under (shallow) cover, constrain surface processes (e.g. weathering, dispersion), and, potentially, recognise components of mineral systems. Furthermore, the resulting Sr isoscape and future models derived therefrom can also be utilised in forensic, archaeological, paleontological and ecological studies that aim to investigate, e.g., past and modern animal (including humans) dietary habits and migrations. The new spatial Sr isotope dataset for the northern Australia region is publicly available (de Caritat et al., 2022a; https://dx.doi.org/10.26186/147473; last access: 15 December 2022).

Citation:
de Caritat, P., Dosseto, A., and Dux, F.: A strontium isoscape of northern Australia, Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 1655–1673, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-1655-2023, 2023.

Tags: 87Sr/86Sr, Australia’s Resources Framework, EFTF – Exploring for the Future, Exploration geochemistry, Isotope geochemistry, Published_External, Soil chemistry and soil carbon sequestration (excl. carbon sequestration science), regolith, strontium isotopes
Organization: Geoscience Australia Data
Francois Chamalaun and the AWAGS dataset

Dr Francois Chamalaun passed away in Adelaide, Australia, in April 2024. Francois was a Senior Lecturer in Geophysics at Flinders University in South Australia and foundation Chairman of its School of Earth Sciences. He was an internationally respected scientist, enthusiastic teacher, and valued mentor. His 40-year research career led to new insights into the electrical structure of the Earth and its atmosphere, particularly in Australia, Brazil, Indonesia, India, and New Zealand.

Much of this research was made possible through the development by Francois and Flinders University technical officer Bob Walker of a portable self-contained microprocessor-based three-component magnetometer. This is a short reflection on the use of this innovative instrument in the first-of-its-kind Australia-Wide Array of Geomagnetic Stations (AWAGS).

Citation: Wang, L., Greenhalgh, S., Barton, C., Heinson, G., & Hitchman, A. (2024). Vale: Francois Chamalaun (1937 – 2024). Preview, 2024(232), 15–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/14432471.2024.2412324

Tags: Australia-Wide Array of Geomagnetic Stations, Electrical and Electromagnetic Methods in Geophysics, Francois Chamalaun, Geophysics, Published_External, geomagnetically induced currents, geomagnetism
Organization: Geoscience Australia Data
Major Seismic Discontinuities Within the Australian Continent from Receiver Functions of the AusArray Data

Seismic discontinuities provide critical insights into the structure and evolution of Earth's crust and mantle. In this study, we use receiver functions (RFs) from over 1500 seismic stations across Australia to investigate both shallow and deep discontinuities, leveraging data from the AusArray network alongside permanent and temporary seismic deployments. AusArray, initially funded through the Exploring for the Future program continues with an expanded deployment as part of the Resourcing Australia's Prosperity initiative.
At shallow depths, we estimate sedimentary cover thickness using Ps converted phase delay times, applying an empirical relationship developed from borehole stratigraphy data. This method offers a rapid and cost-effective approach to characterising sedimentary basins, covering a range of geological provinces from Precambrian to present-day.
Beyond the sedimentary layer, we map Moho depth variations across the continent, providing new constraints on crustal structure from the AusArray 2° × 2° network. We further identify lithospheric discontinuities, revealing variations in thermal and compositional properties that define the base of the lithosphere. Within the mantle, we image the 410 km and 660 km discontinuities, which mark phase transitions in olivine. Variations in these boundaries provide insights into temperature, composition, and potential subduction remnants within the mantle transition zone.
This study presents an extensive RF-based analysis of Australian lithospheric and mantle structures using the AusArray network, offering new perspectives on the geodynamic evolution of the continent. By integrating high-density seismic data with advanced RF analysis, we enhance our understanding of Australia’s deep Earth structure and its implications for regional and global tectonics.
Presented at the 2025 IAGA/IASPEI Joint Scientific Meeting

Tags: EARTH SCIENCES, Published_External
Organization: Geoscience Australia Data
Treaty between Australia and the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste Establishing Their Maritime Boundaries in the Timor Sea (2018)

Treaty between Australia and the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste Establishing Their Maritime Boundaries in the Timor Sea (2018) Diagram AU/TL-02
Treaty text and coordinates can be found at:
https://www.dfat.gov.au/geo/timor-leste/australias-maritime-arrangements-with-timor-leste

Tags: AU, Administrative Boundary, Earth Sciences, Published_External, TL, Thematic Map
Organization: Geoscience Australia Data
International GNSS Service Report 2024 - Analysis Center Coordinator technical report 2024

Geoscience Australia currently retains the role of the International GNSS Service Analysis Centre Coordinator (IGS ACC) in collaboration with Massachusetts University of Technology (MIT). The role is being transitioned to NASA and GA during 2025. The IGS ACC is responsible for monitoring the quality of products submitted by individual analysis centers and combining them to produce the official IGS products. The IGS ACC also has the overall responsibility for coordinating the changes, developments and improvements within the contributing analysis centers to produce the IGS products using the latest models and standards. 

This report details the IGS ACC activities over 2024, which included transition of the ACC operational capability to NASA, evaluation of new products set by the European Space Agency (ESA) as one of the analysis centers, general quality assessment of the IGS combined products over 2024, and multi-GNSS demonstration combined orbits.

Tags: Geodesy, IGS ACC, IGS Analysis Center Coordinator, International GNSS Service, Published_External, Satellite-based positioning, satellite orbits and clocks, satellite positioning
Organization: Geoscience Australia Data
Four-dimensional connectivity modelling with application to Australia's north and northwest marine environments

A fully four-dimensional (3D × time) object-oriented biophysical dispersal model was developed to simulate the movement of marine larvae over semi-continuous surfaces. The model is capable of handling massive numbers of simulated larvae, can accommodate diverse life history patterns and distributions of characteristics, and saves point-level information to a relational database management system. The model was used to study Australia's northwest marine region, with attention given to connectivity patterns among Australia's north-western Commonwealth Marine Reserves (CMRs). Animations of larval movement near the Gascoyne canyon CMR, dispersal surfaces over depth and time for CMRs and Key Ecological Features in the northwest, as well as matrices of connectivity values among CMRs are shown. The matrices are further analysed to identify the sensitivity and elasticity of their values. The results generated by this model can aid in designing and managing marine protected area networks that incorporate extensive and complex benthic terrain (including the identification of marine ‘corridors’), and for developing targeted field sampling strategies.
Citation:Kool, J. T., Nichol, S. L. 2015. Four-dimensional connectivity modelling with application to Australia's north and northwest marine environments, Environmental Modelling &amp; Software, 65: 67-78.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2014.11.022

Tags: Earth Sciences, External Publication, NERP, Published_Internal, marine
Organization: Geoscience Australia Data
Using an optimization algorithm to establish a network of video surveillance for the protection of Golden Camellia

The natural environment is facing increasing human disturbance. Many species of flora are extinct or endangered. To improve the efficiency of ecological management and monitoring, this study proposed to establish a video monitoring network to protect a world-famous rare flora: Golden Camellia, in Fangcheng nature reserve, Guangxi Province, China. Based on the model of LSCP (location set covering problem), we attempted to establish full monitoring coverage of camellias while minimizing the number of video cameras. The model was solved by integer programming. In case of multiple solutions, this study proposed two additional criterions, maximize monitoring area and maximize overlapping count, to eliminate suboptimal solutions. The two optimal solutions included 80 cameras covering a monitoring area of over 5500 ha. Together, these cameras are able to monitor 97.2% of golden camellia in the reserve. The study suggests that this location optimization model can be used to improve the conservation effectiveness of rare species.
Citation: Kun Zhang, Zhi Huang, Songlin Zhang, Using an optimization algorithm to establish a network of video surveillance for the protection of Golden Camellia, Ecological Informatics, Volume 42, 2017, Pages 32-37, ISSN 1574-9541,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoinf.2017.08.004.

Tags: EARTH SCIENCES, GIS, Golden Camellia, Published_External, Set covering problem, location optimisation, video surveillence
Organization: Geoscience Australia Data
mineral-stats-toolkit

This repository contains the code to analyse the distance from point data to a contour in a geoscientific dataset, compared to a set of random locations, as described in Kirkby et al (2022). Users of this repository are asked to cite Kirkby et al (2022).
Kirkby, A., Czarnota, K., Huston, D., Champion, D., Doublier, M., Bedrosian, P., Duan, J., Heinson, G., 2022. Lithospheric conductors reveal source regions of convergent margin mineral systems. Scientific Reports, 12, 8190, doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-11921-2

Tags: EARTH SCIENCES, EFTF, Electrical and Electromagnetic Methods in Geophysics, Exploring for the Future, GEOPHYSICS
Organization: Geoscience Australia Data
Lithospheric Structure of the Australasian Region Using Full Waveform Inversion of Broadband Data from Permanent Networks and AusArray deployment

Lithospheric structure is fundamental to understanding Earth's dynamic processes and geological systems. While existing tomographic models of the Australian lithosphere effectively capture large-scale features, discrepancies persist at finer scales. To address this, we are developing a fully verifiable lithospheric model, ensuring transparency by sharing all datasets and results. In this study, we present initial results from a full waveform inversion tomography model of the Australian lithosphere, resolving structures down to a period of 70 seconds. This model is constructed using seismic data from the Australian National Seismograph Network (ANSN), legacy datasets, and new records from the AusArray 2° × 2° deployment, which has significantly improved coverage in previously unsampled regions. We begin with seismic waveforms from 193 earthquakes (moment magnitude, MW 6.2–7.5) and subsequently incorporate 165 additional events (MW &gt;5.0) as the model extends to 70-second periods.
The AusArray project, commenced during the Australian Government’s recently completed Exploring for the Future Program, is funded to continue under the new Resourcing Australia’s Prosperity initiative. With the continued availability of new data and computational refinements, the model resolution will improve over time. Expanding the inversion to higher frequencies will allow for better constraints using body waves, enhancing tomographic models at periods of 40 seconds and shorter. Our results confirm previously identified large-scale lithospheric structures while revealing new, finer-scale variations across continental Australia, offering deeper insights into the region's geological framework.
Presented at the 2025 IAGA/IASPEI Joint Scientific Meeting

Tags: EARTH SCIENCES, Published_External
Organization: Geoscience Australia Data
Dynamics and connectivity of the Bonney Coast Upwelling on a daily scale using the Himawari-8 dataset

The Bonney Coast Upwelling (BCU) is a key ecological feature in the Australian marine regime; it helps contribute to the largest fin fish based fishery in Australian waters and is a feeding ground for the endangered blue whales. The BCU is a seasonal wind driven feature that operates intermittently (on the time scale of between a few days to a couple of weeks) throughout the Austral summer. Since its discovery in the late seventies, the region has been investigated using a range of physical oceanographic techniques, from shipboard sampling to modelling and remote sensing. The latter of which has, until recently, been limited by the temporal frequency of the MODIS and AVHRR passes over the Australasian region, (twice a day) making the data susceptible to cloud contamination. The geostationary Himawari-8 satellite, which became operational in late 2015, is an ideal platform to provide adequate temporal resolution to overcome the cloud contamination problem. This study generates sea surface temperature (SST) daily composites from hourly Himawari-8 images, during the period from November 2016 - March 2017. A topographical position index method is used to isolate the upwelling signatures in the Bonney Coast region from these daily images. With the BCU mapped on a daily basis, we are able to, for the first time, quantitatively investigate the spatial and temporal development of the BCU from onset to termination during an entire upwelling season. In addition, the study will also be able to investigate the connectivity between the BCU and other local upwelling features off Kangaroo Island and the Eyre Peninsula.
Presented at the 2017 Australian Marine Sciences Association (AMSA) Conference

Tags: EARTH SCIENCES, Published_External, Upwelling, remote sensing
Organization: Geoscience Australia Data
Seabed glacial geomorphology features on the East Antarctic continental shelf: first results from RV Polarstern expedition PS141, EASI-3

The recent RV Polarstern Expedition PS141 "East Antarctic Ice Sheet Instability and its interaction with changes in Southern Ocean circulation - Part 3” (EASI-3; 6 Feb to 14 April 2024) aimed to investigate past ocean-ice sheet interactions along the East Antarctic margin over different geological timescales. East Antarctic Ice Sheet fluctuations directly impact global sea level and ocean circulation through the interplay between oceanic processes and seabed topography, especially offshore of the vulnerable Aurora subglacial basin and Shackleton Ice Shelf.
More than 10,000 nautical miles of new hydroacoustic data (continuous multibeam and sub-bottom profiles) were collected from parts of the Davis and Mawson Seas, in a target area off the ice margin between Wilhelm II to Wilkes Land (between 85° E and 115° E). We present some preliminary bathymetric and geomorphic mapping results that reveal a variety of submerged glacial features on the continental shelf, including iceberg scours, mega-scale glacial lineations, subglacial basins, and grounding zone wedges. Further detailed mapping and interpretation of these features will help extend the record of past glacier and ice sheet changes in East Antarctica and inform contemporary models and future projections.

Prepared for the Australian Antarctic Research Conference, Hobart, November 2024.

Tags: Antarctic Geoscience, Antarctica, EAIS, EASI-3, Ice Sheet, Marine Geoscience, Published_External, Sea Level, Seabed Mapping, Southern Ocean, conference material
Organization: Geoscience Australia Data