The objective of this study is to analyze
the basin-fill history of the Barrow-Dampier Subbasin (Northwest Shelf,
Australia) as a spectacular and complex example of the stratigraphic record
of continental breakup. From the Permian until the Holocene, the Barrow-Dampier
Subbasin underwent development from a continental sedimentary basin located
on the Gondwana continent to a rift graben. When extensional movement ceased,
the subbasin developed as a passive continental margin.
This study, based on marine seismic data
(about 600 km) and logs of 20 wells, includes a seismic stratigraphic analysis
tied to wells in the vicinity, chronostratigraphic charts, and the calculation
of subsidence curves.
The basin fill is characterized by a hierarchically
organized architecture. The largest scale are four tectonic-stratigraphic
units: prerift (Upper Permian to Pliensbachian), rift (until Callovian),
postrift (until the Upper Cretaceous), and convergence (Neogene). The tectonostratigraphic
units were built by 13 sequences of the time scale of second-order sequences.
Several of the sequences coincide with discrete subsidence episodes on
geohistory
©Copyright
1997. The American Association of Petroleum Geologists. All rights reserved.
1Manuscript
received February 27, 1996; revised manuscript received October 28, 1996;
final acceptance June 3, 1997.
2Institut
für Geologie und Paläontologie der Universität Tübingen,
Sigwartstr. 10, 72076 Tübingen, Germany. Present address: Geomar Forschungszentrum
für marine Geowissenschaften, Wischhofstr. 1-3, 24148 Kiel, Germany;
e-mail: [email protected]
3Institut
für Geologie und Paläontologie der Universität Tübingen,
Sigwartstr. 10, 72076 Tübingen, Germany; e-mail: [email protected]
We
thank Boral Energy Resources Ltd. for the permission to publish the data.
SAGASCO (Adelaide, South Australia) provided eight lithology logs, and
LASMO Australia (Perth, Western Australia) supplied the seismic sections
and the time-converted synthetic seismic traces. Thanks are also due to
Wiltshire Geological Services (Mount Osmond, South Australia) for supplying
the digitized well logs and for permission to publish data based on the
logs.
Detailed reviews
of C. Ravenne, W. J. Devlin, and former Elected Editor K. T. Biddle considerably
improved the manuscript. We are grateful to L. Pomar for a discussion about
seismic interpretation. Thanks are also due to J. J. G. Reijmer for valuable
comments.
