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The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database

CSPG Special Publications

Abstract


Intl. Symposium of the Devonian system: Papers, Volume II, 1967
Pages 89-92
Stratigraphy of Special Areas

Upper Devonian Geology of the Bonaparte Gulf Basin, Western Australia and Northern Territory

J. J. Veevers, J. Roberts

Abstract

On the platform of the Bonaparte Gulf Basin, 5,000 feet of Frasnian sandstone and conglomerate along the southeast margin are replaced progressively towards the northwest by carbonates, which culminate in an incipient reef. These platform sediments are possibly replaced in the axis of the basin by medium-grey siltstone and sandstone. The Frasnian platform sediments are conformably succeeded by 1,000 feet of Famennian reef complex and equivalent marginal lagoonal siltstone and carbonate. The reef-complex is replaced in the basin by medium-grey siltstone, shale and sandstone.

The historical development of these rocks was probably as follows. During block-faulting in the early Late Devonian, 1,000 feet of sandstone and marginal conglomerate were deposited on the platform. As the effects of the block-faulting diminished, 1500 feet of sandstone and carbonate were deposited; this sequence includes impure limestone near the southwest margin and incipient reef in the northwest. With renewed marginal faulting, 2,000 feet of sandstone and marginal conglomerate were deposited up until the end of the Frasnian. In the axis of the basin siltstone was probably deposited contemporaneously. During the rest of the Devonian (Famennian), the platform was the site of carbonate-reef and lagoonal terrigenous/carbonate deposition. These sediments were replaced axially by siltstone, shale and minor sandstone. Reef growth probably continued into the Tournaisian. A little later the platform was differentially faulted, uplifted, eroded, and then overlain by younger Lower Carboniferous sediments.

The most prospective areas for petroleum in the Devonian of the Bonaparte Gulf Basin are stratigraphic traps in buried reefs and in the zone between platform deposits (reef, sandstone) and the axial sequence.


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