Journal of Petroleum Geology, Vol.17, No.2, pp. 129-156, 1994

©Copyright 2000 Scientific Press, Ltd.

STRUCTURAL AND TECTONIC SYNTHESIS FOR THE PERTH BASIN,
WESTERN AUSTRALIA

L. B. Harris*

*Department of Geology and Geophysics, The University of Western Australia, Nedlands,6009, Australia.

Abstract

The Perth Basin is localised by reactivation of Neoproterozoic shear zones on the western margin of the Archaean Yilgarn Craton in Western Australia. While Ordovician to Silurian sandstones were deposited in the northern Perth Basin, the earliest sediments elsewhere are Middle Carboniferous to Permian in age. A sinistral transtensional regime, during which the main architecture of the basin was established, developed during NE-SW extension between Greater India and Western Australia in the Permo-Triassic. NW-SE shortening with continued NE-SW extension resulted in sinistral transpression in the late-Early to Middle Triassic. Sag-phase sedimentation in the Late Triassic followed this oblique rifting event.