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The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database

Southeast Asia Petroleum Exploration Society (SEAPEX)

Abstract


Proceedings of the South East Asia Petroleum Exploration Society Volume II, 1975
Pages 70-113

The Geological History of the Carnarvon Sedimentary Province, Western Australia*

Alan R. Lloyd

Abstract

Sedimentation began in the Carnarvon Sedimentary Province with the deposition of a thick sequence ax possible non-marine sands in the Late Ordovician, or Early to Middle Silurian. Sedimentation continued, with minor breaks, until the Late Carboniferous within a tectonically stable basin, which received shallow water marine carbonates, sands and clays, except for a thin sequence of non-marine sands during the Early Devonian.

There was a marked increase in tectonic activity during Early Permian time. The rate of sedimentation increased in the north and a second basin formed along the eastern side of the Province, which extended southward into the Perth “Basin”. The seas withdrew from this second basin, at the close of the Early Permian.

The main basin continued to migrate northwards during the Permian and was situated north of the Cape Range - Onslow area throughout the Triassic, Jurassic and Early Cretaceous (Neocomian). There was a wide-spread transgression at the beginning of the Aptian with the deposition of a basal sand unit, which was followed by a thick shale/siltstone unit of Aptain to early Turonian age. This transgression came from the north-west.

The Late Cretaceous (Santonian to Maestrichtian) and Tertiary were periods of transgressions with deposition primarily of shallow-water carbonates. These transgressions came from the west.

A landmass was situated to the west of the present coastline of the Carnarvon Sedimentary Province, during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic until the Early Turonian. This landmass possibly began to break-up in the Neocomian. It completely subsided and submerged during the Turonian, and thereafter had no further influence on Western Australia. Remnants of this landmass are presently situated beneath the Indian Ocean to the west of Carnarvon.


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