The Proterozoic greater McArthur Basin—New ways of looking at a frontier resource-rich basin

Speaker: Alan Collins, Tectonics and Earth Systems Group and MinEx CRC, The University of Adelaide

The greater McArthur Basin of northern Australia is a vast frontier exploration province for basin-hosted resources, both hydrocarbons (oil and natural gas) and metals (critical metals [e.g. rare earth elements, Co], Cu, Pb, Zn and Au). This basin system covers much of northern Australia and may have included much of North China that lay off northern Australia when the basin formed—ca. 1820–1325 Ma. Hydrocarbon and metal deposits in the basin are largely controlled by host sediment composition and ‘redox traps’ related to ancient water chemistry, which, in-turn, are modulated by biological activity, tectonism and relative sea level change. None of these controls are fully understood or constrained throughout the basin.
In order to better understand the basin’s evolution, Alan and his colleagues have followed a number of approaches, and present a full-plate tectonic reconstruction from 1.8 Ga to present, focussed on the region of the Australian continental lithosphere. The greater McArthur Basin is considered as part of the McArthur-Yanliao Gulf of Nuna/Columbia and the nature of the basin will be addressed at different times and in different places.

Event Details:

Thursday, 25th August, 2022
Luncheon: 12 pm for a 12:30 pm start

Place: Ayer’s House, 288 North Tce, Adelaide

Includes a 2-course lunch and drinks

Tickets:

Student Members – $25

Members – $60

Non-members – $75

SPE and ASEG Members- $60

Bookings close 1 pm Monday, August 22nd.
Any late bookings will incur an additional $20 fee. Strictly no walk-ins.