Publication Name: The Canning Basin, W.A.
Authors: J. Craig, J.W. Downey, A.D. Gibbs and J.R. Russell
Date Published: December 1984
Number of Pages: 27
Reference Type: Book Section
Abstract:
Detailed analysis of Landsat imagery, integrated with published geological and geophysical data has provideda basis for a re-examination of the structural geology of the Canning Basin and adjacent areas. The Landsat interpretation provides a substantial amount of new information on the structural geology of the basin,
especially in areas of limited bedrock exposure. A good correlation between the Landsat interpretation and geophysical and other data suggests considerable reliance can be placed on this new information.
The main Canning Basin is synclinal in form, but has been broken by block faulting into a number of deep grabens and basins surrounded by more positive areas. Landsat imagery allows these units to be defined more precisely and enables previously unrecognised sub-units to be identified. These are considered to have exercised
significant control on sedimentation throughout the evolution of the basin.
A five stage evolutionary model of the regional tectonic development of the Canning Basin is proposed, and is reconciled with the Landsat interpretation.
North - south trending lineaments associated with ? Archaean compressional tectonics are largely restricted to the marginal cratonic blocks although they occur sporadically within the basin and are almost certainly within the underlying basement. East and east-southeast trending lineaments in the southern Canning Basin are associated with the development and subsequent deformation of a major east-west trending Proterozoic basin.
Northwest-southeast trending lineaments define the main structural units of the Palaeozoic Canning Basin; and towards the northwest are increasingly overprinted by northeast-southwest trending lineaments related to Mesozoic rifting and the breakup of Gondwanaland. The development of a thick offshore Tertiary sediment wedge may have reactivated many northeast-southwest trending lineaments.