Publication Name: The North West Shelf Australia
Authors: M.F. Middleton
Date Published: July 1988
Number of Pages: 33
Reference Type: Book Section
Abstract:
More than 300 000 km of seismic reflection surveying has been shot on the North West Shelf of Australia. A selection of these data, showing some features of structural and stratigraphic importance, are reviewed in this atlas. TheN orth West Shelf is reviewed in the sequence: Carnarvon Basin, Offshore Canning Basin, Browse Basin and Bonaparte Basin. Seismic data from the Barrow and Dampier sub-basins (Carnarvon Basin) show that structure is strongly controlled by both extensional subsidence associated with the continental breakup of western Australia, and several periods of wrench faulting, dating from the Late Triassic to the Late Cretaceous. The Offshore Canning Basin is a poorly understood region, although a significant amount of seismic surveying has been carried out. The Browse Basin is generally recognised to be a major gas producing basin; the basin is a broad epicontinental downwarp, dominated by flexural burial. The Bonaparte Basin is overprinted by compressional tectonism. The structural style of the Bonaparte Basin is controlled from the Carboniferous to the Tertiary by wrench faulting, diapiric salt movement, and associated anticlines, which can have significant hydrocarbon reserves.