Tertiary stratigraphy of Western Australia |
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| Authors: | Patrick G Quilty |
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| Institution: | West Australian Petroleum Pty Ltd , G.P.O. Box C‐1580, Perth, W.A., 6001 |
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| Abstract: | This paper is a summary of the present knowledge of the Tertiary stratigraphy of Western Australia. Also included is new information on the Cainozoic of the Carnarvon Basin, a result of petroleum exploration in the area. Tertiary rocks formed during more than one cycle of deposition in three basins (Eucla, Perth, and Carnarvon), and also as thin units deposited in a single transgression along the south coast. The Tertiary stratigraphy of the Bonaparte Gulf Basin is not well known. Drilling in the Eucla Basin has encountered up to 400 m of Tertiary in the south central part, with uniform thinning towards the margins. The section begins with a middle‐upper Eocene carbonate unit which represents the dominant event in the Tertiary sedimentation in this basin. More carbonates were deposited in the late Oligocene‐early Miocene and middle Miocene. Along the south coast, the so‐called Bremer Basin, the Plantagenet Group (up to 100 m) of siltstone, sandstone, spongolite, and minor limestone, was deposited during the late Eocene. The Perth Basin contains up to 700 m of Tertiary sediment, formed during at least two phases of sedimentation. The upper Paleocene‐lower Eocene Kings Park Formation consists of marine shale, sandstone, and minor limestone, with a thickness of up to 450 m. The Stark Bay Formation (200 m) includes limestone, dolomite, and chert formed during the early and middle Miocene. Events after deposition of the Stark Bay Formation are not well known. The northern Carnarvon Basin and Northwest Shelf contain by far the most voluminous Tertiary sediment known from Western Australia: 3500 m is known from BOCAL's Scott Reef No. 1. A more usual maximum thickness is 2500 m. Most sediments were laid down in four episodes, separated by unconformities: late Paleocene‐early Eocene; middle‐late Eocene; late Oligocene‐middle Miocene; and late Miocene to Recent. The Paleocene‐early Eocene cycle consists of about 100–200 m (up to 450 m in the north) of carbonate, shale, and marl of the Cardabia Group containing rich faunas of planktonic foraminifera. The middle‐late Eocene sediments include diverse rock types. Marine and nonmarine sandstone formed in the Merlinleigh Trough. At the same time, the Giralia Calcarenite (fauna dominated by the large foraminifer Discocyclina) and unnamed, deeper water shale, marl, and carbonate (with rich planktonic foraminiferal faunas) formed in the ocean outside the embayment. Thickness is usually of the order of 100–200 m. The main cycle of sedimentation is the late Oligocene‐middle Miocene, during which time the Cape Range Group of carbonates formed. This contains dominantly large foraminiferal faunas, of a wide variety of shallow‐water microfacies, but recent oil exploration farther offshore has recovered outer continental shelf facies with abundant planktonic foraminifera. A minor disconformity representing N7 and perhaps parts of N6 and N8 is now thought to be widespread within the Cape Range Group. The last part of this cycle resulted in sedimentation mainly of coarse calcareous marine sandstone (unnamed), and, in the Cape Range area, of the sandstone and calcareous conglomerate of the Pilgramunna Formation. Maximum thickness encountered in WAPET wells is 900 m. After an unconformity representing almost all the late Miocene, sedimentation began again, forming an upper Miocene‐Recent carbonate unit which includes some excellent planktonic faunas. Thickness is up to 1100 m. Thin marine sediments of the White Mountain Formation outcrop in the Bonaparte Gulf Basin. They contain some foraminifera and a Miocene age has been suggested. |
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| Keywords: | Broken Hill geochronology SHRIMP stratigraphy Willyama Supergroup uranium – lead dating zircon |
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