The reconnaissance gravity survey of Australia: Qualitative analysis

As a first step towards analysing Australia's gravity pattern and its correlation with the regional structure, the Bouguer anomaly field over Australia and its northwest continental shelf was divided into 96 regional gravity provinces. A gravity province is a region where the gravity field is characterised by uniformity of at least one property, such as contour trend, gravity level, or degree of contour disturbance, which distinguishes it from a neighbouring province. Many gravity provinces are subdivided into gravity units, which are similar to provinces in definition, but of smaller size. The provinces and units are discussed in relation to known geology and geophysics. In general, provinces of high Bouguer anomaly correspond to Proterozoic or early Palaeozoic metamorphic belts, provinces of low Bouguer anomaly to granitic batholiths or Phanerozoic sedimentary basins, and provinces of complex contour pattern to Precambrian or Palaeozoic orogenic domains.