Sedimentation and tectonics in the northeastern and central Amadeus Basin, central Australia
Abstract
Sedimentation in the Amadeus Basin of central Australia took place between about 900 and 350 Ma, but was frequently interrupted by tectonic disturbances. These ranged in intensity from epeirogenic uplift and erosion to strong folding and formation of basin-wide unconformities. A latitudinal Central Ridge, about 400 km long, formed early in the history of the basin, during the Late Proterozoic, and divided the basin into northern and southern sub-basins. The geometry of the ridge is uncertain, but magnetic data suggest that it is a basement horst or thrust block overlain by the lower part of the basin sequence. Flowage of salt from low in the basin sequence formed anticlines and diapirs in the overlying Proterozoic sedimentary rocks, and salt may have moved up the flanks of the Central Ridge, accentuating its relief and forming depocentres in the northern and southern sub-basins. The Central Ridge provided a variety of traps (especially pinchouts) for hydrocarbons migrating from the nearby depocentres.
- Publication:
-
Geological and Geophysical Studies in the Amadeus Basin, Central Australia, Bulletin 236
- Pub Date:
- 1991
- Bibcode:
- 1991ggsa.rept...73O
- Keywords:
-
- Australia;
- Erosion;
- Mapping;
- Sedimentary Rocks;
- Sediments;
- Stratigraphy;
- Structural Basins;
- Tectonics;
- Anticlines;
- Folding;
- Hydrocarbons;
- Magnetic Fields;
- Precambrian Period