--> Abstract: Petroleum Prospectivity of Australian Marginal Plateaus, by John Barry Willcox; #90962 (1978).
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Abstract: Petroleum Prospectivity of Australian Marginal Plateaus

John Previous HitBarryTop Willcox

The continental margin of Australia covers an area almost as large as the continent itself; half of the margin is made up of 15 deep-seated plateaus, terraces, and rises which are largely unexplored. These are Scott Plateau, Rowley Terrace, Exmouth Plateau, Carnarvon Terrace, Wallaby Plateau, Naturaliste Plateau, Eyre Terrace, Ceduna Terrace, Beachport Terrace, South Tasmania Rise, Cascade Plateau, Lord Howe Rise, Kean Plateau, Marion Plateau, and Queensland Plateau. These features lie at average water depths between 0.5 and 2.8 km, and the most prospective features are at depths within range of current drilling and well-completion technology.

These features are believed to have formed in response to five discrete episodes of continental rifting which occurred from Late Jurassic to Paleocene time. They probably are built on foundered blocks of continental crust, although some workers have postulated an oceanic origin for the Wallaby and Naturaliste Plateaus.

The most prospective areas, the Exmouth and Scott Plateaus and Ceduna and Carnarvon Terraces, are generally underlain by several kilometers of fluviodeltaic sediments within a rift basin. These sediments, together with a transgressive-marine mudstone sequence which was deposited following breakup, are the most likely source beds. The marine mudstones and overlying Tertiary marlstones and limestones provide possible caprocks.

The "fair prospectivity" assigned to the Queensland and Townsville Troughs on the Queensland Plateau is based partly on inferred high heat-flow values which may have been adequate to mature any potential source rocks at relatively shallow depths.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90962©1978 AAPG 2nd Circum-Pacific Energy and Minerals Resource Conference, Honolulu, Hawaii