Carnarvon Basin

This article is about the geological feature of Western Australia. For other uses, see Carnarvon.

The Carnarvon Basin is a geological basin located in the north west of Western Australia which extends from the Dampier Archipelago to the Murchison bioregion,^[1][2] and is the main geological feature that makes up the North West Shelf. The onshore part of the Carnarvon Basin covers about 115,000 km² and the offshore part covers approximately 535,000 km² with water depths up to 3,500 metres. It is separated into two major areas - the Northern Carnarvon Basin, and the Southern Carnarvon Basin.

Northern Carnarvon Basin

Gascoyne in North West Australia.

The Northern Carnarvon Basin includes the Exmouth Plateau, Wombat Plateau (on the northern part of the Exmouth Plateau), Investigator Sub-basin, Rankin Platform, Exmouth Sub-basin, Barrow Sub-basin, Dampier Sub-basin, Beagle Sub-basin, Enderby Terrace, Peedamullah Shelf and the Lambert Shelf.^[3]

The main sub-basins for petroleum exploration in the basin have been Dampier, Exmouth and Barrow.^[4]

Southern Carnarvon Basin

The Southern basin consists of the Gascoyne, Merlinleigh, Bidgemia and Byro Sub-basins and Bernier Platform and is flanked to the east by the Archaean Pilbara Block.^[3]

Impact crater

The Gnargoo structure, which has remarkable similarities to Woodleigh crater, is a proposed 75 km impact crater on the Gascoyne Platform, Southern Carnarvon Basin with an estimated age of 100-300 Ma.^[5]

See also

• Carnarvon (biogeographic region)

References

1. Brearley, Anne (2005). Ernest Hodkin's Swanland. Crawley, Western Australia: University of Western Australia Press. ISBN 1920694382.
2. "Geoscience Australia - Offshore Northwest Australia". Archived from the original on 5 August 2008. Retrieved 16 June 2008. for a regional perspective
3. Geoscience Australia - Northern Carnarvon Basin (NCB) Archived April 16, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
4. Geoscience Australia - Petroleum exploration (NCB) Archived March 21, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
5. R. P. Iasky; A. Y. Glikson (2005). "Gnargoo: a possible 75 km-diameter post-Early Permian – pre-Cretaceous buried impact structure, Carnarvon Basin, Western Australia". Australian Journal of Earth Sciences. 52 (4–5): 4–5. doi:10.1080/08120090500170377. S2CID 128814897.

Further reading

• Jonasson, Karina E.(2001) Western Australia atlas of petroleum fields. Volume 2. Perth, W.A. Dept. of Minerals and Energy W.A. Petroleum Division. ISBN 1-877065-00-5

External links

• Carnarvon Basin overview

24°48′24″S 115°13′29″E