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The stratigraphic evolution of the Cenozoic strata was investigated through the interpretation of 2D and 3D seismic surveys, integrated with wireline and biostratigraphic data. Results show that the Cenozoic stratigraphy of the Dampier and Barrow Sub-basins in the North Carnarvon Basin, NW Shelf of Australia, is characterized by two second-order sequences, separated by a late-Miocene to Pliocene sequence boundary. The Dampier and Barrow Sub-basins contain: 1) Base Paleocene to Oligocene siliciclastic-carbonates, 2) Oligocene to early-middle Miocene non-tropical carbonate ramps, 3) early-middle Miocene to late Miocene-Pliocene tropical rimmed platforms, 4) a middle Miocene to Pliocene siliciclastic deposit, 5) late Miocene-Pliocene to Pleistocene non-tropical carbonate ramps and 6) Pleistocene to Recent tropical rimmed platforms. The initiation of tropical reef production in the North Carnarvon Basin was likely triggered by local climate, linked to the strengthening of the Leeuwin Current and the northwards migration of the NW Shelf to tropical latitudes. The temporary demise of carbonate reef production was likely a combination of 1) the closure of the Indonesian Throughflow to the North Carnarvon Basin, amplifying regional cooling trends and 2) rapid rise in relative sea-level in response to increasing subsidence rates from Australian and Indonesian Miocene to Recent collisional tectonics. The temporary onset of siliciclastic sedimentation in the Dampier Sub-basin was possibly due to 1) a fall in relative sea-level 2) tectonic uplift and 3) the onset of middle Miocene aridity, decreasing vegetation coverage and increasing the erosion rates of the Pilbara hinterland. This study presents new insight on the evolution of carbonate margins and slopes during the Cenozoic in the context of Australia's tectonic and climatic changes. It also provides a detailed characterization of the Cenozoic overburden in the Dampier and Barrow Sub-basins, which is essential to access for exploration geophysics and future drilling operations. Lastly, this work provides an additional analogue for mixed carbonate-siliciclastic reservoirs in SE Asia.
The Cenozoic carbonate systems of Australasia are the product of a diverse assortment of depositional and post-depositional processes, reflecting the interplay of eustasy, tectonics (both plate and local scale), climate, and evolutionary trends that influenced their initiation and development. These systems, which comprise both land-attached and isolated platforms, were initiated in a wide variety of tectonic settings (including rift, passive margin, and arc-related) and under warm and cool-water conditions where, locally, siliciclastic input affected their development. The lithofacies, biofacies, growth morphology, diagenesis, and hydrocarbon reservoir potential of these systems are products of these varying influences. The studies reported in this volume range from syntheses of tectonic and depositional factors influencing carbonate deposition and controls on reservoir formation and petroleum system development, to local studies from the South China Sea, Indonesia, Kalimantan, Malaysia, the Marion Plateau, the Philippines, Western Australia, and New Caledonia that incorporate outcrop and subsurface data, including 3-D seismic imaging of carbonate platforms and facies, to understand the interplay of factors affecting the development of these systems under widely differing circumstances. This volume will be of importance to geoscientists interested in the variability of Cenozoic carbonate systems and the factors that controlled their formation, and to those wanting to understand the range of potential hydrocarbon reservoirs discovered in these carbonates and the events that led to favorable reservoir and trap development.
The detailed morphologies, evolution and termination of Neogene tropical carbonate platforms in the Northern Carnarvon Basin (NCB) on the passive margin of the Northwest Shelf of Australia reveal information on the history of local oceanographic processes and changing climate. Cool-water carbonate deposition, dominant during the early-middle Miocene, was superseded by a siliciclastic influx, which prograded across the shelf beginning in the late-middle Miocene during a period of long-term global sea-level fall. The resulting prograding clinoform sets, interpreted as delta lobes, created relict topographic highs following Pliocene termination of the siliciclastic influx (Sanchez et al., 2012a; 2012b). These highs created a favorable shallow-water environment for subsequent photozoan carbonate production. A composite, commercial 3D seismic volume allows investigation of the temporal and spatial evolution of the resulting Pliocene-Pleistocene carbonate platforms. Initiation of carbonate development, in addition to being a response to cessation of siliciclastic influx and the existence of suitable shallow-water substrate, was also influenced by the development of the warm-water Leeuwin Current (LC), flowing southwestward along the margin. Four flat-topped platforms are mapped; each platform top is a sequence boundary defined by onlap above and truncation below the boundary. Successive platforms migrated southwestward, along-strike. Internally, platforms have progradational seismic geometries. The mapped platform tops are large (≥ 10 km wide). Evidence of karst (e.g., v-shaped troughs up to 50m deep and ~1 km wide and broader karst basins up to 20 km2 coverage area) on platform tops suggests episodic subaerial exposure that contributed to the demise of individual platforms. The most recent platform, platform 4, is unique in having interpreted reefs superimposed on the progradational platform base. The base of these reefs now lies at ~153 m and the reefs may therefore have developed post-LGM (~21 Ka). The reefs subsequently drowned, with drowning possibly aided by turbidity associated with formation of adjacent sediment drifts and weakening and strengthening LC during the late Pleistocene. The progressive drowning and termination of platforms from northeast to southwest along strike may result from differential compaction of the deltaic substrate or differential tectonic subsidence caused by the collision at the Banda Arc between the Australian and Pacific plates.
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