ABSTRACT: Deep Seismic Profiles from the Gippsland Basin, Australia

COLWELL, J. B., and J. B. WILLCOX, Bureau of Mineral Resources, Canberra, Austraia

The Australian Bureau of Mineral Resources has collected a unique grid of deep seismic data in the Gippsland basin, using the research vessel Rig Seismic. It consists of 1600 km of 14 second reflection profiles with complementary ship-shore refraction profiles.

In the key lines presented, detachment faults at 10-15 km depth and basin-forming structures are evident. A detachment is seen to pass beneath the basement of the flanking Bassian Rise, and underlies the adjacent Bass basin, indicating a common origin for the Gippsland and Bass basins. The thick, largely Cretaceous sediment-fill has undergone several episodes of "transpression." Similar movements in the Eocene led to the formation of major faulted anticlines that comprise the principal petroleum traps in the region.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91012©1992 AAPG Annual Meeting, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, June 22-25, 1992 (2009)