Carnarvon Basin
The Carnarvon Basin is a geological basin located in the north west of Western Australia.[1] This 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
![](../I/m/Regions_of_western_australia_nine_plus_perth.png)
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.[2]
The main sub-basins for petroleum exploration in the basin have been Dampier, Exmouth and Barrow.[3]
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.[2]
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.[4]
See also
- Carnarvon (biogeographic region)
- Conductor support system
References
- "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 5 August 2008. Retrieved 16 June 2008.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) for a regional perspective
- Geoscience Australia - Northern Carnarvon Basin (NCB) Archived April 16, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
- Geoscience Australia - Petroleum exploration (NCB) Archived March 21, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
- R. Iaskty and A. 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, Vol 52, 2005
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