Morphologies and depositional/erosional controls on evolution of Pliocene-Pleistocene carbonate platforms: Northern Carnarvon Basin, Northwest Shelf of Australia

Abstract

The detailed morphologies, evolution and termination of latest Neogene tropical carbonate platforms in the Northern Carnarvon Basin (NCB), on the passive margin of the Northwest Shelf (NWS) of Australia, defined based upon mapping using 3D seismic images, reveal the history of local/regional oceanographic processes, fluctuations in relative sea-level and changing climate. Cool-water carbonate deposition, dominant during the early-middle Miocene, was followed by a siliciclastic influx, which prograded across the NWS 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 topog..