The Structural Evolution of the North West Shelf: a Thermomechanical Modeling Approach Using Stratified Lithospheric Rheologies and Surface Processes

Abstract

The processes involved in the structural and stratigraphic evolution of the North West Shelf (NWS), one of the most productive and prospective hydrocarbon provinces in Australia, remain controversial. The complex structural characteristics of the NWS include large-scale extensional detachments, difference between amounts of crustal and lithospheric extension and prolonged episodes of thermal sagging after rifting episodes. It has been proposed that- the succession of different extensional style mechanisms (Cambrian detachment faulting, broadly distributed Permo-Carboniferous extension and Late Triassic to Early Cretaceous localised rift development) are best described in terms of variation i..