The Rowley Shoals atolls: Remnants of a Miocene great barrier reef on the north-west Australian margin

Abstract

The tropical North West Shelf of Australia hosts a diverse range of modern reefs. Six shelf edge isolated atolls are present north of 18°S including: Ashmore Reef, Scott Reef and Seringapatam Reef, and three Rowley Shoals. The Ningaloo Reef is a fringing reef around the North West Cape at 22°S. All of these reefs are the remnants of a vast 2000 km long barrier reef that drowned during the Late Miocene (∼10 Ma). Despite extensive hydrocarbon exploration in the region, the history of these isolated reefs is not well known. Seismic analyses combined with stratigraphic analyses of International Ocean Discovery Site U1464 near the Rowley Shoals has revealed that these modern isolated atolls have ..