Marine geology of Port Phillip, Victoria

Abstract

The marine geology of Port Phillip is described in detail, based on data from seismic profiling, vibrocoring and grab sampling. Three major unconsolidated facies can be distinguished: sands and muddy sands peripheral to the present coastline, muds covering the major central region, and channel fills of muds and sands. The first two facies units result from an increase in wave sorting towards the coast, reworking of Tertiary and Quaternary sandstone outcrops around the coast, and a dominant mud supply from river sources into the central area. The distribution and thicknesses of the unconsolidated facies have been augmented by a shallow-seismic program that reveals the thicknesses of the moder..