NEOGENE TECTONICS IN SE AUSTRALIA: IMPLICATIONS FOR PETROLEUM SYSTEMS

Abstract

The influence of Neogene tectonics in the SE Australian basins has generally been underestimated in the petroleum exploration literature. However, onshore stratigraphic and offshore seismic data indicates that significant deformation and exhumation (up to one km or more) has occurred during the late Tertiary-Quaternary. This tectonism coincides with a change in the dynamics of the Australian plate, beginning at around 12 Ma, resulting in a WNW–ESE compressional regime which has continued to the present day. Significant late Miocene tectonism is indicated by a regional angular unconformity at around the Mio-Pliocene boundary in the onshore and nearshore successions of the SE..