The miocene palaeoenvironmental and palaeoceanographic evolution of the gippsland basin, southeast australia: A record of southern ocean change

Abstract

The Gippsland Basin in southeastern Australia preserves up to 2.5 km thick Tertiary to Recent marine carbonate sediments included in the Seaspray Group. During the Neogene, the Seaspray Group carbonates of the Mackerel and Flounder petroleum fields lay at the shelfal to bathyal palaeoenvironmental transition, an ideal palaeoceanographic setting to study the Neogene history of events in the evolving Southern Ocean. Seismic, foraminiferal and facies analyses of the Miocene Seaspray Group sediments at the Mackerel-1 and Flounder-1 wells have revealed the following palaeoenvironmental history of the area. Relatively cool to temperate upwelling conditions prevailed in the area during the earliest..