Pliocene - Pleistocene history of the Gippsland Basin outer shelf and canyon heads, southeast Australia

Abstract

The Gippsland Basin on Australia's southeastern continental margin is host to a number of large shelf-breaching canyons that form part of the Bass Canyon system. Analysis of high-resolution bathymetry data and biostratigraphically controlled shallow seismic data across the shelf and upper slope and associated canyon heads shows that widespread erosion at the canyon heads began in the earliest Pleistocene (CN13a, 1.95 - 1.72 Ma). Deep V-shaped channels were eroded into pre-existing U-shaped channels. Erosion was not necessarily a response to Pleistocene lowstands but followed a period where (carbonate) sedimentation rates on the shelf were greatly elevated. Both carbonate production and erosi..