Seismic and stratigraphic evidence for reef expansion and onset of aridity on the Northwest Shelf of Australia during the Pleistocene

SJ Gallagher; MW Wallace; PW Hoiles; JM Southwood

Journal article

Seismic and stratigraphic evidence for reef expansion and onset of aridity on the Northwest Shelf of Australia during the Pleistocene

SJ Gallagher, MW Wallace, PW Hoiles, JM Southwood

Marine and Petroleum Geology | Published : 2014

DOI: 10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2014.06.011

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Abstract

Modern reef (the Great Barrier Reef and Ryukyu Reef) distribution in the Indo-Pacific region is strongly controlled by warm currents (East Australian and Kuroshio Currents) that radiate from the Indo-Pacific Warm Pool. The modern distribution of reefs (south of 15°S) on the Western Australian shelf is related to the presence of the warm Leeuwin Current. However, the age of the reefs south of 15°S, and hence their temporal relationship to the Leeuwin Current, has been largely unknown. Seismic and subsurface stratigraphic data show that reef growth and expansion on the Northwest Shelf of Australia began in the Middle Pleistocene (~0.5Ma). The oldest ooids in the region are approximately synchr..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Stephen Gallagher Author

Malcolm Wallace Author

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Grants

Awarded by Australian Research Council

Funding Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Guy Holdgate for various stratigraphic discussions about Northwest Shelf stratigraphy. We also Brian Pratt (the handling editor) and an anonymous reviewer whose constructive comments improved the text. Geoscience Australia (Andrew Jones and Andrew Heap) and Woodside Petroleum kindly provided the seismic data. The wireline log data were donated by Occam Technology (Mike Wiltshire). Woodside Petroleum (Neil Marshall) and Advanced Geomechanics allowed access to sample and log cores BHC4 and BHC1. The work was partly funded by an ARC Linkage project on the Northwest Shelf LP0219312 and ARC DP0558150.