Author: Marien Parra Garcia

Publisher:

Published: 2014

Total Pages:

ISBN-13:

[Truncated abstract] This study focuses on the tectonic history of the Canning Basin, of northwestern Australia, with emphasis on elucidating lateral variation in structural style and timing of deformation relative to source rock maturation across the basin. Seismic interpretation of four basin-wide structural transects, as well as several sections in the Barbwire Terrace, was undertaken to examine present-day structure of the basin and reconstruct the tectonic history. Seismic interpretation shows that Ordovician extension in the Willara Sub-Basin evolved in three phases: movements on isolated normal faults during the Early Ordovician; movements on a linked normal fault system during the Middle Ordovician; and post-rifting thermal subsidence during the Late Ordovician - Silurian. In contrast, isolated faulting on the Broome Platform occurred later, during the Middle - Late Ordovician, without subsequent development of the other two phases. Prospectivity of this system is linked to deep depocenters associated with high-angle faults where syn-rift source and reservoir rocks were sealed by post-rift strata.