Houtman Sub-basin
Entity ID: 27012 Compiled by: Bradshaw, B.E. Year: 2002 Status: Defined
Last Revised: 2013
Rank: Subprovince Type: sedimentary Subtype: polyhistory Location: WA Off-shore
Synonyms: NA Symbol: NA
Minimum age: Recent Age method: inferred, biostratigraphic correlation
Maximum age: Permian Age method: inferred, seismic interpretation
Summary: The ?Permian to Cenozoic Houtman Sub-basin is a large, extensively faulted tectonic element of the Perth Basin located offshore on the southwestern Australian margin, containing up to 13 km of siliciclastic fluvial, deltaic and marine rocks.
Attributes:
Area (square kilometres): 52900 State: WA Minimum present water depth (m): 0 Maximum present water depth (m): 3500 Main rock types: carbonate sediments and sedimentary rocks Main rock types: siliciclastic sediments and sedimentary rocks Main depositional environment: marine and non-marine Maximum sediment thickness (m): 13000 Present crustal setting: continental Country: AUS
Parent: Perth Basin
Child Provinces: No data
Relationships:
Adjoins - Abrolhos Sub-basin, Gascoyne Sub-basin, Southern Carnarvon Basin [Western margin partly overlies Southern Carnarvon Basin.], Turtle Dove Ridge, Zeewyck Sub-basin
Constituent units: Cadda Formation, Cardabia Calcarenite, Cattamarra Coal Measures, Korojon Calcarenite, Miria Formation, Toolonga Calcilutite, Winning Group, Yarragadee Formation, Eneabba Formation
Events: No data
Mineral Deposits: No data
Key Reference: Crostella, A. 2001, Geology and petroleum potential of the Abrolhos Sub-basin, Western Australia, Geological Survey of Western Australia. Report, 75, 57p (Refid:23520)
Comments: No data
Overview: The Houtman Sub-basin is a deep, north-northwest to south-southeast trending, extensively faulted tectonic element located on the continental shelf and slope in the offshore northern Perth Basin. It forms the largest structural element in the Perth Basin and extends about 700 km along-strike over an area of 52 800 square kilometres. Exploration drilling has been limited to only two wells in the southern Houtman Sub-basin, none encountering commercial hydrocarbon accumulations. The origin and structural characteristics of the Houtman Sub-basin are only well documented in its southern part where most seismic data have been acquired. Here, the Houtman Sub-basin contains a thick (>3100 m at Houtman 1), extensively faulted section of Upper Triassic to Jurassic, fluvial, deltaic and marine sedimentary rocks. Permian to Middle Triassic half-graben depocentres appear to extend along the eastern margin of the Houtman Sub-basin, suggesting that much of the Houtman Sub-basin originated during a Permian rifting event. The southern part of the Houtman Sub-basin probably formed as a westward-thickening sag basin across a hinge zone (the Houtman Hinge Zone) during the Middle Triassic to Middle Jurassic. Middle Jurassic to Early Cretaceous rifting produced numerous northeast and southwest dipping faults with up to 1800 m of throw, and some large wrench anticline structures along the western margin. Uplift and erosion during Valanginian break-up has removed much of the original synrift section from the Houtman Sub-basin. Post-break-up deposits form a westward thickening (up to ~1500 m thick) passive margin cover of predominantly carbonate rocks above the Middle Triassic to Jurassic depocentre. The Houtman Sub-basin contains potential source rocks for oil and gas in Jurassic strata (Yarragadee Formation, Cadda Formation and Cattamarra Coal Measures), and potential structural traps in extensional fault blocks and strike-slip related structures sealed by marine shales from the Middle Jurassic Cadda Formation. An interpreted palaeo-oil column and a minor gas accumulation at Houtman 1 provide evidence for a petroleum system.
Images: Perth Basin regional cross-section Profile 1 (53 KB), Perth Basin regional setting and cross-section location map (101 KB), Perth Basin regional cross-section Profile 2 (42 KB), Northern Perth Basin stratigraphy (80 KB)
Other media: No data
Source Information:
- FOR PROVINCE-GENERAL: Symonds, P.A., Planke, S., Frey, O., Skogseid, J., 1998, Volcanic evolution of the Western Australian continental margin and its implications for basin development, in Purcell, P.G. & Purcell, R.R. (eds), The sedimentary basins of Western Australia 2. Proceedings of a PESA Symposium, Perth, 33-54. (Refid: 12525)
- FOR PROVINCE-GENERAL: Bradshaw, B.E., Rollet, N., Totterdell, J.M., Borissova, I., 2003, A revised structural framework for frontier basins on the southern and southwestern Australian continental margin., Geoscience Australia. Record, 2003/03, 44. (Refid: 13490)
- FOR PROVINCE-GENERAL: Kempton, R.H., Liu, K., Boreham, C., Bradshaw, B.E., Eadington, P.J., Passmore, V., 2002, Oil migration and accumulation in the offshore Perth Basin, Western Australia, CSIRO Confidential Report 02-005 to Geoscience Australia, 02-005, 71. (Refid: 12763)
- FOR PROVINCE-GENERAL: Norvick, M.S., 2001, Tectonostratigraphy of the Perth Basin, Preliminary Report-2 for Geoscience Australia (unpublished), 2, . (Refid: 12765)
- FOR PROVINCE-GENERAL: Quaife, R., Rosser, J., Pagnozzi, S., 1994, The structural architecture and stratigraphy of the offshore northern Perth Basin, in Purcell, P.G. & Purcell, R.R. (eds), The sedimentary basins of Western Australia. Proceedings of a PESA Symposium, Perth, 811-822. (Refid: 12770)
- FOR PROVINCE-GENERAL: Song, T., Cawood, P.A., 2000, Structural styles in the Perth Basin associated with the Mesozoic breakup of Greater India and Australia, Tectonophysics, 317, 55-72. (Refid: 12771)
- FOR PROVINCE-GENERAL: Stagg, H.M.J., Willcox, J.B., Symonds, P.A., O'Brien, G.W., Colwell, J.B., Hill, P.J., Lee, C-S., Moore, A.M.G., Struckmeyer, H.I.M., 1999, Architecture and evolution of the Australian continental margin, AGSO Journal of Australian Geology and Geophysics, 17(5/6), 17-33. (Refid: 12772)
- FOR PROVINCE-GENERAL: Marshall, J.F., Lee, C-S., Ramsay, D.C., O'Brien, G., Moore, M.G., 1989, 1989 - North Perth Basin, Bureau of Mineral resources Continental Margins Program, Folio 3, . (Refid: 13360)
- FOR PROVINCE-GENERAL: Seggie, R., 1990, Geological Cross-Section of the North Perth Basin, Bureau of Mineral Resources, Australia, Record 1990/65, . (Refid: 13361)
- FOR PROVINCE-GENERAL: Enterprise Oil Exploration Ltd, Nippon Oil Exploration (Perth Basin) Ltd, 1994, Plum MSS Final Report. Part E. Geophysical Interpretation. Volume 1: Western Australia., Geological Survey, v., A005360 unpublished, . (Refid: 13364)
- FOR PROVINCE-GENERAL: Enterprise Oil Exploration Ltd, Nippon Oil Exploration (Perth Basin) Ltd, 1994, Scarlet MSS Final Report. Part E. Geophysical Interpretation. Volume 1: Western Australia, Geological Survey, v., A005363 unpublished, . (Refid: 13365)
- FOR PROVINCE-GENERAL: Currie, T.J., Alexander, R., Kagi, R.I., 1998, Evidence for a Submarine Oil Seep in the Offshore Northern Perth Basin., in Purcell, P.G. & Purcell, R.R. (eds), The sedimentary basins of Western Australia 2. Proceedings of a PESA Symposium, Perth, 625-636. (Refid: 13369)
- FOR PROVINCE-GENERAL: Symonds, P.A., Cameron, P.J., 1977, The structure and stratigraphy of the Carnarvon Terrace and Wallaby Plateau, APEA Journal, 17, 30-41. (Refid: 19311)
- FOR PROVINCE-GENERAL: Crostella, A., 2001, Geology and petroleum potential of the Abrolhos Sub-basin, Western Australia, Geological Survey of Western Australia. Report, 75, 57p. (Refid: 23520)
- FOR PROVINCE-GENERAL: Smith, G.C., Cowley, R.G., 1987, The tectono-stratigraphy and petroleum potential of the northern Abrolhos Sub-basin, Western Australia., APEA Journal, 27(1), p112-136. (Refid: 41172)
- FOR PROVINCE-GENERAL: Marshall, J.F., Lee, C.S., Ramsay, D.C., Moore, A.M.G., 1989, Tectonic controls on sedimentation and maturation in the offshore North Perth Basin., APEA Journal, 29(1), p450-465. (Refid: 41729)
- FOR PROVINCE-GENERAL: Cadman, S.J., Pain, L., Vuckovic, V., 1994, Perth Basin, Western Australia., Australian Petroleum Accumulations. Report, 10, 103pp. (Refid: 43031)
- FOR PROVINCE-GENERAL: Hocking, R.M., 1994, Subdivisions of Western Australian Neoproterozoic and Phanerozoic sedimentary basins., Geological Survey of Western Australia. Record, 1994/4, p1-84. (Refid: 43442)
- FOR PROVINCE-GENERAL: Cowley, R., 2001, MkII Airborne Laser Fluorosensor survey reprocessing and interpretation report: Perth Basin, Western Australia, AGSO Record 2001/19, 2001/19, 32. (Refid: 12756)
