Gower Basin
Entity ID: 33443 Compiled by: Taubert, S. Year: 2001 Status: Defined
Last Revised: 2013
Rank: Province Type: sedimentary Subtype: polyhistory Location: NSW Off-shore
Synonyms: NA Symbol: NA
Minimum age: Recent Age method: inferred, seismic interpretation
Maximum age: Late Jurassic Age method: inferred, seismic interpretation
Summary: The frontier Gower Basin is part of the Central Rift Zone of the Lord Howe Rise. The Gower Basin contains a Late Jurassic to Recent sedimentary succession up to 4000m in thickness.
Attributes:
Area (square kilometres): 106000 State: NSW Minimum present water depth (m): 750 Maximum present water depth (m): 3000 Main rock types: sediments and sedimentary rocks with volcaniclastic debris Main depositional environment: marine and non-marine Maximum sediment thickness (m): 4000 But 'basement' problematical Country: AUS
Parent: No data
Child Provinces: No data
Relationships:
Adjoins - Capel Basin [to the north], Faust Basin, Lord Howe Basin [to the west], Lord Howe Platform [to the east], Monawai Basin [to the south], Moore Basin
Constituent units:
Events: No data
Mineral Deposits: No data
Key Reference: Willcox, J.B., Sayers, J. 2002, Geological framework of the central Lord Howe Rise (Gower Basin) region with consideration of its petroleum potential, Geoscience Australia. Record, 2002/11, (Refid:13939)
Comments: No data
Overview: The Gower Basin covers an area of 106,000 sq. km and is the main depocentre within the Central Rift Zone of the Lord Howe Rise. It lies within the Exclusive Economic Zone around Lord Howe Island. This remote frontier basin contains a probable Upper Jurassic to Recent sedimentary succession with a maximum thickness of 4000 m, overlying continental crust presumed to be Lachlan Fold Belt. The basin has not been penetrated by drilling, and the age and nature of its basin-fill are inferred from seismic images and comparisons to the Gippsland and Bass basins. The petroleum potential of the Gower Basin is speculative due to the lack of hard data. However, seismic images across the basin show large half-graben structures, large diapir-like features and a range of possible play types within both the syn-rift and post-rift successions. Amplitude anomalies are evident on some seismic images, but some of these anomalies are probably due to volcanics within the basin-fill. One major uncertainty is the thermal maturity of potential source rocks within the basin given the relatively thin overburden. Plate reconstructions place the southern part of the Gower Basin against the Gippsland Basin, and the two basins probably shared a similar history until break-up in the latest Santonian to early Campanian. The Gower Basin formed by oblique extension, with later inversion and shortening. It comprises a series of northnorthwest-trending horsts and grabens offset by northeast-trending accommodation zones. Two syn-rift phases are recognised that bear close analogy to those in the Durroon Sub-basin of the Bass Basin. The Upper Jurassic to mid-Cretaceous section is interpreted to largely comprise a fluvio-lacustrine sedimentary succession. From the late Santonian to Eocene, following break-up, there was a change to marginal or restricted marine conditions. By the mid-Oligocene full marine conditions prevailed. From the Miocene onwards the strata have been broadly folded in response to compression along the plate boundary to the northeast.
Images: No data
Other media: No data
Source Information:
- FOR INTERP-SEISMICS: Willcox, J.B., Sayers, J., 2002, Geological framework of the central Lord Howe Rise (Gower Basin) region with consideration of its petroleum potential, Geoscience Australia. Record, 2002/11, . (Refid: 13939)
- FOR MAIN RESOURCES: Exon, N.F., Dickens, G.R., Auzende, J-M., Lafoy, Y., Symonds, P.A., Van de Beuque, S., 1998, Gas hydrates and free gas on the Lord Howe Rise, PESA Journal, 26, 148-158. (Refid: 12685)
- FOR MAIN RESOURCES: Blevin, J.E., 2001, Hydrocarbon rospectivity of Australia's remote frontier areas in offshore east and south-east Australia - examples from the basins of Lord Howe Rise lN, K.C. and Bernecker, T. (eds.) "Eastern Australasian Basins Symposium: a refocused ....", Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia. Special Publication, 1v, p25-35. (Refid: 13940)
- FOR MAXAGE: Willcox, J.B., Sayers, J., 2002, Geological framework of the central Lord Howe Rise (Gower Basin) region with consideration of its petroleum potential, Geoscience Australia. Record, 2002/11, . (Refid: 13939)
- FOR MAXAGE: Willcox, J.B., Sayers, J., 2002, Geological framework of the central Lord Howe Rise (Gower Basin) region with consideration of its petroleum potential, Geoscience Australia. Record, 2002/11, . (Refid: 13939)
- FOR PROVINCE-GENERAL: Van de Beuque, S., Stagg, H., Sayers, J., AGSO Law of the Sea Group., Geological framework of the northern Lord Howe Rise and adjacent basins, Australian Geological Survey Organisation, Record 2001, (in press), 2001, . (Refid: 12678)
- FOR PROVINCE-GENERAL: Burns, R.E., Andrews, J.E., et al., 1973, Initial reports of the Deep Sea Drilling Project, 21, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., . (Refid: 12683)
- FOR PROVINCE-GENERAL: Willcox, J.B., Symonds, P.A., Hinz, K., Bennett, D., 1980, Lord Howe Rise, Tasman Sea - preliminary geophysical results and petroleum prospects., BMR Journal of Australian Geology and Geophysics, 5(3), p225-236. (Refid: 46961)
- FOR PROVINCE-GENERAL: Alcock, M., Borissova, I., Moore, A., Stagg, H., Symonds, P.A., 1999, Geological framework of the southern Lord Howe Rise and adjacent ocean basins, Australian Geological Survey Organisation, Record 1999 (in press), 1999, . (Refid: 12670)
- FOR PROVINCE-GENERAL: Willcox, J.B., Sayers, J., 2001, Gower Basin, Lord Howe Rise IN Hill, K.C. and Bernecker, T. (eds.) "Eastern Australasian Basins Symposium: a refocussed energy perspective for the future", Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia. Special Publication, 1v, p189-200. (Refid: 12697)
- FOR PROVINCE-GENERAL: Willcox, J.B., Sayers, J., Stagg, H.M.J., Van de Beuque, S., 2001, Geological framework of the Lord Howe Rise and adjacent ocean basins IN Hill, K.C. and Bernecker, T. (eds.) "Eastern Australasian Basins Symposium: a refocussed energy perspective for the future", Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia. Special Publication, 1v, p211-227. (Refid: 12680)
- FOR PROVINCE-GENERAL: Willcox, J.B., Sayers, J., 2002, Geological framework of the central Lord Howe Rise (Gower Basin) region with consideration of its petroleum potential, Geoscience Australia. Record, 2002/11, . (Refid: 13939)
- FOR PROVINCE-GENERAL: Sdrolias, M., Muller, R.D., Gaina, C., 2001, Plate tectonic evolution of eastern Australian marginal ocean basins., Eastern Australasian Basins Symposium 2001, 227-237. (Refid: 12544)
- FOR PROVINCE-GENERAL: Grim, P.J., 1969, Heatflow measurements in the Tasman Sea, Journal of Geophysical Research, 74, 3933-3934. (Refid: 12695)
- FOR PROVINCE-GENERAL: Kennett, J.P., Von Der Borch, C.C., et al., 1986, Initial Reports of the Deep Sea Drilling Project, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington D.C., 90, . (Refid: 12696)
- FOR PROVINCE-GENERAL: Symonds, P.A., Willcox, J.B., 1989, Australia's petroleum potential in areas beyond an exclusive economic zone., BMR Journal of Australian Geology and Geophysics, 11(1), p11-36. (Refid: 41812)
- FOR PROVINCE-GENERAL: Burytech Pty Ltd., 2001, Gower Basin geohistory study: preliminary results, Geoscience Australia (GA), . (Refid: 12676)
- FOR PROVNAME: Roeser, H.A., Shipboard Party, 1985, Geophysical, geological and geochemical studies on Lord Howe Rise., Bundesanstalt fur Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe Report, Cruise SO36(1), 1, . (Refid: 13943)
