Closed ATM View - GA2020/735
Chemostratigraphic analyses and interpretation
Canberra
Geoscience Australia is in the final stages of a four-year initiative by the Australian Government called Exploring for the Future (EFTF). The aim is to boost investment in resource exploration in northern Australia. A key component of this is improving the understanding of the petroleum prospectivity of the Canning Basin.
A 2680 m stratigraphic drill hole, Waukarlycarly 1, was drilled in 2019 in partnership between Geoscience Australia (GA) and the Geological Survey of Western Australia (GSWA) within the Waukarlycarly Embayment, a previously undrilled part of the Canning Basin. The well penetrated a Permo-Carboniferous fluvial clastic succession overlying an extremely thick (>1730 m) interpreted Devonian to Ordovician succession before terminating in low-grade metasediments of presumed Neoproterozoic age. Log characterisation, core analysis, geochronology, petrographic and palaeontological studies are underway to characterise the lithology, age and depositional environment of these sediments. To supplement these data, Geoscience Australia proposes to carry out chemostratigraphic analyses of key wells in the Canning Basin in order to establish chemostratigraphic correlations within the Ordovician based upon changes in elemental and isotopic geochemistry.
Three wells (Kidson 1, Samphire Marsh 1 and Willara 1 totalling 300 rock samples) have been identified as suitable wells for chemostratigraphic correlation to the Waukarlycarly 1 well. The results will be compared to publicly available chemostratigraphic data of Ordovician sediments in other wells of the Canning Basin to allow interpretation on a basin-wide geological context. This new data will significantly contribute to a much better understanding of the little-known subsurface geology of the Waukarlycarly Embayment and Kidson Sub-basin, thereby providing new insights into the geology and petroleum prospectivity of this frontier region.
Geoscience Australia is in the final stages of a four-year initiative by the Australian Government called Exploring for the Future (EFTF). The aim is to boost investment in resource exploration in northern Australia. A key component of this is improving the understanding of the petroleum prospectivity of the Canning Basin.
A 2680 m stratigraphic drill hole, Waukarlycarly 1, was drilled in 2019 in partnership between Geoscience Australia (GA) and the Geological Survey of Western Australia (GSWA) within the Waukarlycarly Embayment, a previously undrilled part of the Canning Basin. The well penetrated a Permo-Carboniferous fluvial clastic succession overlying an extremely thick (>1730 m) interpreted Devonian to Ordovician succession before terminating in low-grade metasediments of presumed Neoproterozoic age. Log characterisation, core analysis, geochronology, petrographic and palaeontological studies are underway to characterise the lithology, age and depositional environment of these sediments. To supplement these data, Geoscience Australia proposes to carry out chemostratigraphic analyses of key wells in the Canning Basin in order to establish chemostratigraphic correlations within the Ordovician based upon changes in elemental and isotopic geochemistry.
Three wells (Kidson 1, Samphire Marsh 1 and Willara 1 totalling 300 rock samples) have been identified as suitable wells for chemostratigraphic correlation to the Waukarlycarly 1 well. The results will be compared to publicly available chemostratigraphic data of Ordovician sediments in other wells of the Canning Basin to allow interpretation on a basin-wide geological context. This new data will significantly contribute to a much better understanding of the little-known subsurface geology of the Waukarlycarly Embayment and Kidson Sub-basin, thereby providing new insights into the geology and petroleum prospectivity of this frontier region.
Supplied input
300 rock samples
Deliverables
The Supplier will carry out elemental and isotopic chemostratigraphical analyses on 300 rock samples from wells of the Canning Basin.
The analytical services will include:
- Sample preparation
- ICP-OES-MS elemental analysis of 50 elements (including 10 major elements as oxides and 40 trace elements) on 300 rock samples. The major elements, reported as oxide percent by weight, include SiO2, TiO2, Al2O3, Fe2O3, MgO, MnO, CaO, Na2O, K2O and P2O5. The trace elements reported as parts per million by weight comprise 25 trace elements including Ba, Be, Bi, Co, Cr, Cs, Cu, Ga, Hf, Mo, Nb, Ni, Pb, Rb, Sn, Sr, Ta, Tl, Th, U, V, W, Y, Zn, and Zr and 14 rare earth elements (REE) including La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Ho, Dy, Er, Tm, Yb, and Lu. The precision error for the major element data and trace element data should be better than 5%.
- Measurement of the carbon (13C) and oxygen (18O) isotopic compositions of carbonates on the most suitable rock samples. The samples analysed for this type of measurement will be selected based on lithology inferred from major elemental data. The carbon and isotopic ratios are reported as conventional delta values (δ13C and δ18O) reported in per mille with respect to Vienna Pee Dee Belemnite (VPDB). Analytical precision (1σ) should be better than ±0.3‰ for both isotope ratios.
- Provision of raw elemental and isotopic data and any chemostratigraphy ‘tops’ as Excel spreadsheets.
- Provision of an interpretive report integrating these elemental and isotopic results with existing open-file chemostratigraphic data of Ordovician sediments from the Canning Basin.
Delivery of ICP-OES-MS elemental raw data and isotopic data for carbonates (13C/18O) - 15/5/2020
Delivery of interpretive report - 19/6/2020
Austender