Old basins, new seismic data – architecture of Proterozoic basins in Northwest Queensland

Abstract

As part of the Strategic Resources Exploration Program and to complement surveys acquired under Geoscience Australia’s Exploring for the Future (EFTF) initiative, the Geological Survey of Queensland acquired the Camooweal 2D seismic survey in 2019. This survey was designed to support exploration for hydrocarbons in the Georgina and South Nicholson Basins and Isa Superbasin in Northwest Queensland (NWQ) by providing precompetitive sub-surface data to enable interpretation of basin and basement architecture and to examine structures interpreted in the 2018 North West Queensland SEEBASE Study. The Camooweal 2D seismic survey extends Geoscience Australia’s L210 South Nicholson Seismic Survey into an underexplored region of NWQ. It also ties into and complements the 1994 and 2004 Mount Isa seismic surveys, and the 2019 L212 Barkly Seismic Survey in the Northern Territory. The South Nicholson survey highlighted a significant thickness of sedimentary strata and identified a new depocenter of probable Proterozoic age, now referred to as the Carrara Sub-basin. The Camooweal and Barkly surveys extended the seismic coverage in this region and possibly increase the Carrara Sub-basin’s extent underneath the Georgina Basin. This work will present an interpretation of the basin architecture of the Camooweal 2D seismic in light of the recent drilling at NDI Cararra 1 and tie into interpretation of the Barkly Seismic Survey to provide a regional interpretation of NWQ’s Proterozoic basins in the region.