Mount Isa Basin Geology Field Guide for 1800-1600 Ma Supercontinent Rifting

A 200-million-year geological record of intracontinental rifting and basin evolution from 1800 to 1600 Ma is preserved in the Mount Isa region. This field guide describes three stacked sedimentary basins and the transition from fluvial-lacustrine to deep marine depositional environments. The data was published by the Australian Ocean Data Network and last updated in 2026.

Use Cases

• Modeling basin evolution based on described sedimentary sequences and unconformities.
• Analyzing crustal thinning and magmatism patterns based on the record of bimodal magmatism.
• Studying supercontinent (Nuna) breakup processes based on the described 200 Myr rifting record.
• Correlating depositional environment changes from fluviatile-lacustrine to marine turbidites.

Strengths

• Covers a specific 200-million-year geological timeframe (1800-1600 Ma).
• Describes three distinct sedimentary superbasins (Leichhardt, Calvert, Isa) with defined time ranges.
• Focuses on a well-defined geographic region: the Mount Isa area of northern Australia.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data formats are PDF, ZIP, HTML, which may require extraction and parsing.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Compiled from field observations, mine visits, and outcrop geology.

Time Range

1800 to 1600 Ma (Paleoproterozoic to earliest Mesoproterozoic)

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-10 20:06:48.164201; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Mount Isa region, northern Australia