Bight Basin Marine Survey: Geological Sampling and Seepage Data

The Bight Basin off southern Australia was surveyed in February-March 2007 to investigate petroleum systems. The R/V Southern Surveyor collected 37 dredge hauls, 69 gravity cores, 15 grab samples, 4600 km of swath data, and 2400 km of sub-bottom profile data across nine targeted areas. This work provided the first evidence for a world-class marine Cretaceous source rock in the basin.

Use Cases

• Mapping potential source rock distribution based on sampled distal facies of Albian-Santonian age intervals.
• Investigating active petroleum systems by analyzing data from potential natural hydrocarbon seepage sites.
• Integrating geological sample data with extensive geophysical swath and sub-bottom profile data for basin modeling.

Strengths

• Successfully sampled all nine targeted areas, providing systematic coverage of the eastern Bight Basin.
• Collected a substantial volume of physical samples and geophysical data, including 121 total samples and 7000 km of profile data.
• Survey design directly addressed two key petroleum systems issues, with results confirming a world-class source rock.

Limitations

• Specific column names and data structure are unknown, limiting understanding of the dataset's internal organization.
• Key metadata such as row count, file size, license, and author are not provided across all sources.
• Data is from a single survey in 2007, representing a specific snapshot in time.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network, likely originating from Geoscience Australia (GA Publication).

Collection Method

Marine survey using the R/V Southern Surveyor, employing dredging, gravity coring, grab sampling, swath mapping, and sub-bottom profiling.

Time Range

Survey conducted from 24 February to 17 March 2007.

Freshness

Last updated metadata on 2026-05-04, though the underlying survey data is from 2007.

Geography

Eastern Bight Basin, Australia, specifically the seaward edges of the Ceduna and Eyre Terraces and the Ceduna Sub-basin.