Cretaceous and Miocene Rock Samples Dredged from Deepwater Gippsland Basin

Eighteen dredge hauls recovered from the deepwater Gippsland Basin during the 1998 R/V Franklin cruise FR11/98 provide lithological and age data for this region. The collection includes volcanics, volcaniclastics, and calcareous sediments spanning from the Late Cretaceous to the Holocene. Geoscience Australia Data published this information to characterize the little-known deepwater basin.

Use Cases

• Classifying rock lithologies based on described categories of basalt, hyaloclastite, breccia, and calcareous ooze.
• Reconstructing paleoenvironments based on described features like burrows, trace fossils, ripple marks, and plant material.
• Dating geological events based on palynological ages ranging from Turonian to Campanian (~90 Ma to ~74 Ma).
• Analyzing sediment provenance based on the described volcaniclastic mass flow deposits and their mineral fillings.

Strengths

• 18 dredge hauls provide multiple sample points across the basin.
• Samples are categorized into four distinct lithological and age groups.
• Dredge sites were selected based on seismic reflection profiles and morphological features.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect geographic and temporal bias inherent to the specific 1998 research cruise.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia Data

Collection Method

Dredge hauls recovered during R/V Franklin research cruise FR11/98 in 1998.

Time Range

Late Cretaceous (Turonian to Campanian, ~90-74 Ma) to Holocene.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-14 04:56:26.854996; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Deepwater Gippsland Basin, offshore southeastern Australia.