Distribution of Triassic Reefs in the Northern Exmouth Plateau and Offshore Canning Basin

A 1990 research cruise by BMR's vessel 'Rig Seismic' aimed to map Late Triassic reef complexes for petroleum exploration. The project planned to acquire 2500 km of multichannel seismic profiles, conduct about 15 dredges, and take up to 5 cores on the northern Exmouth Plateau. BMR estimated a 50% chance these reefs host 60 million barrels of undiscovered oil on Australia's Northwest Shelf.

Use Cases

• Mapping Triassic reef extent based on seismic profiling and dredging techniques mentioned in the description
• Assessing petroleum trap potential based on the described reef complexes forming structural traps
• Evaluating source rock potential based on described lagoonal facies within the reef systems
• Correlating seismic character of reefs to explore analogous plays in other basins as described in the project's second phase

Strengths

• Project involved acquisition of 2500 km of multichannel seismic profiles
• Cruise plan included about 15 dredges and up to 5 cores for direct sampling
• Analysis is informed by the first discovery of a Triassic reef in Australia at ODP Site 764

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 bias inherent to data_gov_au, focusing on a specific Australian region

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Planned acquisition via a 34-day research cruise using seismic profiling, dredging, and coring.

Time Range

Project planned for early 1990.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-16 22:33:03.923380; freshness should be verified

Geography

Northern Exmouth Plateau and offshore Canning Basin, Australia.