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

BMR research suggests a 50% chance of Triassic reefs hosting 60 million barrels of undiscovered oil on Australia's Northwest Shelf. This dataset likely contains results from a 1990 research cruise, including 2500 km of seismic profiles and dredge/core samples, aimed at mapping reef extent and petroleum potential. The data was aggregated by the Australian Ocean Data Network from the Bureau of Mineral Resources' Offshore Sedimentary Basins Program.

Use Cases

• Modeling petroleum trap potential based on mapped Triassic reef complexes.
• Assessing source rock potential based on described lagoonal facies within reef systems.
• Extending seismic character parameters for reef identification to other basins like the Bonaparte Basin.
• Reconstructing geological history based on seismic profiling and dredging of Triassic/Jurassic carbonates.

Strengths

• Project involved acquisition of 2500 km of multichannel seismic profiles.
• Research cruise planned 15 dredges and up to 5 cores for direct sampling.
• Focus on a specific, newly identified exploration play (Triassic reefs) with quantified potential.

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/temporal bias inherent to data_gov_au.

Provenance

Source

Bureau of Mineral Resources (BMR) Offshore Sedimentary Basins Program, via Australian Ocean Data Network.

Collection Method

Acquired via a 34-day research cruise of the vessel 'Rig Seismic' using seismic profiling, dredging, and coring.

Time Range

Focus on Triassic and Jurassic periods; research cruise planned for early 1990.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-10 21:54:05.491113; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Northern Exmouth Plateau, Wombat Plateau, Rowley Sub-basin of the southwestern Canning Basin, Australia's Northwest Shelf.