Geological History of the Cairns-Townsville Hinterland, 1956-1959 Survey

35,000 square miles of the Cairns-Townsville Hinterland in North Queensland were mapped from 1956 to 1959. The data describes a Precambrian shield and a Palaeozoic geosyncline containing up to 40,000 feet of sediments, intruded by 20,000 square miles of acid and 5,000 square miles of basic and ultrabasic igneous rocks. This historical geological survey was aggregated by the Australian Ocean Data Network.

Use Cases

• Modeling Precambrian shield evolution based on descriptions of granulite, amphibolite, and migmatite metamorphism.
• Analyzing sediment deposition patterns based on the 30,000-foot thickness in the Etheridge Geosyncline.
• Studying igneous intrusion events based on the mapped extents of acid and basic/ultrabasic rocks.
• Reconstructing Palaeozoic geosyncline deformation based on the described uplift, fracturing, and rift formation.

Strengths

• Covers a specific 35,000-square-mile region with detailed historical mapping.
• Provides quantified geological features, including sediment thicknesses of 30,000 and 40,000 feet and igneous rock extents of 20,000 and 5,000 square miles.
• Describes a long temporal sequence from the Precambrian (Archaean?) through the Permian.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data is presented as PDF/HTML reports, which may require extraction for computational analysis.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network (via data.gov.au)

Collection Method

Regional geological mapping conducted from 1956 to 1959.

Time Range

Geological events described from the Precambrian (Archaean?) to the late Carboniferous/Permian; mapping occurred 1956-1959.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-10 21:49:01.272817; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Cairns-Townsville Hinterland, North Queensland, Australia.