Late Cretaceous-Palaeogene Nannofossil Biostratigraphy from Challenger No. 1 Well

Late Cretaceous-Palaeogene calcareous nannofossil assemblages document the stratigraphy of the Challenger Formation type section in the offshore Perth Basin. The data, provided by the Australian Ocean Data Network, revises the formation's age to Middle Eocene-Oligocene and identifies major disconformities. This section is described as more complete than coeval sections from nearby Deep Sea Drilling Project sites.

Use Cases

• Refine regional stratigraphic correlations based on identified nannofossil assemblages.
• Analyse depositional gaps and condensed sections based on the three major disconformities described.
• Study the continuity of marine Palaeogene sediments in offshore versus onshore Perth Basin settings.
• Investigate the age overlap between the Challenger and Porpoise Bay Formations suggested by the biostratigraphic data.

Strengths

• Identifies three major disconformities at specific stratigraphic boundaries.
• Revises the age of the Challenger Formation type section based on biostratigraphic analysis.
• Compares the section's completeness to nearby Deep Sea Drilling Project sites.

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 in PDF and HTML formats, which may require extraction for computational analysis.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Biostratigraphic analysis of well core samples.

Time Range

Late Cretaceous to Palaeogene (Santonian to Oligocene).

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-04 07:17:32.387597; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Challenger No. 1 well, offshore Perth Basin, Western Australia.