Lord Howe Rise: Geophysical Survey and Petroleum Prospectivity

The Lord Howe Rise is a 2000 km long, 300 km wide submarine plateau in the Tasman Sea, with its crest lying at depths of 750 to 1200 meters. Seismic profiles and data from the R.V. Sonne cruise indicate sediment-filled grabens up to 40 km wide containing up to 4000 meters of sediment, suggesting potential for marine and non-marine petroleum source rocks. The dataset synthesizes preliminary geophysical results to assess petroleum traps in structures like Late Cretaceous reefs and fault-bounded grabens.

Use Cases

• Assessing petroleum prospectivity based on sediment thickness and basin structure
• Reconstructing Late Cretaceous palaeogeography by juxtaposing the Lord Howe Rise with the Gippsland Basin
• Identifying potential hydrocarbon traps against graben boundary faults and internal basin structures
• Evaluating the seal integrity provided by overlying pelagic oozes

Strengths

• Contains specific physical measurements: the rise is 2000 km long, 300 km wide, and lies at 750-1200 m depth
• Describes detailed geological features: sediment basins are 20-40 km wide with up to 4000 m of fill

Limitations

• Core dataset attributes (row count, file size, specific columns) are not provided by any source
• The relationship between observed sedimentary basins and pre-Tasman Basin rifting is described as conjectural
• Sources list conflicting 'last updated' dates (2026-06-05 and 2026-04-10) for identical descriptions

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network, likely incorporating data from R.V. Sonne cruise and DSDP Site 207

Collection Method

Marine geophysical survey and seismic profiling

Time Range

Late Cretaceous to present, based on described geological history

Freshness

2026-06-05 06:23:27.069276

Geography

Lord Howe Rise, Tasman Sea, off the east coast of Australia and northwest of New Zealand