Canning Basin Crude Oil and Source Rock Biomarker Data for Paleo-Reconstruction

Geochemical biomarker data from crude oils and source rocks in the Paleozoic Canning Basin, a frontier petroleum province covering approximately 720,000 km2. The dataset was generated by a study analyzing carotenoid-derived biomarkers to clarify paleo-depositional environments and water stratification. It extends prior geochemical work published by Edwards et al. (2013) and Spaak et al. (2017, 2018), implemented by GeoMark Research.

Use Cases

• Modeling paleo-depositional environments of epicontinental seaways based on biomarker distributions.
• Characterizing source rock formation and distribution for petroleum exploration strategies.
• Assessing water column stratification and organic matter diversity using carotenoid-derived compounds.
• Correlating oils to specific source rock intervals (e.g., Ordovician, Devonian, Carboniferous) based on diagnostic biomarkers.

Strengths

• Focuses on a large frontier petroleum province of approximately 720,000 km2.
• Analyzes a diverse range of saturated and aromatic C40 carotenoid-derived biomarkers.
• Extends prior published geochemical studies, providing a temporal research lineage.

Limitations

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

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Laboratory analysis of diagnostic biomarker hydrocarbons derived from carotenoid pigments in crude oils and source rocks.

Time Range

Paleozoic era (specifically Ordovician, Middle to Late Devonian, and Early Carboniferous periods).

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-05 07:44:52.520154; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Canning Basin, Western Australia.