Regional Plate Tectonics and the Evolution of Australia's Passive Continental Margins

Five seafloor-spreading episodes from 155 to 55 million years ago dissected eastern Gondwanaland to form Australia's passive margins. The dataset, from the Australian Ocean Data Network, describes the protracted geological and structural evolution of these margins, including rift-phase and postbreakup subsidence patterns. It was last updated on 2026-06-27.

Use Cases

• Modeling lithospheric thermal contraction and subsidence based on postbreakup sedimentation patterns.
• Analyzing rift-phase subsidence mechanisms based on descriptions of non-volcanic rift-grabens and structural patterns.
• Reconstructing the timeline of continental breakup based on the sequence of five spreading episodes.
• Studying sedimentation rate changes based on the described exponential decline towards the breakup unconformity.

Strengths

• Describes a specific sequence of five seafloor-spreading episodes with defined start times (155 to 55 m.y. ago).
• Provides detailed geological process descriptions for rift and postbreakup phases, including time ranges (e.g., 40-50 m.y. before breakup).
• Sourced from the authoritative Australian Ocean Data Network.

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

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Likely compiled from geological surveys and research.

Time Range

Covers geological events from 155 million years ago to the present.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-27 16:56:45.747138; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Focuses on the passive continental margins around Australia.