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

Geoscience Australia Data provides a geological analysis of Australia's passive margins, detailing five seafloor-spreading episodes from 155 million years ago to the present. The description outlines the protracted structural evolution of each margin, including rift-phase and postbreakup subsidence patterns. The dataset is available in PDF and HTML formats and was last updated in 2026.

Use Cases

• Modeling lithospheric thermal contraction and subsidence based on described postbreakup mechanisms.
• Analyzing the timing and progression of rift-graben evolution mentioned in the description.
• Studying sedimentation rate patterns before and after continental breakup unconformities.
• Comparing structural patterns between different passive margins around Australia.

Strengths

• Description provides specific geological timeframes, such as a 155-million-year span of seafloor-spreading episodes.
• Analysis details distinct evolutionary phases like rift-graben development 40-50 million years before breakup.
• Data originates from Geoscience Australia Data, a national geological authority.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect geographic bias inherent to data_gov_au, focusing solely on Australia.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia Data

Time Range

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

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-30 15:28:44.739126; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Australia's passive continental margins.