Mid-Tertiary Permeability Barriers in the Murray Basin Subsurface

The Murray Basin in southeastern Australia contains subsurface stratigraphic data on mid-Tertiary permeability barriers affecting groundwater flow. The dataset is a scientific paper summarizing the stratigraphy, distribution, and geometry of units like the Ettrick Formation, Winnambool Formation, and Geera Clay. It was published by the Australian Ocean Data Network and last updated in 2026.

Use Cases

• Modeling groundwater flow disruption based on the described arcuate low-permeability barrier formed by the Winnambool Formation and Geera Clay.
• Analyzing aquifer geometry and confining layers based on the stratigraphy of the Renmark and Murray Group aquifer systems.
• Estimating historical porosity changes based on the visual porosity analysis from the Piangil West-2 borehole core section.
• Reconstructing paleogeographic marine incursions based on the described three separate Cainozoic sea invasions.

Strengths

• Includes specific geological timeframes, such as a marine incursion commencing about 32 million years ago and lasting at least 20 million years.
• Provides detailed lithological percentages from a cored section, e.g., 6% clay, 65% silt, 15% sand, and 14% mud in the Geera Clay.
• Contains quantified porosity estimates, with effective porosity now at 0-7% and original mesoscopic porosity thought to be 5-10%.

Limitations

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

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Subsurface facies analysis of borelogs and paleogeographic reconstructions, as described in the paper.

Time Range

Mid-Tertiary (Oligocene to Miocene), with specific events dated to approximately 32 million years ago.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-27 18:56:56.090673; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Subsurface of the Murray Basin, southeastern Australia.