Geology of the Murray Basin, Australia: Structure and Aquifer Systems

Over 300,000 km² of inland southeastern Australia is covered by the Murray Basin, a region critical to agriculture but facing salinity threats. This document from Geoscience Australia summarizes the basin's geological framework, including a Cainozoic sediment sequence up to 600 meters thick and its development over the past 60 million years. The summary is based on geophysical and borehole evidence, detailing the stratigraphy that defines regional aquifer systems and confining layers.

Use Cases

• Model groundwater flow and salinity risk based on described aquifer systems and confining layers.
• Study the impact of geological structure on modern environmental problems based on the described block-faulted basement and infrabasins.
• Analyze sedimentary depositional sequences for paleoenvironmental reconstruction based on the identified Tertiary sequences (Paleocene to Pliocene).
• Map subsurface geology for land-use planning based on the described sediment thickness and distribution across the basin.

Strengths

• Covers a large geographic area of over 300,000 km².
• Describes a detailed geological timeline spanning approximately 60 million years.
• Includes specific sediment thickness measurements, with a maximum of about 600 meters.

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 the Murray Basin.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia Data

Collection Method

Summary based on geophysical and borehole evidence.

Time Range

Geological development over approximately 60 million years.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-30 15:10:39.638105; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Murray Basin, southeastern Australia (over 300,000 km²).