Nannofossil Records from the Great Australian Bight Basin, Maastrichtian to Oligocene

Samples dredged during BMR Survey 66 provide the first Maastrichtian nannofossil assemblages found in southern Australia. The dataset compares offshore and onshore sequences to reconstruct the paleoenvironmental history of the Australian southern margin from the Late Cretaceous to the Oligocene. It is published by Geoscience Australia Data.

Use Cases

• Reconstructing marine ingression phases based on Maastrichtian nannofossil assemblages.
• Analyzing paleoclimatic conditions based on the Oligocene excursion of the low-latitude Sphenolithus ciperoensis.
• Modeling tectonic subsidence history based on nannofossil evidence of seafloor changes since the Late Cretaceous.
• Comparing offshore and onshore sedimentary records to understand regional transgression patterns.

Strengths

• Provides the first Maastrichtian nannofossil record for southern Australia.
• Integrates nannofossil data with palynological and lithological evidence for cross-validation.
• Compares offshore and onshore sequences across multiple geological epochs.

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 as PDF and HTML, which may require extraction for computational analysis.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia Data

Collection Method

Samples were dredged during BMR Survey 66 by KV Rig Seismic and examined for calcareous nannofossils.

Time Range

Maastrichtian (Late Cretaceous) to Oligocene (early Tertiary)

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-14 04:35:13.311190; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Great Australian Bight Basin and onshore equivalents on the Australian southern margin.