Rifted Architecture of the Southern Rift System (SRS) Australia-Antarctica

Project Investigators

Doctor Nick Direen

Project Details

This project follows on from Geoscience Australia's Australian-Antarctic Southern Ocean Profiling Project, which between 1999 and 2001 acquired over 100,000 line km of deep seismic data on both the Great Australian Bight and Wilkes Land (Antarctica) margins of the Southern Ocean. The data is one of the largest, high quality single seismic datasets ever acquired in the world. The project is part of a joint $~500k Australian Research Council proposal with the Institute of Marine Science, University of Barcelona, Oxford University, Geomar and Geoscience Australia. Other collaborators on this project include Geosciences Azur (France) and University of Neuchatel (Switzerland).

The project involves collaborating with the ICM (Barcelona), to reprocess parts of the datasets using new Pre-Stack Depth Migration methods in order to improve deep crustal imaging. Seismic data will be combined with gravity, magnetic and seismic refraction data to build crustal models. Potential exists also to collaborate in offshore cruises on foreign research vessels to deploy seafloor MT and OBS instruments to input data to the models on both the Australian and Antarctic margins. These models will be constructed in 2.5 and 3D using new inversion and imaging platforms such as GoCAD, UBCGIF and Geomodeller.

The output from this project will be used to make critical interpretations on both the Australian and Antarctic continental margins which will feed into new global kinematic models for continental breakup. This will be of major importance to petroleum companies exploring frontier deep-water continental shelf basins in the next 10-20 years, as well as understanding the breakup process and issues such as establishment of the circumpolar current-greenhouse-icehouse nexus.

Publications

Colwell J B, Direen N G , Stagg H M J, Symonds P A (2004) (submitted). 'Symmetry versus asymmetry in a conjugate, rifted non-volcanic margin pair: southern Australia and East Antarctica'. Geology.

Stagg H.M.J., Colwell J.B., Direen N.G., O’Brien P.E., Bernardel G., Borissova I. & Ishihara T. (2005) Geology of the continental margin of Enderby and Mac. Robertson lands, East Antarctica: insights from a regional dataset. Marine Geophysical Research Vol 25 No 3-4 pp 183-219.

Stagg, H.M.J., Colwell, J.B., Direen, N.G. , O'Brien, P.E., Brown, B.J., Bernardel, G., Borissova, I., Carson, L. & Close, D.B. (2005) (in press). Geological framework of the continental margin in the region of the Australian Antarctic Territory. Geoscience Australia Record 2004/25.

Direen N G, (2004) 'Potential field modelling of Australia’s continental margins: Labuan Basin'. Adelaide Research & Innovation Pty Ltd Consulting Report (unpublished).

Direen, N.G.& B J Brown, (2003) 'Potential field modelling of the Wilkes –West Adelie Land rifted margins, Antarctica, and comparison to the conjugate GAB rifted margin, Australia'. Adelaide Research & Innovation Pty Ltd Consulting Report (unpublished).

Direen, N.G., & B J Brown, (2003) 'Potential field modelling of the Enderby Land and Bruce Rise rifted margins, Antarctica, and preliminary comparison to the adjacent Elan Bank margin, SE Indian Ocean'. Adelaide Research & Innovation Pty Ltd Consulting Report (unpublished).

Research Linkages

Department of Ecology, the University of Barcelona. (Note: not all pages are currently translated into English)

Department of Earth Sciences, the University of Oxford.