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Northern Carnarvon Basin

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During the early to middle Palaeozoic, the northwest orientation was the main deformation features in Australia and Northern Carnarvon Basin. In Northern Carnarvon Basin, several sub-basins and Plateaus are separated by northwest oriented faults and basement highs. Cape Range Fracture Zone (CRFZ) separates the west side of Exmouth Plateau, the Long Island Fault System separates the southern boundary of Barrow Sub-Basin and Sultan Nose uplift separates the Barrow from Dumpier Sub-Basin (DAIM, 1998). During middle Palaeozoic, basin started extending to northeast direction and deformation and structures orientation shifted from the Northwest to the Northeast trend. These northeast structural features were inherited to the deformation pattern throughout Mesozoic. Intermittent rifting of Australia …show more content…

Another rifting phase started in the early Jurassic around Pliensbachian or Toarcian (Chongzhi et al., 2013; Geoscience, 2014; Tindale, Newell, Keall, & Smith, 1998). Exmouth, Barrow, Dampier and Beagle Sub-basins were created until Middle Jurassic (He, 2002; Tortopoglu, 2015) and oceanic crust was laid down to form the Argo Abyssal Plain in Late Jurassic around 164-160 Ma during the Callovian to Oxfordian then followed by the Gascoyne and Cuvier Abyssal Plain in Early Cretaceous around 125 Ma (Fullerton, Sager, & Handschumacher, 1989; Müller, Mihut, & Baldwin, 1998). Passive margin was established in North West Shelf. Rifting phase of the basin transformed into sagging phase post breakup thermal subsidence when Gondwana breakup took place during Valanginian early Cretaceous around 134Ma. During the Campanian late Cretaceous, rifting along the Australian southern margin triggered the basin inversions and wrench reactivation of basin structures on NW Shelf. These movements arose the Barrow Island above sea level and formed Novara, Resolution and Exmouth Plateau Arch in Barrow, Dampier Sub-Basins and Investigator Sub-Basin (Figure 1) (Longley et al., 2002; Sinhabaedya,

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