Southwest Margin Surveys - Information Sheet

As part of Geoscience Australia's Southwest Margin Project, two major marine surveys were undertaken (from October 2008 to February 2009) to investigate the resource potential of deep-water frontier areas on the southwest Australian continental margin.

1. Southwest Australian Margin Regional Marine 2D Seismic Survey (S310) - Areas covered by the seismic survey include the Mentelle Basin, North Perth Basin (Zeewyck and Houtman Sub-basins), Southern Carnarvon Basin and the Wallaby Plateau. Data acquired: 7300 kilometres of 2D seismic (12 second record length, 8 km solid streamer), gravity and magnetic data.

In addition to the new seismic reflection data, Geoscience Australia has reprocessed selected open-file industry seismic lines in the offshore Northern Perth Basin (11,700 line km) that provides ties to most wells in the Abrolhos and Houtman sub-basins.

2. Southwest Australian Margin Marine Reconnaissance Survey - The marine reconnaissance survey investigated the geology and marine environments of the offshore North Perth and Southern Carnarvon Basins and the Wallaby Plateau. Data acquired: multibeam swath bathymetry (230,000 km2), gravity and magnetics (25,000 line km), sub-bottom profiler (25,000 line km), geological samples (190 rocks from 53 dredge sites)