Seabed environments and shallow geology of the Vlaming sub-basin, Western Australia: Grain size and carbonate concentrations of seabed sediment.

Geoscience Australia undertook a marine survey of the Vlaming Sub-basin in March and April 2012 to provide seabed and shallow geological information to support an assessment of the CO2 storage potential of this sedimentary basin. The survey was undertaken under the Australian Government's National CO2 Infrastructure Plan (NCIP) to help identify sites suitable for the long term storage of CO2 within reasonable distances of major sources of CO2 emissions. The Vlaming Sub-basin is located offshore from Perth, Western Australia, and was previously identified by the Carbon Storage Taskforce (2009) as potentially highly suitable for CO2 storage. The principal aim of the Vlaming Sub-basin marine survey (GA survey number GA334) was to look for evidence of any past or current gas or fluid seepage at the seabed, and to determine whether these features are related to structures (e.g. faults) in the Vlaming Sub-basin that may extend up to the seabed. The survey also mapped seabed habitats and biota in the areas of interest to provide information on communities and biophysical features that may be associated with seepage. This research addresses key questions on the potential for containment of CO2 in the Early Cretaceous Gage Sandstone (the basin's proposed CO2 storage unit) and the regional integrity of the South Perth Shale (the seal unit that overlies the Gage Sandstone). This dataset comprises grain size data and carbonate concentrations of the upper ~2cm of seabed sediment.

澳大利亚地球科学局（Geoscience Australia）于2012年3月至4月对弗拉明次盆地（Vlaming Sub-basin）开展海洋勘测，旨在获取海底与浅层地质信息，以支撑该沉积盆地的二氧化碳封存潜力评估。本次勘测依托澳大利亚政府国家二氧化碳基础设施计划（National CO2 Infrastructure Plan，NCIP）实施，目标是识别距离主要碳排放源合理范围内、适合长期封存二氧化碳的场址。弗拉明次盆地位于西澳大利亚州珀斯市近海海域，此前已被碳封存特别工作组（Carbon Storage Taskforce，2009）认定为具备极高二氧化碳封存适配性的区域。本次弗拉明次盆地海洋勘测（澳大利亚地球科学局勘测编号GA334）的核心目标为：寻找海底过往或当前存在的气体与流体渗漏证据，并查明这些特征是否与延伸至海底的弗拉明次盆地内的构造（如断层）存在关联。此外，本次勘测还对目标区域的海底生境与生物群落开展了填绘工作，以获取可能与渗漏现象相关的生物群落及生物物理特征相关信息。本研究聚焦两大关键科学问题：一是早白垩世盖奇砂岩（该盆地拟议的二氧化碳储集层）的二氧化碳封存潜力，二是覆于盖奇砂岩之上的南珀斯页岩（盖层单元）的区域完整性。本数据集涵盖海底表层约2厘米厚沉积物的粒度数据与碳酸盐浓度数据。