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The Thomson Orogen is an extensive tectonic element that occupies large portions of central and southern Queensland (see Purdy et al., 2013 for review). Outcrop is restricted to the Charters Towers, Greenvale and Anakie Provinces in the northeast and small areas around Eulo in the southwest (Figure 1). The remainder of the Thomson Orogen is covered by a series of sedimentary basins including the Devonian Adavale Basin and Warrabin Trough, the Permian to Triassic Bowen, Galilee and Cooper Basins, and the Jurassic to Cretaceous Eromanga Basin.

To gain a better understanding of the three dimensional distribution of the Thomson Orogen through covered areas in Queensland we generated a regional-scale depth to basement surface using multiple datasets (Figure 2). Here, depth to basement represents depth to the top of the Thomson Orogen. Broad aims were to: 1) investigate what the morphology of the basement surface could tell us about the evolution of the Thomson Orogen and structure of the deeper crust, 2) identify areas ‘within reach’ of different geophysical techniques and may be prospective for mineral exploration, and 3) define areas of thick, insulating cover which in combination with geological interpretation maps may indicate areas of geothermal energy prospectivity.

ISSN 2206-0340 ISBN 978-1-9256-0922-6