Geology of the Kalbarri Area 2006/19 — a Field Guide
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Department of Industry and Resources RECORD GEOLOGY OF THE KALBARRI AREA 2006/19 — A FIELD GUIDE by R. M. Hocking and A. J. Mory Geological Survey of Western Australia GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA Record 2006/19 GEOLOGY OF THE KALBARRI AREA — A FIELD GUIDE by R. M. Hocking and A. J. Mory Perth 2006 MINISTER FOR RESOURCES Hon. John Bowler MLA DIRECTOR GENERAL, DEPARTMENT OF INDUSTRY AND RESOURCES Jim Limerick EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA Tim Griffi n REFERENCE The recommended reference for this publication is: HOCKING, R. M., and MORY, A. J., 2006, Geology of the Kalbarri area — a fi eld guide: Western Australia Geological Survey, Record 2006/19, 15p. National Library of Australia Card Number and ISBN 978 1 74168 075 1 Grid references in this publication refer to the Geocentric Datum of Australia 1994 (GDA94). Locations mentioned in the text are referenced using Map Grid Australia (MGA) coordinates, Zone 50. All locations are quoted to at least the nearest 100 m. Cover image modifi ed from Landsat data, courtesy of ACRES. Printed by The Digital Document Co (WA) Pty Ltd Published 2006 by Geological Survey of Western Australia This Record is published in digital format (PDF) and is available online at www.doir.wa.gov.au/gswa/onlinepublications. Laser-printed copies can be ordered from the Information Centre for the cost of printing and binding. Further details of geological publications and maps produced by the Geological Survey of Western Australia are available from: Information Centre Department of Industry and Resources 100 Plain Street EAST PERTH, WESTERN AUSTRALIA 6004 Telephone: +61 8 9222 3459 Facsimile: +61 8 9222 3444 www.doir.wa.gov.au/gswa/onlinepublications Contents Regional geology ...................................................................................................................................................1 Kalbarri area ...........................................................................................................................................................5 Ordovician and Silurian ..................................................................................................................................5 Tumblagooda Sandstone ..........................................................................................................................5 Triassic ............................................................................................................................................................6 Cretaceous .......................................................................................................................................................6 Cenozoic ..........................................................................................................................................................6 Z Bend, Murchison River ................................................................................................................................7 Red Bluff .......................................................................................................................................................10 Shell House ...................................................................................................................................................13 References ............................................................................................................................................................15 Figures 1. Tectonic units of Western Australia ..............................................................................................................2 2. Depositional packages and tectonic development of greater Carnarvon Basin ...........................................3 3. Pre-Cenozoic stratigraphy, northern Perth Basin .........................................................................................4 4. Measured section, the Z Bend, Kalbarri National Park ................................................................................7 5. Tumblagooda Sandstone, Z Bend, showing: a) joint control of the Murchison River; b) arthropod trackways .................................................................8 6. Large channel within the Tumblagooda Sandstone, Z Bend, Murchison River ...........................................8 7. Detailed sections through fl uvial sheet near base of Z Bend .......................................................................9 8. Main face of Red Bluff, showing interdistributary deposits overlain by subaqueous coastal distributary .....................................................................................................................................10 9. Measured sections of and in front of main face at Red Bluff .....................................................................11 10. Measured sections through the Tumblagooda Sandstone, Red Bluff .........................................................12 11. Shell House: a) Cretaceous and Triassic rocks overlying the Ordovician Tumblagooda Sandstone; b) Skolithos bed in Tumblagooda Sandstone; c) top Wittecarra Sandstone ...............................................13 12. Measured sections showing the small graben at Shell House ....................................................................14 iii iv Geology of the Kalbarri area — a fi eld guide by R. M. Hocking and A. J. Mory This Record was prepared as a field guide for Field Australia. They constitute most of the section in the Trip 4 (Kalbarri – Shark Bay), part of the American Southern Carnarvon Basin, and have been intersected in Association of Petroleum Geologists 2006 International marginal areas of the Northern Carnarvon Basin. Conference and Exhibition, held in Perth, Western Australia, 5–8 November 2006. This guide covers the The Triassic, Jurassic and earliest Cretaceous, and regional geology of the western margin of Western Early and Late Cretaceous (siliciclastic) packages refl ect Australia and the portion of the fi eld trip based at Kalbarri. the development of the Northern Carnarvon Basin as a rift There are separate notes for the Shark Bay component system, related to the breakup of Australia and Greater of the trip. Descriptions of regional geology and of the India (Longley et al., 2002). They are pre-rift trough- Kalbarri area in this guide are derived primarily from fi eld infi ll (Triassic); rift valley (Jurassic); and post-breakup, guides by Hocking (2000) and Mory et al. (2005). trough-infi ll, and restricted circulation, trailing-margin successions (Cretaceous) respectively. The Upper Cretaceous and Cenozoic packages Regional geology (Upper Cretaceous, Paleocene and Early Eocene, Eocene, Oligocene and Middle Miocene, and Late Miocene to The greater Carnarvon Basin (Hocking et al., 1987; Holocene) are carbonate-dominated, trailing-margin Hocking, 1990; Mory et al., 2003) extends onshore from successions that formed by progradation of the continental Geraldton to Karratha along the western and northwestern shelf in the Northern Carnarvon Basin. coastline of Western Australia (Fig. 1), west and northwest of Archean and Proterozoic cratons and orogens. The A notable feature centred directly east of Hamelin basin covers about 115 000 km² onshore and 535 000 km² Pool is the Woodleigh impact structure, a 120 km- offshore to the continental–oceanic crust boundary. The diameter, multi-ring circular impact structure close to the basin is divisible into the Southern Carnarvon Basin, Devonian–Carboniferous boundary in age (Uysal et al., containing primarily Paleozoic sedimentary rocks with 2001, 2005) that is buried below 60–200 m of Cretaceous a Mesozoic and Cenozoic veneer, and the Northern marine strata and, near the impact epicentre, Lower Carnarvon Basin, which was the primary Mesozoic Jurassic lacustrine deposits. There is virtually no surface depocentre (Hocking, 1994; Tyler and Hocking, 2001). expression of the structure apart from some drainage that At about 27°S, the basin is transitional southwards into implies Cenozoic movements along the outer ring faults, the Perth Basin, which in turn extends southwards to the probably reactivated during Miocene compression (Iasky southwest tip of Western Australia, west of the Archean and Mory, 1999; Mory et al., 2000). Yilgarn Craton. The Perth Basin (Playford et al., 1976; Cockbain, Sedimentary rocks in the greater Carnarvon Basin 1990; Mory and Iasky, 1996) is a north–south elongate rift range in age from Ordovician to Holocene, and can be or trough that covers about 100 000 km² along the western divided into twelve distinct packages of sedimentary coast of Australia, and is underlain by the Pinjarra Orogen. rocks (Fig. 2), only some of which outcrop. These This outcrops as fault-bounded, mid-basin ridges in the packages refl ect major depositional episodes, are primarily Leeuwin and Northampton Complexes. The northern Perth unconformity-bounded, and each has unifying lithological Basin contains mainly clastic rocks of mid-Carboniferous characteristics. The packages are based on the successions to Early Cretaceous age (Fig. 3), deposited in a rift seen in Phanerozoic basins throughout Western Australia system that culminated with the breakup of Gondwana (Trendall and Cockbain, 1990), rather than only in the in the Early Cretaceous. Two major tectonic phases are Carnarvon Basin. recognized: Permian extension in a southwesterly direction and Early Cretaceous transtension to the northwest during The three Paleozoic packages (Ordovician