Basin & Province Information

South Australia is situated between the ancient Archaean Shield of Western Australia and the mobile orogenic belts of the eastern states. As a result of this tectonic setting, the geological record in South Australia has preserved a unique history of sedimentation from the Neoproterozoic to Ordovician, and from the Early Devonian to Tertiary.

Summaries and geological overviews are available. These can also be accessed via the interactive map of sedimentary basins and petroleum provinces of South Australia.

Cambrian to Devonian (Neoproterozoic to middle Palaeozoic) Basins

A report on the petroleum potential of ancient sedimentary basins and structural reports for the Arrowie, Officer and Stansbury Basins are also available.

Mesozoic Basins

Permo-Carboniferous to Early Triassic Basins

 

Geothermal Energy

South Australia has large regions of interpreted high crustal temperature associated with buried Mesoproterozoic granite intrusives at depths over 3 km, and these form important geothermal exploration targets where blanketed by insulating sediments.
 
Other geothermal energy plays in South Australia include:

  • hydrothermal energy from the Great Artesian Basin
  • residual heat sources in the South East around Australia’s most recently active onshore volcanoes
  • radiogenic iron oxide deposits similar to Olympic Dam and Prominent Hill, which may have even higher heat flow than the granites
  • enhanced natural thermal systems (eg Paralana Hot Springs and associated fracture zone).

More information about geothermal energy prospectivity, reports and licence activity can be found on the Geothermal site.


Eastern Australiasian Basins

Information about the nature of proven productive and frontier eastern Australiasian Basins was given at the Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia's (PESA's) second Eastern Australasian Basins Symposium (EABS) in Adelaide in September 2004. Copies of the proceedings, including all 54 hot topic technical papers and a DVD with high quality pdfs of all papers can be purchased online using this order form (external site).