The tectonostratigraphic evolution of the offshore Gippsland Basin, Victoria, Australia---results from 3D seismic interpretation and 2D section restoration

The Gippsland Basin is located primarily offshore Victoria, Australia (between the Australian mainland and Tasmania) approximately 200 km east of Melbourne. The formation of the east-west trending Gippsland Basin is associated with the break-up of Gondwana during the late Jurassic/early Cretaceous and the basin has endured multiple rifting and inversion events. Strong tectonic control on the sedimentary development of the basin is reflected in the deposition of several major, basin scale sequences ranging in age from the early Cretaceous to Neogene, which are usually bounded by angular unconformities. Schlumberger's Petrel software package has been used to structurally and stratigraphically interpret a basin-wide 3D seismic data set provided by the Australian Government (Geoscience Australia) and four 2D kinematic reconstruction/restorations through the basin have been completed with Midland Valley's Move software to achieve a better understanding of the structural evolution of the Gippsland Basin. Rift phase extension calculated from the restorations (5.0--10.5%) appears anomalously low to accommodate the amount of sediment that has been deposited in the basin (>10km). Distributed extension on small faults and subsidence history from backstripping are employed to answer this anomaly. The 2D restorations completed illustrate structural time relationships across the basin and allow for a minimum estimate of erosion that has occurred along the inverted northern basin margin. Differences between previous work completed by Power et al. (2001) and this study as well as several extension models and associated implications are discussed as they relate to the interpretation carried out in this study. Extension calculated from section restorations ranged from approximately 5.0--10.5%. These measured extensional values appear too low to wholly accommodate the accumulated sediment thickness in the basin. Subsidence modelling and backstripping estimates approximately 50--90% extension. Several hundred meters of missing syn-rift sediments are estimated to have eroded as a result of partial inversion along the basin's northern margin. The structural interpretation in this study suggests that previous extensional models proposed by Wilcox et al. (1992) may be oversimplified.