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Geophysical Studies of Australia's Remote Eastern Deep-Water Frontier: Results from the Capel and Faust Basins

Created 16/03/2026

Updated 16/03/2026

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The Capel and Faust Basins in Australia's remote eastern offshore frontier, 800 km east of Brisbane in 1000-3000 m of water, are being studied as part of the Australian Government's Energy Security Initiative. A variety of geophysical data has been obtained and efforts are currently focussed on integrated interpretation of 2D seismic reflection data, sonobuoy refraction data and marine potential-field data.

Negative residual gravity anomalies generally correlate with basins evident in the seismic reflection data. The anomalies highlight elongate, roughly N-S-trending or arcuate depocentres, with limited strike extent, that are best developed in the north and northwest of the survey area where increased crustal extension appears to have occurred. The 20-50 km separation between 2D seismic lines and the isolated nature of the basin depocentres complicates the process of linking structures between lines, but 3D mapping of faults and horizons is facilitated by the potential-field data. Instead of correlating with depocentres and basement highs, reduced-to-pole positive magnetic anomalies may reflect the distribution of volcanics and intrusives, variably evident as high-amplitude or low-frequency reflectors, and volcanic features at or near the seafloor.

Interpretation of the seismic reflection data suggests the presence of four main syn-rift megasequence packages (?Early Cretaceous-?Santonian) and several post-rift sag packages (?Early Campanian-Recent). Maximum unequivocal depocentre thickness is ~4s TWT. Forward and inverse modelling of the gravity and magnetic data in 3D is providing a means to characterise different basement terranes and to construct surfaces that represent the sequence boundaries within the depocentres.

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Field Value
Title Geophysical Studies of Australia's Remote Eastern Deep-Water Frontier: Results from the Capel and Faust Basins
Language eng
Licence Not Specified
Landing Page https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/5ad72a0b-56e4-4ffd-a19f-1e0c132f2ea2
Contact Point
Australian Ocean Data Network
clientservices@ga.gov.au
Reference Period 22/04/2018
Geospatial Coverage
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
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  "type": "Polygon"
}
Data Portal Australian Oceans Data Network

Data Source

This dataset was originally found on Australian Oceans Data Network "Geophysical Studies of Australia's Remote Eastern Deep-Water Frontier: Results from the Capel and Faust Basins". Please visit the source to access the original metadata of the dataset:
https://catalogue.aodn.org.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/csw/dataset/geophysical-studies-of-australias-remote-eastern-deep-water-frontier-results-from-the-capel-and9