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Revised stratigraphy of the Ordovician (Late Tremadoc-Arenig) Prices Creek Group and Devonian Poulton Formation, Lennard Shelf, Canning Basin, Western Australia

Created 16/10/2025

Updated 16/10/2025

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The Early Ordovician (late Tremadoc to Arenig) Prices Creek Group outcrops only on the northern margin of the Canning Basin in a small area centred on Prices Creek, 60 km southeast of Fitzroy Crossing. Recent hydrocarbon and mineral exploration has shown that the Prices Creek Group, previously defined as consisting of a lower Emanuel Formation and an upper Gap Creek Formation can now be subdivided into four formations. The new formations comprise a basal transgressive sandstone unit, here named the Kunian Sandstone, which is overlain by a dolomitic carbonate-dominated unit, here named the Kudata Dolomite. The Kunian Sandstone does not outcrop, but the Kudata Dolomite, which was formerly included in the Emanuel Formation, is exposed at the base of the type section of that unit along Emanuel Creek. The Kudata Dolomite is conformably overlain by the revised Emanuel Formation. The Gap Creek Formation is informally divided into a lower fossil-rich dolomitic unit and an upper fossil poor unit that shows evidence of a hypersaline depositional regime near the top. The Poulton Formation is recognised in outcrop, paraconformably above the Gap Creek Formation and unconformably below the Pillara Formation. The sandstone-dolomite-shale sequence of the lower Prices Creek Group has some economic potential, both for hydrocarbons and minerals. Oil shows are common in shallow wells drilled into the Emanuel Formation and both live oil and bitumen have been found in cores from the Kudata Dolomite. The oil is probably sourced from the Emanuel Formation which also serves as an effective regional seal. Traces of lead and zinc have been found in the Kudata Dolomite, but the depth of the unit below the surface may reduce the economic value of any significant mineralisation that might be found.

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Title Revised stratigraphy of the Ordovician (Late Tremadoc-Arenig) Prices Creek Group and Devonian Poulton Formation, Lennard Shelf, Canning Basin, Western Australia
Language eng
Licence Not Specified
Landing Page https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/93cc8fdc-6781-4f8c-be51-5b40795f3b0a
Contact Point
Geoscience Australia Data
clientservices@ga.gov.au
Reference Period 20/04/2018
Geospatial Coverage
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
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    ]
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  "type": "Polygon"
}
Data Portal Geoscience Australia

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This dataset was originally found on Geoscience Australia "Revised stratigraphy of the Ordovician (Late Tremadoc-Arenig) Prices Creek Group and Devonian Poulton Formation, Lennard Shelf, Canning Basin, Western Australia". Please visit the source to access the original metadata of the dataset:
https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/csw/dataset/revised-stratigraphy-of-the-ordovician-late-tremadoc-arenig-prices-creek-group-and-devonian-pou