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Sedimentological studies of Cainozoic sediments from the Exmouth and Wallaby Plateaus, off northwest Australia

Created 17/10/2025

Updated 17/10/2025

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Eighty-two cores of Quaternary and Quaternary/Tertiary sediments were taken by the R/V Sonne in the Exmouth and Wallaby Plateau areas off northwestern Australia in 1979. The Quaternary sediments show a systematic variation in composition with water depth which basically reflects change in the abundance and nature of certain biogenic components. These changes are mainly related to the positions of the aragonite and carbonate compensation depths, which presently lie in the region at about 800 m and between 4100 and 4800 m, respectively. The sediments form four major facies, ranging from relatively coarse carbonate sands on the continental shelf to siliceous clays on the abyssal plains. Tertiary sediments, which were penetrated in four of the cores, mainly consist of Oligocene or Miocene foraminiferal nanno oozes or chalks. A volcaniclastic sandstone containing rounded phosphatic nodules was penetrated on the eastern margin of the Wallaby Plateau and is consistent with the proposed volcanic origin of the plateau.

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Field Value
Title Sedimentological studies of Cainozoic sediments from the Exmouth and Wallaby Plateaus, off northwest Australia
Language eng
Licence Not Specified
Landing Page https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/135371df-3ef3-4d3c-ae1d-bf1611c3114d
Contact Point
Geoscience Australia Data
clientservices@ga.gov.au
Reference Period 20/04/2018
Geospatial Coverage
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
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Data Portal Geoscience Australia

Data Source

This dataset was originally found on Geoscience Australia "Sedimentological studies of Cainozoic sediments from the Exmouth and Wallaby Plateaus, off northwest Australia". Please visit the source to access the original metadata of the dataset:
https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/csw/dataset/sedimentological-studies-of-cainozoic-sediments-from-the-exmouth-and-wallaby-plateaus-off-north