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The Cape Range structure, Western Australia Pt 1: Stratigraphy and structure Pt 2: Micropalaeontology

Created 17/10/2025

Updated 17/10/2025

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The Cape Range Structure, which occupies the North-West Cape peninsula, is a closed anticline in Tertiary limestones. The structure is at least eighty miles long and twenty miles wide, and has a vertical closure of 1200 feet and a closed area of 1200 square miles. The physiography is a reflection of the structure-a young fold mountain with mainly consequent, closely-spaced, drainage. The Tertiary sediments were laid down in a shelf area of the southwestern arm of the Indo-Pacific geosyncline. Because of the stability of the adjoining Western Australian shield, they did not attain the thickness of the sediments laid down elsewhere in the Indonesian geosyncline, nor were they affected to the same extent by subsequent tectonic disturbance. Five Tertiary formations are exposed on the Cape Range-the lower Miocene (e-stage) Mandu Calcarenite (265 feet of chalky limestone), the lower Miocene (f1-stage) Tulki Limestone (225 to 420 feet of hard crystalline limestone) and the possibly lower Miocene (f1 to , ?f2stage). Trealla Limestone (18'0 feet of white crystalline limestone), constituting the Cape Range Group; and the possibly lower Miocene Pilgramunna Formation and possibly Pliocene Vlaming Formation, forming the Yardie Group (calcareous sandstone and fine conglomerate up to 300 feet thick). Beneath the Miocene limestones are probably at least 3,000 feet of Cretaceous and Eocene marine sediments and possibly up to 18,000 feet of Permian, Carboniferous, and Devonian marine sediments. In vertical closure and closed area the Cape Range Structure is' the largest in the Carnarvon (North-West) Basin. Potential drainage of oil is unrestricted on the west flank and on the northern two-thirds of the east flank. Further geophysical (gravity and seismic) investigations should be carried out so as to try to determine the thickness of sediments and the shape of the structure in depth.

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Field Value
Title The Cape Range structure, Western Australia Pt 1: Stratigraphy and structure Pt 2: Micropalaeontology
Language eng
Licence Not Specified
Landing Page https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/325dca18-543a-4eed-9cc0-8f2309227d0b
Contact Point
Geoscience Australia Data
clientservices@ga.gov.au
Reference Period 20/04/2018
Geospatial Coverage
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
{
  "coordinates": [
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        113.5,
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      ],
      [
        114.5,
        -23.0
      ],
      [
        114.5,
        -21.5
      ],
      [
        113.5,
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      ],
      [
        113.5,
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      ]
    ]
  ],
  "type": "Polygon"
}
Data Portal Geoscience Australia

Data Source

This dataset was originally found on Geoscience Australia "The Cape Range structure, Western Australia Pt 1: Stratigraphy and structure Pt 2: Micropalaeontology". Please visit the source to access the original metadata of the dataset:
https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/csw/dataset/the-cape-range-structure-western-australia-pt-1-stratigraphy-and-structure-pt-2-micropalaeontol