The Amadeus Basin is a large (~170,000 km²) intracratonic

sedimentary basin Sedimentary basins are region-scale depressions of the Earth's crust where subsidence has occurred and a thick sequence of sediments have accumulated to form a large three-dimensional body of sedimentary rock. They form when long-term subsidence ...

central Australia Central Australia, also sometimes referred to as the Red Centre, is an inexactly defined region associated with the geographic centre of Australia. In its narrowest sense it describes a region that is limited to the town of Alice Springs and i ...

, lying mostly within the southern

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...

, but extending into the state of

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

Origins

The Amadeus Basin is named after

Lake Amadeus Lake Amadeus (together with Lake Neale, Pitjantjatjara: ''Pantu'' ("salt lakes")) is a large salt lake in the southwest corner of Northern Territory of Australia, about north of Uluru. The smaller Lake Neale is adjacent to the northwest. It ...

which lies within the basin. Local deposition of up to 14 km of marine and non-marine

sedimentary rock Sedimentary rocks are types of rock that are formed by the accumulation or deposition of mineral or organic particles at Earth's surface, followed by cementation. Sedimentation is the collective name for processes that cause these particles ...

s took place from the

Neoproterozoic The Neoproterozoic Era is the unit of geologic time from 1 billion to 538.8 million years ago. It is the last era of the Precambrian Supereon and the Proterozoic Eon; it is subdivided into the Tonian, Cryogenian, and Ediacaran periods. It is ...

to the late

Paleozoic The Paleozoic (or Palaeozoic) Era is the earliest of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic Eon. The name ''Paleozoic'' ( ;) was coined by the British geologist Adam Sedgwick in 1838 by combining the Greek words ''palaiós'' (, "old") and ' ...

. Along with other nearby sedimentary basins of similar age (

Officer Basin The Officer Basin is an intracratonic sedimentary basin that covers roughly 320,000 km2 along the border between southern and western Australia. Exploration for hydrocarbons in this basin has been sparse, but the geology has been examined f ...

Georgina Basin The Georgina Basin is a large (c. 330,000 km2) intracratonic sedimentary basin in central and northern Australia, lying mostly within the Northern Territory and partly within Queensland.Smith, KG (1972). "Stratigraphy of the Georgina Basin. ...

Ngalia Basin The Ngalia Basin is a small (ca. 15,000 km²) intracratonic sedimentary basin in central Australia, lying within the southern Northern Territory. Wells AT, Moss, FJ (1983). "The Ngalia Basin, Northern Territory: stratigraphy and structure". Burea ...

), the Amadeus Basin is believed to have once been part of the hypothetical

Centralian Superbasin The Centralian Superbasin is a large intracratonic sedimentary basin which occupied a large area of central, southern and western Australia during much of the Neoproterozoic Era (~830–540 Ma). This superbasin was disrupted by two periods of u ...

. The basin was locally deformed during the

Petermann Orogeny The Petermann Orogeny was an Australian intracontinental event that affected basement rocks of the northern Musgrave Province and Ediacaran ( Proterozoic) sediments of the (now) southern Amadeus Basin between ~550-535 Ma. The remains are seen to ...

(late

—

Cambrian The Cambrian Period ( ; sometimes symbolized C with bar, Ꞓ) was the first geological period of the Paleozoic Era, and of the Phanerozoic Eon. The Cambrian lasted 53.4 million years from the end of the preceding Ediacaran Period 538.8 million ...

), and more extensively during the

Alice Springs Orogeny The Alice Springs Orogeny was a major intraplate tectonic (mountain building) episode in central Australia responsible for the formation of a series of large mountain ranges. The deformation associated with the Alice Spring Orogeny caused the ve ...

, events that fragmented the former Centralian Superbasin. The basin has been above water for the past 50 million years, as the modern coast of

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

and

formed during this time.

Resources

The Amadeus Basin contains the producing Mereenie Oil Field near Kings Canyon and Palm Valley Gas Field near

Hermannsburg Hermannsburg is a village and a former municipality in the Celle district, in Lower Saxony, Germany. Since 1 January 2015 it is part of the municipality Südheide. It has been a state-recognised resort town since 1971. It is situated on the river ...

, which supply most of the energy resources to the Northern Territory. Most of the gas flows along the

Amadeus Gas Pipeline The Amadeus Gas Pipeline is a bi-directional natural gas pipeline running north–south through the Northern Territory of Australia. Its southern extent is the Amadeus Basin gas fields west of Alice Springs. The Amadeus pipeline is owned and ope ...

to Darwin, while the oil is pumped to

Alice Springs Alice Springs ( aer, Mparntwe) is the third-largest town in the Northern Territory of Australia. Known as Stuart until 31 August 1933, the name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William Whitfield Mills after Alice, Lady Todd (''née'' Al ...

and then transported to

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

for refining.

References

*Wells AT, Forman DJ, Ranford LC, Cook PJ (1970) Geology of the Amadeus Basin, Central Australia. Bureau of Mineral Resources, Australia, Bulletin 100. *Lindsay JF, Korsch RJ (1991) The evolution of the Amadeus Basin, central Australia. In Korsch RJ, & Kennard JM (Editors). Geological and geophysical studies in the Amadeus Basin, central Australia. Bureau of Mineral Resources, Australia, Bulletin 236, 7-32. *Shaw RD (1991) The tectonic development of the Amadeus Basin, central Australia. In Korsch RJ, & Kennard JM (Editors). Geological and geophysical studies in the Amadeus Basin, central Australia. Bureau of Mineral Resources, Australia, Bulletin 236, 429–462.

External links

Amadeus Basin at Geoscience Australia

Amadeus Basin at Northern Territory Geological Survey
Geology of Western Australia Geology of the Northern Territory Sedimentary basins of Australia Oil fields of Australia Energy in the Northern Territory Natural gas in Western Australia {{Australia-geology-stub

Origins

Resources

See also

References

External links