The geology of Queensland can be subdivided into several regions with different histories. Along the east coast is a complex of Palaezoic to Cainozoic rocks while much of the rest of the state is covered by

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of ...

and Cainozoic rocks. A Precambrian basement is found in the north west and Cape York regions. The Thomson Orogen occurs in the central and southern parts of

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...

, but is mostly covered by younger basins. The North Queensland Orogen is along the coast from

Charters Towers Charters Towers is a rural town in the Charters Towers Region, Queensland, Australia. It is by road south-west from Townsville on the Flinders Highway. During the last quarter of the 19th century, the town boomed as the rich gold deposits unde ...

to Princess Charlotte Bay. The Bowen Gunndedah Sydney basin can be considered as one system that extends into Queensland. The New England Orogen is on the coastal parts from the border with New South Wales north to

Ayr Ayr (; sco, Ayr; gd, Inbhir Àir, "Mouth of the River Ayr") is a town situated on the southwest coast of Scotland. It is the administrative centre of the South Ayrshire Subdivisions of Scotland, council area and the historic Shires of Scotlan ...

Devonian

The Drummond Basin is a geological basin in central and northern Queensland which consists of Late Devonian to early Carboniferous shallow-marine and continental sediments.

Precambrian

The Precambrian basement in Queensland is west of the

Tasman Line Tasman most often refers to Abel Tasman (1603–1659), Dutch explorer. Tasman may also refer to: Animals and plants * Tasman booby * Tasman flax-lily * Tasman parakeet (disambiguation) * Tasman starling * Tasman whale People * Tasman ( ...

. It includes elements such as the Mount Isa Orogen and the Georgetown Inlier. The Mount Isa Orogen started with sediments, volcanics and intrusive rocks, and was deformed and metamorphosed during the Barramundi Orogeny 1870 Mya. Sedimentary layers formed on top, firstly felsic volcanic rocks from 1870 to 1850 Mya. Shallow water sediments formed from 1790 to 1705 Mya. Fine grained sediments and carbonate rocks formed from 1675 to 1590. Then this was folded in the Isan Orogeny 1620 to 1520 Mya, overlapping with sedimentation. At 1620 Mya the compressive force was north-south, but this changed to east-west at 1520 Mya The Kalkadoon Botholith and Ewn intruded the central Kalkadoon-Ewen Province between 180 and 1850 Mya. The Sybella Batholith intruded the Western Fold Belt around 1670 Mya. Other batholiths are the Wonga, Williams, Naraku ranging from 1750 to 1490 Mya. The Murphy Province crosses over into the Northern Territory, consisting of the Murphy Metamorphics, the Nicholson Granite and Cliffdale Volcanics. It is from 1820 to 1730 Mya. North of the Murphy Province is the McArthur Basin, also crossing the Northern Territory border. It consists of the Tawallah Group of sediments and volcanics from 1725 Mya and the McArthur Group tuff at 1740 Mya. The South Nicholson Basin is a basin straddling the Queensland-Northern Territory border, south of the above provinces. The Savannah Province on Cape York initially formed around 1585 to 1550 Mya as sediments, but are now converted to slate, phyllite, schist, gneiss and quartzite. They were intruded bydolerite and amphibolite. The Etheridge Province lies to the east. It started as a rift in the continent, between 1700 and 1650 Mya. This was deformed and intruded with granite and metamorphosed at 1550 Mya. The Croydon Province contains the Croydon Volcanic Group of acid volcanids, the Esmeralda Supersuite granite, and quartz rich sediments of the Inorunie Group.

Cretaceous

The relatively shallow Eromanga Sea was an inland sea that covered large parts of Queensland and Central Australia at least four times during the early

. The

Winton Formation The Winton Formation is a Cretaceous geological formation in central-western Queensland, Australia. It is late Albian to early Turonian in age. The formation blankets large areas of central-western Queensland. It consists of sedimentary rocks suc ...

represent remnants of the river plains that filled the basin left by the Eromanga Sea. The formation is a major source of dinosaur fossils. The Toolebuc Formation which contains strata dating back to the early Cretaceous and is partly located in Queensland and the Northern Territory.

Bowen-Gunnedah-Sydney Basin System

Stretching of the continental crust of the New England Orogen in the

Permian The Permian ( ) is a geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system which spans 47 million years from the end of the Carboniferous Period million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Triassic Period 251.9 Mya. It is the last ...

period formed the Bowen-Gunnedah-Sydney Basin System. This was a foreland basin from

into the

Triassic The Triassic ( ) is a geologic period and system (stratigraphy), system which spans 50.6 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago (Year#Abbreviations yr and ya, Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.36 ...

. Granites from this time also intruded. From middle to

Late Triassic The Late Triassic is the third and final epoch of the Triassic Period in the geologic time scale, spanning the time between Ma and Ma (million years ago). It is preceded by the Middle Triassic Epoch and followed by the Early Jurassic Epoch. ...

an ocean arc collided. This folded and trusted the surface contents of the basin starting in the east extending to the west.

North Queensland Orogen

The North Queensland Orogen is also denotated by the North Lachlan Orogen. The northernmost part is called the Hodgekinson Fold Belt.

North Queensland Highlands

The

North Queensland Highlands North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north'' ...

is a physiographic region in northern Queensland. It includes the Chillagoe Belt, Normanby Platform, Atherton Tableland, Mount Emu Lava Plains and the Cairns Littoral.

Basins

Bowen

The Bowen Basin is partly overlaid by the Surat Basin. The basin contains the largest coal reserves in Australia. Open cut and underground coal mines are located in the north of the basin. Ports at Hay Point, Queensland and Gladstone provide access for coal to export markets. In the Denison Trough in the west of the basin contraction has generated a range of geometries.

Clarence-Moreton

The Jurassic to Cretaceous Clarence Moreton Basin is found in

South East Queensland South East Queensland (SEQ) is a bio-geographical, metropolitan, political and administrative region of the state of Queensland in Australia, with a population of approximately 3.8 million people out of the state's population of 5.1 million. Th ...

across the border to New South Wales.

Eromanga

The Eromanga and

Surat Basin The Surat Basin is a geological basin in eastern Australia. It is part of the Great Artesian Basin drainage basin of Australia. The Surat Basin extends across an area of 270,000 square kilometres and the southern third of the basin occupies a lar ...

s are superimposed on the older rocks of the Lachlan Orogen. They are components of the Great Artesian Basin. Beneath the Eromanga basin in the mantle below 200 km is a region of fast seismic wave transmission. The Surat Basin is made up of

Jurassic The Jurassic ( ) is a geologic period and stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately Mya. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of ...

through to

aged

sediment Sediment is a naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of wind, water, or ice or by the force of gravity acting on the particles. For example, sa ...

s derived from

and

arc rocks of the Hunter-Bowen orogeny.

Galilee

The

Galilee Basin The Galilee Basin is a large inland geological basin in the western Queensland region of Australia. The Galilee Basin is part of a larger Carboniferous to Mid-Triassic basin system that contains the Cooper Basin, situated towards the south-wes ...

is a

permian The Permian ( ) is a geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system which spans 47 million years from the end of the Carboniferous Period million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Triassic Period 251.9 Mya. It is the last ...

geological basin in the western

region of Australia.

Cooper

The

Cooper Basin The Cooper Basin is a Permian-Triassic sedimentary geological basin in Australia. The basin is located mainly in the southwestern part of Queensland and extends into northeastern South Australia. It is named after the Cooper Creek which is an ...

is located in

South West Queensland South West Queensland is a remote region in the Australian state of Queensland which covers . The region lies to the south of Central West Queensland and west of the Darling Downs and includes the Maranoa district and parts of the Channel Coun ...

and is partly overlain by the Eromanga Basin. It contains some most important on-shore petroleum and

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbo ...

deposits in Australia.

Government

The Queensland Government appointed its first geologist Christopher D'Oyly Hale Aplin on 1 April 1868, and the second one

Richard Daintree Richard Daintree CMG (13 December 1832 – 20 June 1878) was a pioneering Australian geologist and photographer. In particular, Daintree was the first Government geologist for North Queensland discovering gold fields and coal seams for future ...

on 12 May 1868 to explore the northern regions. Their job was to look for gold. The jobs only lasted for one to two years as the parliament cut off funding for the Geological Survey. Daintree produced the first geological map of Queensland in 1872. In 1875

Augustus Charles Gregory Sir Augustus Charles Gregory (1 August 1819 – 25 June 1905) was an English-born Australian explorer and surveyor. Between 1846 and 1858 he undertook four major expeditions. He was the first Surveyor-General of Queensland. He was appointed a ...

was appointed as the geologist for the southern part of Queensland, and Robert Logan Jack started work in 1877 in Townsville. The focus extended beyond gold to coal as well. In 1892 the Geological Survey moved from Townsville to Brisbane, establishing a museum. In 1893 the office was flooded and it moved to the intersection of George and Queen Streets.

Mining

Queensland has significant

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when ...

, coal seam gas and

bauxite Bauxite is a sedimentary rock with a relatively high aluminium content. It is the world's main source of aluminium and gallium. Bauxite consists mostly of the aluminium minerals gibbsite (Al(OH)3), boehmite (γ-AlO(OH)) and diaspore (α-AlO ...

deposits and some

oil shale Oil shale is an organic-rich fine-grained sedimentary rock containing kerogen (a solid mixture of organic chemical compounds) from which liquid hydrocarbons can be produced. In addition to kerogen, general composition of oil shales constitut ...

and

reserves. Other minerals mined in the state include copper, lead, silver, zinc, gold, phosphate rock, magnesite and silica sand. Gemstones such as

sapphire Sapphire is a precious gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum, consisting of aluminium oxide () with trace amounts of elements such as iron, titanium, chromium, vanadium, or magnesium. The name sapphire is derived via the Latin "sa ...

opal Opal is a hydrated amorphous form of silica (SiO2·''n''H2O); its water content may range from 3 to 21% by weight, but is usually between 6 and 10%. Due to its amorphous property, it is classified as a mineraloid, unlike crystalline form ...

and chrysoprase are also mined in commercial quantities. Opal fields extend from the Koroit opal field in

into New South Wales.

Fossils

Significant fossil finds have been discovered at Riversleigh and Murgon fossil site.

References

{{Queensland