Exhumation Studies in Hydrocarbon Exploration

Abstract

The Cooper-Eromanga Basins of South Australia and Queensland are not at their maximum burial-depth due to Late Cretaceous–Tertiary and Late Triassic–Early Jurassic exhumation. This study reviews evidence of exhumation and palaeo-thermal history in the Cooper-Eromanga Basins based on previous apatite fission track analysis and fluid inclusion homogenization temperatures. Previous works using these techniques have tended to focus their research in the palaeo-thermal history, rather than exhumation magnitudes, indeed thermal annealing witnessed by apatite fission track analysis and associated with the recent/present high geothermal gradients precludes estimation of exhumation at the Cooper-Eromanga Basins unconformity. The relative importance of hot fluids, burial/exhumation and/or other heating processes is unclear. Nonetheless, where reported, exhumation results from apatite fission track analysis and fluid inclusion homogenization temperatures are in a broad agreement with those from compaction analysis.

Keywords:

• apatite fission track analysis
• Australia
• Cooper-Eromanga
• exhumation
• fluid inclusion homogenization temperatures

Acknowledgments

The present work has been made possible thanks to Santos Ltd. for providing the data and the well completion reports. I thank Prof. R. Hillis and Dr. P. Tingate, University of Adelaide, Australia, for their critical reviews, and principal geoscientists P. Siffleet and G. Jacquier for fruitful discussions.