Platform-margin and marginal slope relationships and sedimentation in Devonian reef complexes of Canning basin, Western Australia

Conference · Sun Apr 01 00:00:00 EST 1984 · Am. Assoc. Pet. Geol., Bull.; (United States)

OSTI ID:6386544

Playford, P E; Kerans, C; Hurley, N F

Devonian limestone platforms in the Canning basin were generally rimmed by reef-margin and reef-flat deposits, constructed by stromatoporoids, algae, and corals in the Givetian and Frasnian, and by algae in the Famennian. However, some platforms were low-relief banks with little or no reef development. The reefs and slowly deposited parts of the marginal-slope facies were subject to pervasive early submarine cementation by fibrous high-magnesium calcite (now radiaxial spar). The strongly cemented reef limestones formed rigid wave-resistant rims to the platforms. Fracturing of these limestones, probably largely associated with earthquake shaking, gave rise to extensive networks of neptunian dikes and sills, and to the collapse of some sections of the margins. Such collapses in turn initiated debris flows and the deposition of allochthonous reef blocks on the adjoining marginal slopes. The reef complexes are being explored extensively for lead-zinc deposits in outcrop and oil in the subsurface. A significant oil discovery was made in a Famennian platform margin (the Blina field) in 1981.

• Research Organization: Geological Survey Western Australia, Perth
• OSTI ID: 6386544
• Report Number(s): CONF-8405216-
• Journal Information: Am. Assoc. Pet. Geol., Bull.; (United States), Vol. 68:4; Conference: AAPG annual convention, San Antonio, TX, USA, 20 May 1984
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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