Amadeus Basin

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Amadeus Basin
Lake amadeus.jpg
Lake Amadeus viewed from space (November 1994)
Australia relief map.jpg
Red pog.svg
Coordinates 24°45′00″S130°55′00″E / 24.75°S 130.9167°E / -24.75; 130.9167
CountryAustralia
State(s) Northern Territory and Western Australia
Geology
Orogeny Petermann Orogeny

The Amadeus Basin is a large (~170,000 km2) intracratonic sedimentary basin in central Australia, lying mostly within the southern Northern Territory, but extending into the state of Western Australia.

Contents

Origins

The Amadeus Basin is named after Lake Amadeus which lies within the basin. Local deposition of up to 14 km of marine and non-marine sedimentary rocks took place from the Neoproterozoic to the late Paleozoic.

Along with other nearby sedimentary basins of similar age (Officer Basin, Georgina Basin, Ngalia Basin), the Amadeus Basin is believed to have once been part of the hypothetical Centralian Superbasin.

The basin was locally deformed during the Petermann Orogeny (late NeoproterozoicCambrian), and more extensively during the Paleozoic Alice Springs Orogeny, 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 and Western Australia formed during this time.

Resources

The Amadeus Basin contains the producing Mereenie Oil Field near Kings Canyon and Palm Valley Gas Field near Hermannsburg, which supply most of the energy resources to the Northern Territory.

Most of the gas flows along the Amadeus Gas Pipeline to Darwin, while the oil is pumped to Alice Springs and then transported to Adelaide for refining. [1]

See also

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References

  1. Stanton, Jenny (2000). The Australian Geographic Book of the Red Centre. Terrey Hills, New South Wales: Australian Geographic. p. 56. ISBN   1-86276-013-6.