Coal facies and palaeoenvironments of the middle eocene to early oligocene Bowmans and Lochiel deposits, Northern St. Vincent Basin, South Australia.
Date
2007
Authors
Springbett, Gavin
Editors
Advisors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Type:
Thesis
Citation
Statement of Responsibility
Conference Name
Abstract
The middle eocene to early oligocene Bowmans and Lochiel coal deposits of the northern St. Vincent Basin, South Australia have been studied to elucidate their depositional environments. These coals occur within predominantly fluvio-lacustrine transgressive system tract sequences that formed during the initial phase of basin infill. The aforementioned facies are unevenly distributed and their stratigraphic succession highlights evolutionary changes in local palaeoenvironments. Within individual seams the transition from subaquatic to topogenous forest swamps and ultimately ombrogenous conditions is most common. However, over the coal sequence as a whole, conditions evolved from exclusively terrestrial through mixed terrestrial and subaquatic to open water. Also detected were multiple rapid reversals of the water table, especially higher in the sequence, and cyclic patterns reflecting a brief basal subaquatic phase prior to the onset of sustained terrestrial conditions. These patterns suggest a fluctuating, although progressively rising, water table and a balance between accommodation and accumulation.
School/Discipline
School of Earth and Environmental Sciences : Geology and Geophysics
Dissertation Note
Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, 2007
Provenance
This electronic version is made publicly available by the University of Adelaide in accordance with its open access policy for student theses. Copyright in this thesis remains with the author. This thesis may incorporate third party material which has been used by the author pursuant to Fair Dealing exception. If you are the author of this thesis and do not wish it to be made publicly available or If you are the owner of any included third party copyright material you wish to be removed from this electronic version, please complete the take down form located at: http://www.adelaide.edu.au/legals