Officer Basin

The Officer Basin is a large (ca. 410,000 km²) intracratonic sedimentary basin in Australia, lying across the states of South Australia and Western Australia.

The Officer Basin is named after Officer Creek which is a watercourse that drains a small part of the basin.

Formation

Deposition of up to 10 km of marine and non-marine sedimentary rocks took place from the Neoproterozoic to the late Paleozoic. Paleozoic components of the basin are only found in South Australia.

Along with other nearby sedimentary basins of similar age (Amadeus Basin, Georgina Basin), the Officer Basin is believed to have once been part of the hypothetical Centralian Superbasin which was fragmented during several episodes of tectonic activity.

Key references

• Drexel JF, Preiss WV (editors) (1995). The Geology of South Australia. Geological Survey of South Australia, Bulletin, 54.
• Grey K, Hocking RM, Stevens MK, Bagas L, Carlsen GM, Irimies F, Pirajno F, Haines PW, Apak SN (2005) Lithostratigraphic nomenclature of the Officer Basin and correlative parts of the Paterson Orogen, Western Australia. Western Australia Geological Survey, Report 93, 89p.
• Jackson MJ, van de Graaff WJE (1981) Geology of the Officer Basin. Bureau of Mineral Resources, Australia, Bulletin 206.

External resource

• Officer Basin at Geoscience Australia

See also

• Amadeus Basin
• Ngalia Basin
• Georgina Basin
• Petermann Orogeny