The eastern Coral Sea is a poorly explored area at the northeastern corner of the Australian 24 Tectonic Plate, where interaction between the Pacific and Australian plate boundaries, and 25 accretion of the world's largest submarine plateau-the Ontong Java Plateau-has resulted in 26 a complex assemblage of back-arc basins, island arcs, continental plateaus and volcanic 27 products. This study combines new and existing magnetic anomaly profiles, seafloor fabric 28 from swath bathymetry data, Ar-Ar dating of E-MORB basalts, palaeontological dating of 29 carbonate sediments, and plate modelling from the eastern Coral Sea. Our results constrain 30 commencement of the opening of the Santa Cruz Basin and South Rennell Trough to c. 48 31 Ma and termination at 25-28 Ma. Simultaneous opening of the Melanesian Basin/Solomon 32 Sea further north suggests that a single > 2,000 km long back-arc basin, with at least one 33 triple junction existed landward of the Melanesian subduction zone from Eocene-Oligocene 34 times. The cessation of spreading corresponds with a reorganization of the plate boundaries 35 in the area and the proposed initial soft collision of the Ontong Java Plateau. The correlation 36 between back-arc basin cessation and a widespread plate reorganization event suggests that 37 back-arc basins may be used as markers for both local and global plate boundary changes.
The Ghadames-Illizi Basin system is a highly productive petroleum province with a long exploration history in Algeria, Libya and Tunisia (from the late 1950s to present day). Ongoing exploration success in all three countries suggests that it will continue to provide attractive exploration targets in the future. The basin has a long (Cambrian to Plio-Pleistocene) and complex geological evolution characterized by multiple phases of subsidence punctuated by significant regional uplift events. Two 'world-class' petroleum source rocks of different geological age are present (Lower Silurian and Upper Devonian) with similar depositional environments and geochemical characters. Both source horizons have generated significant volumes of oil and gas. Migration is strongly influenced by the stratigraphic architecture of the basin fill, notably distribution of regional seals and the complex patterns of subcrop and onlap across regional unconformities. Multiple reservoir-seal combinations are presented by Late Ordovician glaciogenic sediments and younger Silurian through to Carboniferous paralic sequences. Integrating the stratigraphic relationships with the complex burial history of the basin (timing of uplift, degree of tilting, amount of section removed by erosion) is not a trivial task, but is key to exploration success in such a complex basin. With the aid of 3D basin reconstruction and fluid flow modelling software, we can attempt to capture the stratigraphic and structural complexity and make exploration predictions. If basin modelling techniques are to be optimally applied in such settings, a fully integrated and geologically realistic approach involving sedimentologists, structural geologists, geophysicists and geochemists is required. A modelling approach, workflow and some results are presented.
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