Geoscience Australia undertook a marine survey of the Vlaming Sub-basin in March and April 2012 to provide seabed and shallow geological information to support an assessment of the CO2 storage potential of this sedimentary basin. The survey was undertaken under the Australian Government's National CO2 Infrastructure Plan (NCIP) to help identify sites suitable for the long term storage of CO2 within reasonable distances of major sources of CO2 emissions. The Vlaming Sub-basin is located offshore from Perth, Western Australia, and was previously identified by the Carbon Storage Taskforce (2009) as potentially suitable for CO2 storage. The principal aim of the Vlaming Sub-basin marine survey (GA survey number GA0334) was to look for evidence of fault reactivation and of any past or current gas or fluid seepage at the seabed. The survey also mapped seabed habitats and biota in the areas of interest to provide information on communities and biophysical features that may be associated with seepage.
This data package brings together the following datasets which describe biophysical aspects of seafloor sediments:
GEOCAT#74276. Underwater video footage from the Vlaming Sub-basin (GA0334).
GEOCAT#76463. GA0334 Vlaming sub-basin Species identification of worms from grab.
GEOCAT#78540. Vlaming Sub-Basin Marine Environmental Survey (GA-0334/S. Supporter GP 1373) (NCIP Program) - High Resolution Bathymetry grids.
GEOCAT# 78550. Seabed environments and shallow geology of the Vlaming sub-basin, Western Australia: Chlorin analyses of seabed sediments.
GEOCAT#78551. Seabed environments and shallow geology of the Vlaming sub-basin, Western Australia: Inorganic elements of seabed sediments.
GEOCAT#78552. Seabed environments and shallow geology of the Vlaming sub-basin, Western Australia: Bulk organic carbon and nitrogen isotopes and concentrations in seabed sediments.
GEOCAT#78553. Seabed environments and shallow geology of the Vlaming sub-basin, Western Australia: Sediment oxygen demand of seabed sediments.
GEOCAT#78564. Seabed environments and shallow geology of the Vlaming sub-basin, Western Australia: Chlorophyll a, b and c of seabed sediments.
GEOCAT#78565. Seabed environments and shallow geology of the Vlaming sub-basin, Western Australia: %carbonate and specific surface area of seabed sediments.
GEOCAT#79176. Seabed environments and shallow geology of the Vlaming sub-basin, Western Australia: Grain size and carbonate concentrations of seabed sediments.
GEOCAT#79345. Ecology / Infaunal morphospecies identifications from the Vlaming Sub-basin (GA0334).
An account of the field operations is published in:
GEOCAT 74626. Nicholas, W. A., Borissova, I., Radke, L., Tran, M., Bernardel, G., Jorgensen, D M., Siwabessy, J., Carroll, A. and Whiteway, T., 2012. Seabed Environments and Shallow Geology of the Vlaming Sub-Basin, Western Australia - Marine data for the Investigation of the Geological Storage of CO2. GA0334 Post-Survey Report. Geoscience Australia, Record 2013/09.
A preliminary interpretation of seabed data is provided in:
GEOCAT 78846. Nicholas, W. A., Howard, F., Carroll, A., Siwabessy, J., Tran, M., Picard, K., Przeslawski, R. and Radke, L. 2014. Seabed Environments and shallow sub-surface geology of the Vlaming Sub-basin, offshore Perth Basin: summary report on observed and potential seepage, and habitats. Geoscience Australia, Record 2014/XXX.
Information on the broader study, evaluating the Vlaming Sub-basin CO2 storage potential and providing details of the suitable storage sites, is available in:
GEOCAT 79332. Borissova, I, Lech, M.E., Jorgensen, D.C, Southby, C., Wang, L., Bernardel, G., Nicholas, T., Lescinsky, D.L. and Johnston, S. An integrated study of the CO2 storage potential in the offshore Vlaming Sub-basin. Geoscience Australia, Record 2014/XXX.
