North Australian Basin Explained

-14.5°N 146°WThe North Australian Basin (NAB) is an oceanic basin in the easternmost corner of the Indian Ocean between northwest Australia and Indonesia. It was also known as the Argo Plain; another suggested name is the Argo Abyssal Plain. It was discovered by the U.S. research vessel "Argo" of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in 1960.^[1] It should be distinguished from an Australian sedimentary basin with the same name.^{[2] [3]}

It bounds the Australian continental margin in the area of its northwestern shelf. From the north, east, south and southwest it is respectively bounded by the Java Trench, the submerged continental crust of the Scott Plateau, Rowley Terrace, and the Exmouth Planeau with the Wombat Plateau. To the west it is separated from the Gascoyne Abyssal Plain by the Joey and Roo Rises north of the Platypus Spur.^[3]

The floor of the basin has an area of 160,000 square kilometers.^[4]

It has been suggested that the opening of the Argo Abyssal Plain was due to the rifting of a continental sliver off the passive margin of northeastern Gondwana in the Late Jurassic.^{[3] [5]}

See also

• Argoland
• Wharton Basin

Further reading

• J.R. Heirtzler 1, P. Cameron 2, P.J. Cook 3, T. Powell 4, H.A. Roeser 5, S. Sukardi 6, J.J. Veevers, The Argo Abyssal Plain, Earth and Planetary Science Letters Volume 41, Issue 1, September 1978, Pages 21–31

Notes and References

1. https://www.marineregions.org/gazetteer.php?p=details&id=7800 Marine Gazetteer Placedetails: Argo Abyssal Plain
2. https://www.ga.gov.au/data-pubs/data-and-publications-search/publications/critical-commodities-for-a-high-tech-world/basin-hosted-mineral-systems 2.8 Basin-hosted mineral system
3. C Heine &RD Müller, Late Jurassic rifting along the Australian North West Shelf: margin geometry and spreading ridge configuration, An International Geoscience Journal of the Geological Society of Australia Volume 52, 2005 - Issue 1, pp. 27-39
4. https://espace.curtin.edu.au/bitstream/handle/20.500.11937/1678/12197_Siwabessy%20P%202001.pdf;jsessionid=FB0C1EB80B67A27B847013E0874BD183?sequence=2 An investigation of the relationship between seabed type and benthic and bentho-pelagic biota using acoustic techniques
5. Metcalfe I. "Gondwanaland dispersion and Asian accretion: an overview." In: Metcalfe I., Jishuin R., Charvet J. & Hada S. eds. Gondwanaland Dispersion and Asian Accretion, 1999, pp. 9 – 28.