Seismic geomorphology and growth architecture of a Miocene barrier reef, Browse Basin, NW-Australia

The Cenozoic succession of Browse Basin is characterized by a carbonate system, that developed from a non-tropical ramp in Eocene-lower Miocene times to a tropical rimmed platform in the middle Miocene. The evolution of the platform was unraveled through the interpretation of the seismic geomorphology and borehole data of the middle Miocene tropical reef system. The first reef structures developed during the early middle Miocene as narrow linear reef belts with an oblique orientation with respect to shelf strike direction. Subsequently, they prograded toward the platform margin to form a barrier reef with a minimum length of 40 km. The barrier reef itself comprises three distinct ridges separated by progradational steps. The second and third step are separated by a karstified horizon, which is interpreted to represent the global sea-level fall shortly before the Serravallian/Tortonian boundary. The following third ridge formed in a slightly downstepped position during the sea-level lowstand and initial transgressive phase. Further sea-level rise during the early Tortonian first drowned the barrier-reef system and subsequently also the patch reefs and relic atolls that had established in a backstepped position in the platform interior. The similar evolution of the Browse Basin reef system and other contemporaneous carbonate systems indicates a strong impact of eustatic sea-level changes. Relatively large subsidence rates in the study area possibly augmented the eustatic sea-level rise in the Tortonian and hence contributed to the drowning of the reef system. However, the initiation and final demise of the reef system was also governed by global and regional climate variations. The first seismically-defined reefs developed simultaneous to a maximum in the transport capacity of the Indonesian throughflow, which brings warm low-salinity waters to the North-West Shelf. Reef drowning followed the restriction of this seaway close to the middle to early Miocene boundary. This near closure of the Indonesian seaway possibly led to a regional amplification of the global middle to late Miocene cooling trend and hampered the potential of the reef system to keep up with the rising sea-level.