Eastern Capricorn basins project

This project focused on creating detailed digital maps of the rocks (bedrock) and surface materials (regolith) in the eastern part of the Capricorn Orogen: the Proterozoic Yerrida, Bryah, Earaheedy, and Padbury Basins.

We used advanced tools like geophysical surveys, satellite images, chemical testing of rocks, dating methods, and studies of the rock layers (stratigraphy). These maps help better understand the geology of the region.

In the 1990s and early 2000s, most of the eastern Capricorn basins were mapped as separate tiles at a scale of 1:100,000. These maps didn’t provide a connected view of the area’s bedrock or surface materials (regolith), and there weren’t any digital versions.

The project created seamless digital maps showing the geology of the area. These maps are available within the State 1:100,000 geological map layer on GeoVIEW.WA.

The tectonic history of the eastern Capricorn basins is not well understood, but we think they formed during events like rifting (when the Earth's crust splits apart), accretion (when land masses come together), and the development of a passive margin (a stable edge of a continent) along the northern edge of the Yilgarn Craton.

These basins are estimated to have developed around 2200 to 1800 million years ago and were later weakly deformed and metamorphosed during the 1820–1770 Ma Capricorn Orogeny.

The Yerrida, Bryah, Earaheedy, and Padbury Basins

The total thickness of rock layers in the eastern Capricorn basins is about 20 kilometres. These basins are rich in minerals, containing large deposits of metals like copper, zinc, and gold. They are part of one of Australia’s biggest copper-producing areas and include the world-class De Grussa copper-gold-silver deposit in the Bryah Basin, known for its volcanogenic massive sulfide (VMS)-base metal mineralisation.

Publications and data on the eastern Capricorn basins project

Publications and data are available through the DEMIRS eBookshop and Data and Software Centre. Use the DEMIRS eBookshop’s Advanced Search to discover many more publications.